The Little WAC Remembers Peter O'Toole

Good Night To The Lion In Winter

Peter O'Toole

One of the great actors to have lived in my generation has passed.

Peter O'Toole died Saturday December 14th at age 81.

I first came across O'Toole during the first year my parents had HBO in a film starring O'Toole called My Favorite Year. In this film O'Toole played a man with levels. An aging film star in a Hollywood that had moved on. A man that was already considered a myth and legend but still has decades of real living to do.

I often wonder with actors like O'Toole how much of their talent is pure and raw ability and how much is it that I just love that they play these difficult and many textured people.

Likewise, I just thoroughly enjoy The Lion In Winter. In this role O'Toole stars opposite Katherine Hepburn.
As King Henry The Second , O'Toole plays a king with an ex wife , a new wife and tribe of sons.

He has clearly spend his younger years conquering and and acquiring. Now as a successful king the war is no longer about gaining land, but how he will distribute his material possessions and his remaining love.

O'Toole in The Lion In Winter gave as great a performance s I have ever seen.

I doubt we will ever see another Peter O'Toole during my life.
At least right now, there are no scripts coming out of Hollywood meaty enough for an actor like O'Toole to devour.

Raymond Tyler

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Peter O'Tool Obituary Courtesy of The Huffington Post

Actor Peter O'Toole, who found stardom in 1962 playing T. E. Lawrence in "Lawrence of Arabia," has died, BBC News reports. He was 81.

O'Toole, who overcame a severe stomach sickness in the 1970s, died on Saturday (Dec. 14) at the Wellington hospital in London following a long illness, his agent Steve Kenis confirmed to The Guardian.

The Irish-born leading man of the stage and screen announced last year that he was leaving acting behind, saying, "I bid the profession a dry-eyed and profoundly grateful farewell."

O'Toole was nominated for eight Academy Awards for his roles in "Lawrence of Arabia," "Becket" (1964), "The Lion In Winter" (1968), "Goodbye, Mr. Chips" (1969), "The Ruling Class" (1972), "The Stunt Man" (1980), "My Favorite Year" (1982) and "Venus" (2006). He allegedly holds the record for the most Academy Award acting nominations without a win. O'Toole won four Golden Globes, a BAFTA and an Emmy, and was the recipient of an Honorary Academy Award in 2003.

"[He was] one of a kind in the very best sense and a giant in his field," Kenis told BBC News.

“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," his daughter Kate O'Toole tells Deadline. "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.”

O'Toole is survived by daughters, Kate and Patricia, and son, Lorcan.