Peter O'Toole
Peter James O'Toole was born on the 2nd of August 1932 at St James's University Hospital in Leeds, Yorkshire. His father Patrick Joseph O'Toole worked as an Irish metal plater and bookmaker while his mother Constance Jane Eliot served as a Scottish nurse. The family lived in the south Leeds suburb of Hunslet where they raised two children including Peter and his elder sister Patricia. When Peter turned one year old his family began a five-year tour of major racecourse towns across Northern England. He attended St Joseph's Secondary School for seven or eight years during the Second World War evacuation from Leeds.
O'Toole later recalled being scared stiff of the nuns who taught him at Catholic school. He described their black dresses and shaved hair as horrible and terrifying to his young mind. After leaving school he worked as a trainee journalist and photographer for the Yorkshire Evening Post before joining the Royal Navy as a signaller. During national service an officer asked him what he had always wanted to do. He replied that he had always wanted to try being either a poet or an actor.
He studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London from 1952 to 1954 on a scholarship after being rejected by the Abbey Theatre's drama school in Dublin. His class included Albert Finney, Alan Bates and Brian Bedford whom O'Toole called the most remarkable class the academy ever had though nobody reckoned them for much at the time. They were all considered dotty by their instructors. He gained recognition as a Shakespearean actor at the Bristol Old Vic and with the English Stage Company before making his television debut in 1954.
His West End debut came in January 1959 playing the title role in The Long and the Short and the Tall at the Royal Court. The production won him Best Actor of the Year 1959 and featured co-stars Robert Shaw and Edward Judd under director Lindsay Anderson. He played Hamlet in the National Theatre's first production in 1963 which was directed by Laurence Olivier. Michael Gambon described him as a god with bright blonde hair while The Times noted his features twisted into melancholy during his first appearance. O'Toole stated he was sick with nerves and added that if you want to know what it is like to be lonely really lonely you should try playing Hamlet.
O'Toole received his first Academy Award nomination for portraying T.E. Lawrence in the historical epic Lawrence of Arabia released in 1962. This performance earned him the BAFTA Award for Best British Actor and introduced him to a global audience. He held the record for the most Oscar nominations for acting without a win tied with Glenn Close across eight total nominations spanning from 1962 to 2006. His other nominations included roles in Becket 1964, The Lion in Winter 1968, Goodbye Mr Chips 1969, The Ruling Class 1972, The Stunt Man 1980, My Favorite Year 1982 and Venus 2006.
In 2002 the Academy honoured him with an Academy Honorary Award for his entire body of work and lifelong contribution to film. O'Toole initially balked about accepting and wrote the Academy a letter saying he was still in the game and would like more time to win the lovely bugger outright. The Academy informed him they would bestow the award whether he wanted it or not. Meryl Streep presented the award to him at the ceremony while he joked during an interview that he was the Biggest Loser of All Time due to failure to win an Academy Award after multiple nominations.
O'Toole played King Henry II opposite Richard Burton in the film Becket released in 1964 which became a financial success. They appeared together again in Under Milk Wood 1972 produced by himself and Jules Buck alongside Elizabeth Taylor though the film was not a popular success. Both actors along with Richard Harris and Oliver Reed formed a close group known as hellraisers in their personal lives who excelled on both stage and screen. They attended Five Nations rugby matches together and shared a reputation for wild behaviour off-camera.
Their professional partnership began when O'Toole turned down the lead role in The Cardinal 1963 to make another epic Lord Jim 1965 based on the novel by Joseph Conrad. He and producer Jules Buck intended to follow this with a biopic of Will Adams and a film about the Charge of the Light Brigade but neither project happened. Instead O'Toole went into What's New Pussycat? 1965 taking over a role originally meant for Warren Beatty and starring alongside Peter Sellers. It was a huge success that helped establish his global stardom following Lawrence of Arabia.
His final performances were in Eldorado 2012 and For Greater Glory: The True Story of Cristiada 2012. A number of films were released after his retirement including Decline of an Empire 2013 as Gallus and Diamond Cartel 2017. On the 14th of December 2013 he died at the Wellington Hospital in St John's Wood, London at the age of 81. His funeral was held at Golders Green Crematorium in London on the 21st of December 2013 where his body was cremated in a wicker coffin.
Severe illness almost ended O'Toole's life in the late 1970s when his stomach cancer was misdiagnosed as resulting from his alcoholic excess. He underwent surgery in 1976 to have his pancreas and a large portion of his stomach removed which resulted in insulin-dependent diabetes. In 1978 he nearly died from a hematologic disease before eventually recovering and returning to work. He resided on the Sky Road just outside Clifden Connemara County Galway from 1963 while maintaining
homes in Dublin London and Paris.
O'Toole married Welsh actress Siân Phillips in 1959 with whom he had two daughters named Kate and Patricia before divorcing in 1979. Phillips later said in two autobiographies that O'Toole subjected her to mental cruelty largely fuelled by drinking and was subject to bouts of extreme jealousy. He also had a son Lorcan O'Toole born on the 17th of March 1983 with model Karen Brown when O'Toole was 50 years old. His political views included opposition to the Korean War and support for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament during the early 1950s.
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Common questions
When and where was Peter O'Toole born?
Peter James O'Toole was born on the 2nd of August 1932 at St James's University Hospital in Leeds, Yorkshire. His family lived in the south Leeds suburb of Hunslet before moving to racecourse towns across Northern England when he turned one year old.
What were Peter O'Toole's early career steps before acting?
Peter O'Toole worked as a trainee journalist and photographer for the Yorkshire Evening Post before joining the Royal Navy as a signaller during national service. He later studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London from 1952 to 1954 after being rejected by the Abbey Theatre's drama school in Dublin.
Which film earned Peter O'Toole his first Academy Award nomination?
Peter O'Toole received his first Academy Award nomination for portraying T.E. Lawrence in the historical epic Lawrence of Arabia released in 1962. This performance also earned him the BAFTA Award for Best British Actor and introduced him to a global audience.
How many Oscar nominations did Peter O'Toole receive without winning?
Peter O'Toole held the record for the most Oscar nominations for acting without a win tied with Glenn Close across eight total nominations spanning from 1962 to 2006. The Academy honoured him with an Academy Honorary Award in 2002 for his entire body of work and lifelong contribution to film.
When and where did Peter O'Toole die?
On the 14th of December 2013 he died at the Wellington Hospital in St John's Wood, London at the age of 81. His funeral was held at Golders Green Crematorium in London on the 21st of December 2013 where his body was cremated in a wicker coffin.