Peter O'Toole is one of the great British character actors with a career thspanned from ththe 1960's to the 2010's. He was brought up in Leeds and then did national service in the Royal Navy. He then studied at RADA (with Albert FInney and ALan Bates). He started acting on the stage including a number of Shakespearean roles. In 1959 he married Sian Philips. His first film role was in Disney's Kidnapped. After a couple of small raoles, he was cast by David Lean as T E Lawrence in Lawrence Of Arabia, which became his most famous role. This was the first of his eight Oscar nomination, but he did not win an Oscar. He was also Oscar nominated for his next film, Beckett. What's New Pussycat was a change of style forhim being a comedy. This was Woody Allen's first screen play. His next film was the William Wyler film How to Steal a Million opposie Audrey Hepburn.
He stared alongside Katherine Hepburn in the Lion In Winter. He was again Oscar nominated and one of the few times someone jas been nominated for playing the same person in two different films. Another Oscar nomination came for the musical version of Goodbye Mr Chips (though he singing voice was dubbed). He appeared in another musical Man of La Mancha. A further Oscar nomination came for the black comedy The Ruling Class. His drinkinng caused health problems in the 1970s, but he returned to acting and had success with The Stunt Man and again was Oscar nominated. In the comedy My Favourite Year he played a swashbuckling film star and had another Oscar nomination. His next big film was The Last Emperor. High Spirits was not a great film, but fun. His final Oscar nomination came for Venus. Alongside all his film roles he continued a craeer both on the stage and on television.
