15 Dec 2013

Actor Peter O’Toole dies at 81

Actor Peter O’Toole, who shot to fame in the Oscar-winning epic Lawrence of Arabia, has died aged 81, his agent confirms.

The acclaimed leading man, who received an honorary Academy Award in 2003 for his body of work, died on Saturday at the Wellington hospital in London after a long illness, his agent Steve Kenis said.

“He was one of a kind in the very best sense and a giant in his field,” Mr Kenis said.

Irish President Michael D Higgins led the tributes.

He said: “Ireland, and the world, has lost one of the giants of film and theatre.

“In a long list of leading roles on stage and in film, Peter brought an extraordinary standard to bear as an actor.

“He had a deep interest in literature and a love of Shakespearean sonnets in particular.”

O’Toole’s daughter, actress Kate O’Toole, said: “His family are very appreciative and completely overwhelmed by the outpouring of real love and affection being expressed towards him, and to us, during this unhappy time.

“Thank you all, from the bottom of our hearts.

“In due course there will be a memorial filled with song and good cheer, as he would have wished.

“We will be happy to speak to you all then but in the meantime if you could give Peter O’Toole the respect he deserves and allow us to grieve privately we’d appreciate it.

“Thank you all again for your beautiful tributes – keep them coming.”

O’Toole is survived by his two daughters – Kate and Patricia – and a son, Lorcan Patrick O’Toole.

Time to ‘chuck in the sponge’

O’Toole retired from showbusiness last year, saying in a statement that it was time to “chuck in the sponge”.

An eight-time Academy Award nominee who never won Hollywood’s top acting honour, O’Toole shot to screen stardom 50 years ago in the title role of Lawrence Of Arabia, which earned seven Oscars, including best picture and director for David Lean.

O’Toole’s grand performance as British adventurer T.E. Lawrence brought him his first best-actor nomination but set him on an unenviable path of Oscar futility.

His eight losses without a win is a record among actors.

The honours stacked up quickly as O’Toole received Oscar nominations for 1964’s Becket, 1968’s The Lion In Winter, 1969’s Goodbye, Mr Chips, 1972’s The Ruling Class, 1980’s The Stunt Man and 1982’s My Favourite Year.

In the latter film, O’Toole played a dissolute actor preoccupied with drink and debauchery, seemingly a tailor-made role for a star known in his early years for epic carousing with such fellow party animals as Richard Burton, Richard Harris and Peter Finch.

O’Toole went into acting after serving in the Royal Navy, studying at London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

‘He was never dull’

His early stage successes included the lead in Hamlet and Shylock in The Merchant of Venice.

Prime Minister David Cameron said his thoughts were with O’Toole’s family and friends.

“His performance in my favourite film, Lawrence of Arabia, was stunning,” he said.

Comedian Stephen Fry said: “Oh what terrible news. Farewell Peter O’Toole. I had the honour of directing him in a scene. Monster, scholar, lover of life, genius.”

Irish actor Jason O’Mara described O’Toole as “an acting legend and a hell raiser”.

“His last act of defiance was living to see 81, but the work will live on forever. RIP Peter O’Toole,” he said.

Comedian David Walliams recalled when he and acting partner Matt Lucas had drinks with O’Toole in Los Angeles.

‘A legend on screen and off’

“He was hugely entertaining,” he said.

“The greatest company. A legend on screen and off.”

David Thomson, in the second edition of his Biographical Dictionary of Film, described O’Toole as someone possessed of “magnificent, if end-of-his-tether, charm”.

Thomson also comments of him: “He could overact, he could be ridiculous. But he was never dull, and often riveting.”

Of O’Toole’s most famous film appearance, Thompson writes: “He played Lawrence of Arabia with a desperate intensity as unrevealing as it was uncharacteristic of the director.

“While Lean was content for a placid historical epic with a curt nod toward the Lawrence enigma, O’Toole seemed to be searching in a smaller, more neurotically based film.”