Peter O’Toole

Peter O’Toole is an already mature actor who, although he has made great movies, has also had great blunders; The poor guy was even nominated for the Razzie Awards, a parody of the Oscars, where he “rewards” himself with a plastic blackberry for the worst works; That great mistake was his role in Supergirl (1984).

The actor will always be remembered as Lawrence of Arabia and, far from being a drag, he is, without a doubt, the Irishman’s best role and one of the great performances in film history. David Lean made him the British hero fighting on the Turkish front during the Great War. Although the film won 7 Oscars, Gregory Peck took the award for best leading actor from O’Toole for his role in To Kill a Mockingbird . On set it was discovered that the actor had an overwhelming personality; Hugely outgoing, O’Toole sang and joked all the time, and was referred to in the team as “the Crazy Irishman”.

Peter Seamus O’Toole was born on August 2, 1932 in Connemara, Galway, Ireland, and spent his childhood in Leeds (United Kingdom). He wanted to be a journalist until he discovered the theater, and at 17 he made his stage debut. After two years of service in the Royal Navy, he enrolled in the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where he met other young promises such as Albert Finney and Richard Harris .

Although his first film performance, in 1960, hardly attracted attention, he only had to wait two years for David Lean to entrust him with what would be the role of his life. In 1962 Peter O’Toole became TE Lawrence . After this legendary film the Irishman’s career finally took off. In the 1960s he starred in dozens of films in which he jumped from mediocre productions to Academy Award nominations with astonishing pace. Beckett (1964); The night of the generals (1966); How to steal a million and… (1966); Casino Royale (1967); The Lion in Winter (1968), where he returned to interpret King Henry II, as he already did in Becket; and Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969); for all of them he was nominated for an Oscar for best actor. Those were his glory years.

In the 70s, stomach cancer gradually took him away from the screens. He returned a decade later, after harsh treatment and after having stopped drinking, which was damaging his health even more. He came back, and he came back strong, because in 1980 he released The Specialist , a film that aroused controversy, and My Favorite Year (1982). He again he obtained two nominations for the statuette.

In 1991 he put on the crown again to play Sir King Cedric Willingham in the funny Rafi, a heavyweight king , and it was not the first time that Peter O’Toole played a role of ruler; in 1979 he had already stood out as the emperor Tiberius Caesar Augustus in the subadita of tone Caligula . Also, years later, he played the role of prince and president in various television productions.

In 2003 the Academy informed him that he was going to receive the Oscar for his career as a whole; O’Toole thought that this award meant he was done for and, offended, he wrote to the Academy saying that he still had a lot to do and that he wasn’t going to collect the damn statuette. The Oscar was also awarded to him and the actor ended up giving in; but he made up for it by achieving a new nomination on his own merits, three years later, for Venus .

It was the best of Troy ( Wolfgang Petersen ), with a moving performance as Priam, Hector’s father; there he met Rose Byrne , whom he stated was one of the best young actresses he had ever worked with. The other was Jodie Whittaker , and he coincided with her on the set of Venus (2006).

Regardless, it will always be Lawrence of Arabia.