Screen legend Peter O’Toole has passed away today aged 81 after battling a long illness, his agent has revealed. The star, who received an honorary Oscar in 2003, enjoyed a career that spanned seven decades and saw him receiving eight Academy Award nominations for Best Actor (making him the most-nominated actor never to win the Oscar), including that of adventurer T.E. Lawrence in David Lean’s 1962 epic Lawrence of Arabia.
Born in 1932, O’Toole began his acting career treading the boards and made his TV debut in the 1950s before making the leap to the big screen with a small role in 1959’s The Day They Robbed the Bank of England. After his breakthrough role in Lawrence of Arabia, he would earn further Oscar nominations for Becket (1964), The Lion in Winter (1968), Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969|), The Ruling Class (1972), The Stunt Man (1980), My Favourite Year (1982) and Venus (2006), as well as gaining a reputation for his hard-drinking, hell-raising off-screen antics.
Along with his Oscar-nominated films, O’Toole’s other credits include the likes of How to Steal a Million (1966), The Night of the Generals (1967), Caligula (1979), Supergirl (1984), The Last Emperor (1987), High Spirits (1988), King Ralph (1991), Troy (2004), Ratatouille (2007) and Stardust (2007) as well as TV offerings such as Masuda (1981), Joan of Arc (1999), Hitler: The Rise of Evil (2003) and The Tudors (2008).
Originally published December 15, 2013. Updated April 11, 2018.
