50 Fun Facts About Peter O'Toole

Peter O'Toole shot to international fame playing which real-life figure in David Lean's 1962 epic?

Premiere magazine later ranked it the greatest screen performance of all time, and it earned the first of his eight Best Actor nominations.

O'Toole was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar eight times. How many competitive Oscars did he win?

He holds the record for most acting nominations without a win, tied with Glenn Close, and called himself the 'Biggest Loser of All Time'.

Which English king did O'Toole play in both Becket (1964) and The Lion in Winter (1968)?

It made him only the second actor after Bing Crosby to be Oscar-nominated twice for the same character in different films.

In Pixar's Ratatouille (2007) O'Toole voiced which character?

Animator Jan Pinkava designed the critic to resemble a vulture.

Who presented O'Toole with his Academy Honorary Award in 2003?

He had written asking the Academy to wait, saying he was 'still in the game' and hoped to 'win the lovely bugger outright'.

O'Toole's birth certificate from Leeds says he was born there in 1932, but he believed he might have been born where?

He claimed to have birth certificates from both England and Ireland, and later owned a house at Clifden in County Galway.

Before acting, O'Toole worked as a trainee journalist and photographer on which newspaper?

He was then called up for national service as a signaller in the Royal Navy.

Why was O'Toole rejected by the Abbey Theatre's drama school in Dublin before winning a RADA scholarship?

Director Ernest Blythe turned him down; at RADA his classmates included Albert Finney and Alan Bates.

Which two future stars were in O'Toole's RADA class, which he called 'the most remarkable class the academy ever had'?

'We were all considered dotty,' he said; Brian Bedford was there too.

O'Toole got his star-making desert role in November 1960 after which actor reportedly turned it down?

Finney passed a screen test but refused to sign a long-term contract with producer Sam Spiegel.

After the 1962 epic's premiere, Noël Coward joked that if O'Toole had been any prettier the picture would have had what title?

Coward was struck by the star's dyed golden hair and startlingly blue eyes.

O'Toole's 1962 desert epic won seven Oscars from ten nominations. What unusual distinction does it hold regarding its cast?

O'Toole lost Best Actor to Gregory Peck for To Kill a Mockingbird.

Which actor played Thomas Becket opposite O'Toole's Henry II in Becket (1964)?

Gielgud played Louis VII; the film was the first production of O'Toole's company Keep Films, formed with Jules Buck.

Who played Eleanor of Aquitaine opposite O'Toole in The Lion in Winter, winning a record third Best Actress Oscar?

Anthony Hopkins made his big-screen debut in the film as Richard, and Timothy Dalton played Philip II.

O'Toole's 1969 Oscar-nominated role in Goodbye, Mr. Chips was in a musical adaptation co-starring which singer?

He won a Golden Globe for it, playing a shy public-school master based on James Hilton's novella.

In The Ruling Class (1972), O'Toole's paranoid schizophrenic Earl of Gurney first believes he is whom?

He sleeps upright on a cross; when 'cured' he secretly comes to believe he is Jack the Ripper instead.

In Man of La Mancha (1972), O'Toole played Don Quixote and which other role, opposite Sophia Loren?

His singing was dubbed by tenor Simon Gilbert, and the film flopped, criticised for casting non-singers.

In the 1966 heist comedy How to Steal a Million, O'Toole and Audrey Hepburn plot to steal a forged statuette attributed to which artist?

Directed by William Wyler, it was set in Paris, where O'Toole himself kept a home at the Ritz.

What's New Pussycat? (1965) starred O'Toole and Peter Sellers in a script by which comedian, taking a role first meant for Warren Beatty?

Tom Jones sang the Bacharach-David title song, and the film was a huge hit.

In the notorious Penthouse-funded Caligula (1979), O'Toole played which Roman emperor?

Malcolm McDowell, Helen Mirren and John Gielgud were also in the cast; O'Toole later played Augustus for TV in 2004.

In The Stunt Man (1980), O'Toole was Oscar-nominated for playing what kind of character?

His Eli Cross descends from the sky on a camera crane; Steve Railsback played the fugitive he hires.

In My Favorite Year (1982), O'Toole's drunken swashbuckling star Alan Swann is modelled on which real actor?

The film is set backstage at a 1950s TV variety show in 1954, and earned him his seventh nomination.

O'Toole's eighth and final Oscar nomination came for Venus (2006), directed by Roger Michell. Who wrote the screenplay?

He plays Maurice, an ageing actor smitten with a friend's grand-niece, played by Jodie Whittaker.

