Do you feel you can hop on a bus to the West End to see the likes of Paul Scofield, Richard Burton and Laurence Olivier?
Films were never in my budget. Didn't occur to me till much later. I hoped for a long, good life, which I've had and I'm having as an actor. I didn't expect the rest.
Harris hated cricket. I mean he hated it. This tedious baffling English game. I mean he found it insupportable.
I became a professional cricket teacher about 20 years ago. I had a son born to me when I was 50, and I thought, he needs someone to bowl to him.
I call it Trovis-after watching 50 minutes I found myself in quiet despair, and suddenly that Hovis advert came into my mind over Brad Pitt's face. I got the chuckles and had to leave.
I have no memories I'm prepared to share with you.
I love working with young people, which is to me a big kick.
I loved doing My Favorite Year, which was great fun, and The Ruling Class, which I made with all my chums.
I tell my children to avoid theatre and go into cinema and TV.
I was apprehensive about bringing off this Homer.
I wouldn't mind being a lord.
I'm a working stiff, baby, just like everybody else.
I'm the most gregarious of men and love good company, but never less alone when alone.
If I'm not at my study by 10:00, 10:30, forget it, I can't write a word.
If you haven't read Lawrence of Arabia's translation of The Odyssey, it's very good, in the vernacular and simple.
It is the highest honour that the motion picture industry can pay to anybody. I joined people like Chaplin, so of course I'm deeply honoured.
It's my job, it's what I do, it's what I'm on earth to do and it's who I am.
It's very inconvenient because every time I finish, let's say, a chapter of a book, I think I'm going to ring Richard and then realize: Oh, Christ, I've buried him. I buried him last year.
Life turned out much better than I thought. I knew after a little while that I could act.
My dear sir, it haunted me for the rest of my life.
My own favorite is something called Rogue Male.
Richard's death, which is not long ago, I didn't expect him to die. I thought Richard Harris was indestructible. We'd been rugby game chums for 50 years.
Since I'm still in the game and might win the lovely bugger outright, would the Academy please defer the honour until I am 80?
That was their remit-not whether a third-rate biddable arsehole could do 39 productions of As You Like It upside down with red noses.
The good parts are the people who don't make do. They're the interesting people. Lear doesn't make do.
The Old Vic and Stratford were places where the best actors in the English-speaking world did their greatest work.
There is a legend. And to protest is daft.
We were doing it under the most extraordinary circumstances, but the first out of the tent in the morning would be David Lean. He said to me on the very first day of shooting, Pete, this is the beginning of a great adventure.
We were in the Arabian Desert for nine months. And I was having the time of my life. It could have been an archeological expedition, a military expedition.
When did I realize I was God? Well, I was praying and I suddenly realized I was talking to myself.
Where do I begin? I loved working with Kate Hepburn, which was one of the highlights of my life; Working with Richard Burton in Beckett was another great joy.
Writing is a kind of performing art, and I can't sit down to write unless I'm dressed. I don't mean dressed in a suit, but dressed well and comfortably and I have to be shaved and bathed.
You have that scale, that big, heroic epic. Epic really is the story of man on man, history or myth and their circumstances.
Peter's life was once the subject of an episode of Biography on A&E.
Peter became a diabetic when his pancreas was removed in a surgical operation.
Peter and Omar Sharif are scheduled to appear together for a third time in the upcoming film One Night With the King which is scheduled for release sometime in 2006.
Elizabeth Taylor didn't like then husband Richard Burton hanging around with Peter because she felt he was a bad influence on Burton.
Peter's parents were Patrick "Spats" & Constance Jane Eliot Ferguson-O'Toole.
Peter only worked six months at the Bristol Old Vic, where he made his professional debut in 1955.
Peter is an avid cricket player.
Peter worked as the Artistic Director with the Royal Alexandra Theatre Company in Toronto, which led to a tour of Canada and America.
Peter worked for four years with the Bristol Old Vic Theatre Company.
Peter was a member of the Abbey Theatre company.
Peter worked for the Yorkshire Evening News as an apprentice journalist before he became an actor.
In 1987, Peter was nominated for the Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actor for: Club Paradise (1986).
In 1970, Peter won the NBR Award for Best Actor for: Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969).
In 1963, Peter was nominated for the Golden Laurel Award for Top Male Dramatic Performance for: Lawrence of Arabia (1962). He made 4th place.
In 1965, Peter was nominated for the Golden Laurel Award for Best Male Star. He made 10th place.
In 1970, Peter was nominated for the Golden Laurel Award for Best Male Star. He made 13th place.
In 1965, Peter won the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture Actor - Drama for: Becket (1964).
In 1970, Peter won the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture Actor-Musical/Comedy for: Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969).
In 1973, Peter was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture Actor - Musical/Comedy for: Man of La Mancha (1972).
In 1982, Peter was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV for: Masada (1981).
In 2000, Peter was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV for: Joan of Arc (1999/I).
In 1999, Peter won the Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie for: Joan of Arc (1999).
In 1967, Peter won the David Award Best Foreign Actor (Migliore Attore Straniero for: The Night of the Generals (1967).
In 1988, Peter won the David Award for Best Supporting Actor (Migliore Attore non Protagonista) for: The Last Emperor (1987).
In 2002, Peter won the Best Actor Award for: The Final Curtain (2002) at the Cherbourg-Octeville Festival of Irish & British Film.
In 1963, Peter won the BAFTA Film Award for Best British Actor for: Lawrence of Arabia (1962).
In 1989, Peter was nominated for the BAFTA Film Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for: The Last Emperor (1987).
In 1965, Peter was nominated for the Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role for: Becket (1964).
In 1970, Peter was nominated for the Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role for: Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969).
In 1981, Peter was nominated for the Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role for: The Stunt Man (1980).
In 2003, Peter received an Honorary Award from the Academy Awards for his remarkable talents which have provided cinema history with some of its most memorable characters.
Peter has three children. Two daughters named Kate & Patricia, and a son named Lorcan.
Peter once appeared on TFI Friday (1996) and performed various oddities, including the hilarious Peter O'Toole reads lines that are quite clearly beneath him. He read lines from the Spice Girl's single "Wannabe" and when he finished, stating in a deadpan voice, that what he really really wanted was a "zig-a-zig ahhh" a staggered Ronald Fraser exclaimed "Do you really?!"
Noel Coward: (to O'Toole) If you'd been any prettier, it would have been Florence of Arabia.
In 1976, Peter 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.
Peter is only one of four actors to be nominated for an Oscar twice for playing the same role in two separate films. He was nominated as Best Actor for "Henry II" in Becket (1964) and for "Henry II" in The Lion in Winter (1968). The others are Paul Newman as "Fast Eddie Felson" in The Hustler (1961) and The Color of Money (1986), Bing Crosby as "Father O'Malley" in Going My Way (1944) and The Bells of St. Mary's (1945), and Al Pacino as "Michael Corleone" in The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather: Part II (1974).
Peter's father was Irish, and his mother was Scottish.
Peter was chosen by Empire magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history. He placed #47 in 1995.
The title character in the comic strip Alan Ford, which is widely popular in Italy, is styled after the physical features of Peter.
Peter attended a Catholic school where the nuns beat him to correct his left-handedness.
Peter was the producer and director of the film Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell (1999).
Peter attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, where his classmates included Albert Finney, Alan Bates and Richard Harris.
Peter is 6' 2" (1.88 m) tall.
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