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Peter James O'Toole was an English and Irish actor. Known for his work on stage and screen, he received various accolades, including an Academy Honorary Award, a BAFTA Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and four Golden Globe Awards, in addition to nominations for a Grammy Award and a Laurence Olivier Award.
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entertainment · English and Irish actor (1932–2013) · voice actor · film producer · stage actor · film actor · actor · film director · television actor · writer · theatre manager · musician · also Peter O'Toole, Peter Seamus Lorcan O'Toole, Peter Seamus O'Toole, O'Toole
Born 2 August 1932 · Died 14 December 2013 · Q103876
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I bid the profession a dry-eyed and profoundly grateful farewell.
85%The GuardianSource
“His family are very appreciative and completely overwhelmed by the outpouring of real love and affection being expressed towards him, and to us, during this unhappy time. Thank you all, from the bottom of our hearts.”
“I bid the profession a dry-eyed and profoundly grateful farewell.”
“a memorial filled with song and good cheer, as he would have wished”
“In Arabia, on the spot where it all took place. We were 400 miles away from water. We lived in tents.”
“When it was all over, I watched 15 minutes of the finished movie and then walked out.”
“The only Paki I ever liked was Omar Sharif.”
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The Guardian: The Stunt Man review – Peter O’Toole runs amok in a gleefully deranged Hollywood satire
The Guardian: Peter O'Toole's Petruchio to Diana Rigg's Cordelia: Shakespeare by Angus McBean – in pictures
The Guardian: Peter O'Toole was not the drunken hell-raiser he made out, says author
The Guardian: Peter O'Toole personal archive heads to University of Texas
The Guardian: The night Peter O’Toole took me disco dancing
The Guardian: Peter O’Toole: The Definitive Biography by Robert Sellers review – the last of the hellraisers
Died 2013-12-14.
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Starred with Jeremy Northam and Sam Neill in the New Zealand/British film Dean Spanley, based on an Alan Sharp adaptation of Irish author Lord Dunsany's short novel, My Talks with Dean Spanley
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On NPR, he was asked by an officer whether he had something he had always wanted to do
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Appeared on television as the older version of legendary 18th-century Italian adventurer Giacomo Casanova in the BBC drama serial Casanova
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Awarded Academy Honorary Award (2003).
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Lawrence as portrayed by O'Toole was selected as the tenth-greatest hero in cinema history by the American Film Institute
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Was awarded the Academy Honorary Award for his career achievements
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The Academy honoured him with an Academy Honorary Award for his entire body of work and his lifelong contribution to film
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Awarded Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie for Joan of Arc (1999).
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Said Irishness was “almost the centre of my very being” and that “Everything I think of is coloured by its history, by its literature, by its people, by its geography”
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"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"
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Awarded David di Donatello for Best Supporting Actor for The Last Emperor (1988).
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Awarded National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actor for The Stunt Man (1980).
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Received critical acclaim for playing the director in the behind-the-scenes film The Stunt Man
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Performed in Macbeth at the Old Vic for $500 a week (equivalent to $2,000 in 2025), a performance that famously earned O'Toole some of the worst reviews of his career
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O'Toole starred as Tiberius in the controversial Penthouse-funded biopic Caligula acting alongside Malcolm McDowell, Helen Mirren and John Gielgud
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Nearly died from a hematologic disease
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To have his pancreas and a large portion of his stomach removed, which resulted in insulin-dependent diabetes
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O'Toole underwent surgery in 1976 to have his pancreas and a large portion of his stomach removed, which resulted in insulin-dependent diabetes.
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Awarded National Board of Review Award for Best Actor for The Ruling Class (1972).
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Played both Miguel de Cervantes and his fictional creation Don Quixote in Man of La Mancha, the motion picture adaptation of the 1965 hit Broadway musical, opposite Sophia Loren
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Awarded David di Donatello for Best Foreign Actor for Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1970).
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When he performed on stage in Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, alongside Donal McCann, at Dublin's Abbey Theatre
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Won Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy (1969).
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Awarded National Board of Review Award for Best Actor for Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969).
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Played the title role in the film Goodbye, Mr
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Won Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama for The Lion in Winter (1968).
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Awarded David di Donatello for Best Foreign Actor for The Night of the Generals (1967).
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At the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin he appeared in productions of Juno and the Paycock and Man and Superman
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Awarded David di Donatello for Best Foreign Actor for Lawrence of Arabia (1964).
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Won Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama for Becket (1964).
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Awarded BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for Lawrence of Arabia (1963).
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Won Golden Globe Awards (1963).
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Won Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actor (1962).
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Awarded BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role (1962).
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O'Toole and Buck announced they wanted to make a version of Waiting for Godot for £80,000
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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)
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O'Toole received his first Academy Award for Best Actor nomination for portraying T
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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
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In 1959, O'Toole married Welsh actress Siân Phillips, with whom he had two daughters: actress Kate and Patricia.
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O'Toole married Welsh actress Siân Phillips, with whom he had two daughters: actress Kate and Patricia
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(although he did not appear in the 1961 film version)
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Studied at Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (1952–1955).
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Born 1932-08-02.
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