Irish actor whose charismatic appeal appeared on-screen from 1959. A raconteur, he could toss off stories about boozy escapades and acting mishaps with as much style and charm as he used to sweep across the desert in the stunning 1962 classic film, “Lawrence of Arabia,” (for which he received his first Oscar nomination). He was also nominated for his performances in “Becket,” 1964, with co-star Richard Burton, “Lion In Winter, 1968 (his co-star Kathrine Hepburn received the Best Actress nod) and “Goodbye, Mr. Chips” in which he co-starred with Petula Clark.
His other films included: “The Stuntman,” “How To Steal A Million,” with Audrey Hepburn, and “My Favorite Year,” a film which parodied his own life.
The son of an Irish bookie and a nurse, Peter grew up in a Dickensian back-street of a northern industrial town under the shadow of Nazi Germany. He flirted a bit with journalism, enough to give a credible and enjoyable later set of autobiographies. After three years at Leeds College of Commerce and two years in the Royal Navy, in 1953 he entered the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art where he learned a lifetime lover of fine theater. With his first film sweeping successes, he became a drinker and carouser of mythic proportions.
In 1959 he married Welsh actress Sian Phillips and they had two daughters. “I was very happily married,” he said but apparently Sian was not. In 1977, she left him for a younger man.
Cheerful and unrepentant after years of boozing and brawling, he gave up liquor in 1970. He was worn but still magical in the ’80s, when his girlfriend, Karen Sommerville, bore him a son, Lorcan, 3/17/1983 in Dublin. A custody battle raged from then on.
Troubled with his stomach from the time he was a kid, O’Toole had great flare-ups of pain from the time he was 19. In his 40’s, he hemorrhaged badly and nearly died before surgery removed “something in my innards that was not benign.” In his later years he dealt with throat problems.
He published the first installment of his wry and literate autobiography, “Loitering with Intent,” 1992, followed by “Apprentice” in 1996.
O’Toole has been nominated seven times in the Best Actor category of the Academy Awards, but never won the Oscar. In January 2003, upon learning that he was to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award at the upcoming ceremony, the actor seemed to decline by replying, “Since I’m still in the game and might win the lovely bugger outright, would the Academy please defer the honour until I am 80?” Two weeks later, blaming his original statement on a misunderstanding, he expressed his delight and announced his intent to attend the ceremony with his children and accept the award.
O’Toole retired from acting on 10 July 2012 owing to a recurrence of stomach cancer. He died on 14 December 2013 at Wellington Hospital in St John’s Wood, London, at the age of 81.
Link to Wikipedia biography