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Beringia

(4,316 posts) Sun Dec 15, 2013, 03:32 PM Dec 2013

Peter O'Toole, Lawrence of Arabia star, dies aged 81

Source: BBC

He was being treated at London's Wellington hospital after a long illness, his agent added. O'Toole's daughter Kate said the family was overwhelmed "by the outpouring of real love and affection being expressed towards him, and to us".

He received an honorary Oscar in 2003, having initially turned it down. In a letter the actor asked the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to delay it until he was 80, saying he was "still in the game and might win the bugger outright". The Irish-born star got his big break when Sir David cast him as British adventurer T E Lawrence. Lawrence of Arabia earned him the first of eight Oscar nominations, with others coming for such films as Becket, The Lion in Winter and Goodbye, Mr Chips.

O'Toole also had a reputation for riotous behaviour following bouts of drinking, but in the mid-70s he was diagnosed with pancreatitis and was warned by medics that more alcohol would prove fatal. He had yards of his intestinal tubing - "most of my plumbing" - removed and he gave up drinking. "If you can't do something willingly and joyfully, then don't do it,'' he once said. "If you give up drinking, don't go moaning about it; go back on the bottle. Do. As. Thou. Wilt."

Last July, after a career spanning 50 years and at the age of 79, O'Toole said he was retiring from the stage and screen. "I bid the profession a dry-eyed and profoundly grateful farewell," he said. "The heart for it has gone out of me. It won't come back".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-25393557

(This was posted in latest breaking, but wanted to repost in general discussion. I was so surprised to learn he did not win for Lawrence and thought of this just yesterday, strange coincidences. Daid Lean was a true artist too)