In Venus, O'Toole recites which numbered Shakespeare poem, beginning 'Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?'?

He told NPR he knew all 154 sonnets and read them daily.

In The Last Emperor (1987), O'Toole played Reginald Johnston, who was what to the young Puyi?

Johnston gave the emperor a Western education that fed his desire to leave the Forbidden City.

In Troy (2004), O'Toole played which Trojan king, father of Hector and Paris?

His scene begging Achilles for Hector's body was widely singled out for praise.

O'Toole won a Primetime Emmy for playing Bishop Pierre Cauchon in a 1999 CBS miniseries about whom?

He was also Emmy-nominated for Masada and for playing Hindenburg in Hitler: The Rise of Evil.

In the 2005 BBC serial Casanova, O'Toole played the older Casanova. Which actor played the young one and wore contact lenses to match his eyes?

Tennant's brown eyes had to become O'Toole's famous blue.

In Showtime's The Tudors, O'Toole played which pope, who excommunicates Henry VIII?

The confrontation runs through seven of the second season's ten episodes.

O'Toole played the title role in the National Theatre's very first production in 1963. Which play?

Laurence Olivier directed; O'Toole said 'if you want to know what it's like to be lonely, really lonely, try playing Hamlet'.

O'Toole's 1980 Old Vic performance in which Shakespeare play famously earned some of the worst reviews of his career?

He was paid $500 a week for it; his Man and Superman two years later was far better received.

O'Toole won a Laurence Olivier Award for playing which hard-drinking Spectator columnist in a 1989 play?

Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell took its title from the notice the magazine ran when its columnist was too drunk to file.

O'Toole's first wife, married in 1959, was which Welsh actress later famous as Livia in I, Claudius?

They had two daughters and divorced in 1979; she later wrote of his mental cruelty fuelled by drink.

O'Toole was offered a knighthood but turned it down in objection to the policies of which prime minister?

He had opposed the Korean and Vietnam wars and supported the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.

Which English football club did O'Toole support, inheriting the loyalty from his father?

He was named their most famous fan, though he said the move from Roker Park to the Stadium of Light broke his connection.

A 1976 operation to treat what was misdiagnosed as alcohol damage removed O'Toole's pancreas and much of his digestive tract. What was it really?

The surgery left him an insulin-dependent diabetic, and in 1978 he nearly died again from a blood disease.

O'Toole's two volumes of memoir share what title?

The Child covers his boyhood before the war and The Apprentice his RADA years.

O'Toole is credited with helping shape the modern form of which Irish folk song, which he passed to Dominic Behan?

Behan put it in print and recorded it in the mid-1960s.

After his death in December 2013, O'Toole was cremated at Golders Green in what kind of casket?

His family said they would take his ashes to the west of Ireland, as he wished.

O'Toole's archive of scripts, letters and props was placed in 2017 at the Harry Ransom Center in which US state?

It sits alongside the papers of his mentor Donald Wolfit and his friend Tom Stoppard.

O'Toole's first film role, in Disney's 1960 Kidnapped, saw him doing what opposite Peter Finch?

In his second film, The Savage Innocents, his voice was dubbed by another actor.

Which actor did O'Toole cite in the Becket DVD commentary as his most important mentor?

In a Charlie Rose interview he named Eric Porter as his greatest influence instead.

In which branch of the forces did O'Toole do his national service, as a signaller?

He was called up from his job as a trainee journalist on the Yorkshire Evening Post.

Which three Shakespeare roles did O'Toole play in his 1960 Stratford season?

He said 'you've got to go to Stratford when you've got the chance', even though films would have paid more.

What was the name of the production company O'Toole formed with Jules Buck in 1961?

Also known as Tricolor Productions, it made Becket in 1964; Man Friday in 1975 was its last work.

Which 1963 lead role did O'Toole turn down before making Lord Jim instead?

Lord Jim, from Joseph Conrad's novel, was directed by Richard Brooks.

In 1970 O'Toole fulfilled a lifelong ambition by playing in Waiting for Godot where?

He appeared alongside Donal McCann; the Abbey's drama school had rejected him years earlier for not speaking Irish.

Which Irish labour leader did O'Toole play in the RTÉ miniseries Strumpet City?

He followed it with the 1981 miniseries Masada as the Roman commander Lucius Flavius Silva.

Which magazine ranked O'Toole's Lawrence as the greatest performance of all time?

The American Film Institute named his Lawrence the tenth-greatest screen hero in 2003.

In which Paris hotel did O'Toole keep a home at the height of his fame?

It was where his character supposedly lived in How to Steal a Million; he also kept homes in Dublin and London.