Peter O'Toole, star of the 1962 classic Lawrence of Arabia, has passed away at the age of 81.
While there is some debate as to where and when he was actually born, the actor accepted August 2, 1932 as his official birth date. The son of Patrick Joseph O'Toole, an Irish football player and metal plater, and Constance Jane Eliot (née Ferguson), a Scottish nurse, O'Toole grew up in Leeds, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England.
Peter O'Toole: 5 great movie roles - Lawrence of Arabia, Venus and more
After leaving school, he had a brief stint as a trainee journalist and photographer for the Yorkshire Evening Post and a signaller for the Royal Navy, before attending the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in 1952. Upon leaving the school in 1954, O'Toole became a theatre fixture, starring in several plays at the Old Vic with the English Stage Company before transitioning into television and film.
In a career spanning six decades, O'Toole was routinely applauded for choosing a diverse array of characters, often playing against his dashing, movie-star looks. His most celebrated role came in 1962, when he played the suave English army officer TE Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia.
Starring opposite Omar Sharif, the role would garner O'Toole the first of eight Oscar nominations for Best Actor. He never won an Oscar and, when gifted with an honorary Academy Award in 2003, refused the honour, stating that he would rather "win the lovely bugger outright". Throughout his career, he played iconic roles in movies including The Lion in Winter and Goodbye, Mr. Chips, as well as TV roles in his later years for shows like Casanova and The Tudors.
Married only once - to Welsh actress Siân Phillips, whom he divorced in 1979 - O'Toole suffered from several health problems including alcoholism and an abdominal malignancy. He passed away this week from a long illness, and is survived by his three children with Phillips: daughters Kate and Patricia, and son Lorcan.
Peter O'Toole: Stars pay tribute to acting icon
Daughter Kate O'Toole released a statement earlier today in response to the thousands of reactions to her father's death.
She wrote: "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.
"In due course there will be a memorial filled with song and good cheer, as he would have wished. We will be happy to speak to you all then but in the meantime if you could give Peter O'Toole the respect he deserves and allow us to grieve privately we'd appreciate it.
"Thank you all again for your beautiful tributes - keep them coming."
Peter O'Toole's career in pictures
Prior to his death, O'Toole had apparently been attached to play Symeon in the recently announced biblical film Mary alongside Ben Kingsley and Julia Ormond. However, his final on-screen appearance will be in the recently completed Katherine of Alexandria, due for release in 2014.
Despite his brief return to the screen, O'Toole had announced in July 2012 that he was retiring from acting. His statement on the retirement is a fitting goodbye to an impressive and inspiring career: "It is time for me to chuck in the sponge. To retire from films and stage. The heart for it has gone out of me - it won't come back.
"My professional acting life, stage and screen, has brought me public support, emotional fulfilment and material comfort. It has brought me together with fine people, good companions with whom I've shared the inevitable lot of all actors - flops and hits.
"However, it's my belief that one should decide for oneself when it is time to end one's stay. So I bid the profession a dry-eyed and profoundly grateful farewell."
Watch Peter O'Toole in the 50th Anniversary Trailer for Lawrence of Arabia below:
