Actor Peter O’Toole Dead at 81

What a terrific movie star and what a life!  I’m just thankful he managed to outlive so many of his fellow hard-living, hard-drinking contemporaries such as Richard Burton, and Richard Harris.

Irish-born stage and screen actor Peter O’Toole, who became an international star in the title role of David Lean’s Oscar-winning epic “Lawrence of Arabia,” died on Saturday at age 81. He was undoubtedly one of the greatest actors of his generation. And yet with the 2006 film “Venus,” O’Toole surpassed Welshman Richard Burton and assumed the dubious distinction of being the most nominated actor never to win a competitive Oscar. When it was first announced that O’Toole would receive an Honorary Oscar in 2002, O’Toole astonished the Academy by turning it down, announcing in a letter to the organization that he was “still in the game and might win the lovely bugger outright, would the Academy please defer the honour until I am 80.’…….

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http://variety.com/2013/film/news/peter-otoole-dies-lawrence-of-arabia-star-was-81-1200953310/