The 78 year old actor was born in
Ireland in 1932, but moved to Leeds while still a child. He made his
stage debut at only 17, but his big break on the big screen came in
1962, when he took the title role in David Lean’s epic classic,
‘Lawrence of Arabia’, a role which made him a huge international star.
He
is currently still a hotly in demand actor, and has just finished
working on three productions, ‘Cristiada’, ‘Eldorado’, and ‘Katherine of
Alexandria’, which will be out later this year.
O’Toole has been
nominated for eight Academy Awards, without winning any – the record
for the most unrewarded nominations. In 2003, the Academy gave O’Toole
an Honorary Award, for his outstanding contribution to the craft.
Peter O'toole Trivia per IMDB:
- Father was Irish, mother was Scottish.
- He attended a Catholic school where the nuns beat him to correct his left-handedness.
- Has played three kings (King Henry II in Becket (1964), Sir/King Cedric Willingham in King Ralph (1991)) and King Priam in Troy (2004), two emperors and (Emperor Tiberius Caesar in Caligula (1979) and the Emperor of Lilliput in Gulliver's Travels (1996) (TV), a prince (Prince Meleagre in The Rainbow Thief (1990)), a president (President Paul von Hindenburg in Hitler: The Rise of Evil (2003) (TV)) and several lords.
- In 1976 he underwent surgery to remove parts of his stomach and intestine due to his heavy drinking. In the following year he almost died from a blood disorder. These two serious illnesses greatly affected his ability to work at that time.
- He was almost cast as Professor Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady (1964) due to concerns that Rex Harrison was too old for the part, but his salary demands were more than producer Jack L. Warner was willing to pay.
- His actual date of birth went unrecorded, and O'Toole has said himself that he may have been born in June 1932.
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