Peter Seamus O'Toole (/oʊˈtuːl/; 2 August 1932 – 14 December 2013) was an English stage and film actor. He attended RADA (the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art) and began working in the theatre, gaining recognition as a Shakespearean actor at the Bristol Old Vic and with the English Stage Company. In 1959 he made his West End debut in The Long and the Short and the Tall, and played the title role in Hamlet in the National Theatre's first production in 1963. Excelling on the London stage, O'Toole was known for his "hellraiser" lifestyle off it.
Making his film debut in 1959, O'Toole achieved international recognition playing T. E. Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia (1962) for which he received his first nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. He was nominated for this award another seven times – for playing King Henry II in both Becket (1964) and The Lion in Winter (1968), Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969), The Ruling Class (1972), The Stunt Man (1980), My Favorite Year (1982), and Venus (2006) – and holds the record for the most Oscar nominations for acting without a win (tied with Glenn Close). In 2002, he was awarded the Academy Honorary Award for his career achievements.
O'Toole was the recipient of four Golden Globe Awards, one BAFTA Award for Best British Actor and one Primetime Emmy Award. Other performances include What's New Pussycat? (1965), How to Steal a Million (1966), Supergirl (1984), and minor roles in The Last Emperor (1987) and Troy (2004). He also voiced Anton Ego, the restaurant critic in Pixar's Ratatouille (2007).
Early life and education
Peter Seamus O'Toole was born on 2 August 1932, the son of Constance Jane Eliot (née Ferguson), a Scottish nurse, and Patrick Joseph "Spats" O'Toole, an Irish metal plater, football player, and bookmaker. O'Toole claimed he was not certain of his birthplace or date, stating in his autobiography that he accepted 2 August as his birth date but had birth certificates from England and Ireland. Records from the Leeds General Register Office confirm he was born at St James's University Hospital in Leeds, Yorkshire, England, on 2 August 1932.
O'Toole had an elder sister named Patricia and grew up in the south Leeds suburb of Hunslet. When he was one year old, his family began a five-year tour of major racecourse towns in Northern England. He and his sister were brought up in their father's Catholic faith. O'Toole was evacuated from Leeds early in the Second World War, and went to a Catholic school for seven or eight years: St Joseph's Secondary School in Hunslet, Leeds. He later said, "I used to be scared stiff of the nuns: their whole denial of womanhood—the black dresses and the shaving of the hair—was so horrible, so terrifying. [...] Of course, that's all been stopped. They're sipping gin and tonic in the Dublin pubs now, and a couple of them flashed their pretty ankles at me just the other day."
He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London from 1952 to 1954 on a scholarship. This came after being rejected by the Abbey Theatre's drama school in Dublin by the director Ernest Blythe, because he could not speak the Irish language. At RADA, he was in the same class as Albert Finney, Alan Bates and Brian Bedford. O'Toole described this as "the most remarkable class the academy ever had, though we weren't reckoned for much at the time. We were all considered dotty."
O'Toole was in much demand. He reportedly received five offers of long-term contracts but turned them down. His first role was a small role in Disney's version of Kidnapped (1960), playing the bagpipes opposite Peter Finch. His second feature was The Savage Innocents (1960) with Anthony Quinn for director Nicholas Ray. With his then wife Sian Phillips he did Siwan: The King's Daughter (1960) for TV. In 1960 he had a nine-month season at the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford, appearing in The Taming of the Shrew (as Petruchio), The Merchant of Venice (as Shylock) and Troilus and Cressida (as Thersites). He could have made more money in films but said "You've got to go to Stratford when you've got the chance."
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O'Toole's major break came in November 1960 when he was chosen to play the eponymous hero T. E. Lawrence in Sir David Lean's epic Lawrence of Arabia (1962), after Albert Finney reportedly turned down the role. The role introduced him to a global audience and earned him the first of his eight nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actor.
He received the BAFTA Award for Best British Actor. His performance was ranked number one in Premiere magazine's list of the 100 Greatest Performances of All Time. In 2003, Lawrence as portrayed by O'Toole was selected as the tenth-greatest hero in cinema history by the American Film Institute. Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote in 1989 "The then unknown Peter O'Toole, with his charmingly diffident manner and his hair and eyes looking unnaturally gold and blue, accounted for no small part of this film's appeal to impressionable young fans".
Relationships
O'Toole married Welsh actress Siân Phillips in 1959, with whom he had two daughters: actress Kate and Patricia. They were divorced in 1979. Phillips later said in two autobiographies that O'Toole had subjected her to mental cruelty, largely fuelled by drinking, and was subject to bouts of extreme jealousy when she finally left him for a younger lover.
O'Toole and his girlfriend, model Karen Brown, had a son, Lorcan O'Toole (born 17 March 1983), when O'Toole was fifty years old. Lorcan, now an actor, was a pupil at Harrow School, boarding at West Acre from 1996.
Death
O'Toole retired from acting in July 2012 owing to a recurrence of stomach cancer. He died on 14 December 2013 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 21 December 2013, where his body was cremated in a wicker coffin. His family stated their intention to fulfill his wishes and take his ashes to the west of Ireland.
- SERVES
- 8
- COOK TIME
- 50 Min
Half dip, half side dish, our Cracker Onion Pie is a favorite no matter how you serve it! With a crispy cracker crust, and a cheesy onion filling, you can bet that this pie won't be left untouched!
- 1 1/2 cup finely crushed saltine crackers
- 3/4 cup butter, melted, divided
- 2 large onions, thinly sliced (see Note)
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup milk
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/2 cup (2-ounces) shredded sharp cheddar cheese
- Preheat oven to 350º. Coat a 9-inch pie plate with cooking spray.
- In a medium bowl, combine cracker crumbs and 1/2 cup melted butter. Press into bottom and up sides of pie plate, forming a crust. Refrigerate until ready to fill.
- In a large skillet over medium heat, saute onions in remaining 1/4 cup butter 10 to 12 minutes or until tender. Carefully pour onion mixture into crust.
- In a medium bowl, whisk eggs, milk, salt, and pepper until well beaten; slowly pour over onions. Sprinkle cheese evenly over top.
- Bake 40 to 45 minutes or until golden and center is set. Let stand 5 minutes, then cut into wedges and serve.
1950 – Huey Lewis, American singer (Huey Lewis and the News)
In October 2016 a bunch of us family members went to Hawaii...
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