Peter O'Toole

Peter O'Toole (1932- ), celebrated actor of the British stage who became an international film star. Born in Ireland, his early career was spent at the Bristol Old Vic where he played Jimmy Porter in Look Back in Anger (1957), John Tanner in Man and Superman (1958), and the title role in Hamlet (1958). He joined the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in 1960 to play Shylock, and Laurence Olivier took him to the National Theatre to play Hamlet again (1963). Tall, graceful, and confident, he had all the qualities of a traditional classical actor, but with an undercurrent of anger and recklessness which brought him into favour with a new generation of theatregoers. Success was matched in the film world, where complex central characters, such as Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Lord Jim (1965), and Henry II in The Lion in Winter (1968), suited his domineering and charismatic style. Other films include The Stuntman (1978), My Favorite Year (1981), Supergirl (1984), The Last Emperor (1987), and High Spirits (1988).

As his international fame flourished, O’Toole’s classical poise seemed to be replaced by a rakish gait and his anger subsided into a lazy disdain. When he returned to the challenge of the theatre to play Macbeth (1980) at the Haymarket, the results were pilloried, but his reputation was somewhat restored by his third performance as Tanner in Man and Superman (1983) and by his role in the comedy Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell (1989). In the 1990s he appeared mainly in screen roles, including that of the writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in FairyTale: A True Story (1997) and an appearance in the film The Manor (1999). In 2000 he was honoured with an Outstanding Achievement Award at the Oliviers for his role in Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell, revived at the Old Vic in 1999. At the Academy Awards, he received an Honorary Award in 2003, and an eighth Best Actor nomination in 2007 for his portrayal of an ageing actor who indulges in a May-to-December dalliance with a young woman in Venus (2006).