Peter O'Toole
Trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA).
Eight-time Academy Award nominee for Best Actor and recipient (2003) of the Lifetime Achievement Academy Award.
Nominated for the Academy Award for his performances in "Lawrence of Arabia" (1962), "Becket" (1964), "The Lion in Winter" (1965), "Goodbye, Mr. Chips" (1969), "The Ruling Class" (1972), "The Stunt Man" (1980), "My Favorite Year" (1982), and "Venus" (2006).
He received the British Academy of Film and Televison Arts (BAFTA) Award for his performances in "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Becket."
He received the Golden Globe for his performaces in "Becket," "The Lion in Winter," and "Goodbye, Mr. Chips."
Recipient of the Emmy Award (1999) for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie for his performance in "Joan of Arc."
He was awarded many additional awards for his performances on stage and screen.
“I once knew a fellow who committed robbery with violence, and he was sentenced to a long prison stretch and 12 strokes of the cat. He'd been injured during the robbery, so they put him in hospital to make him better so that they could make him worse. During the administration of the cat, he fainted after six strokes, and the doctor put him in hospital again. And he got very friendly with the nurses and the doctors, and after a while they got him well enough to go back and take the next six strokes. I saw him afterward and I said: "Oh, Jesus—that bloody law, that bloody judge!" But he said: "I don't want the fellow who made the law, and I don't want the fellow who passed the sentence. All I want is the fellow who held the bloody whip.”
“I found him perhaps the least terrifying man I've ever met in the theater—because at first glance I could see through him and he could see through me, and he knew that I knew that he knew. Look, love, I've been bullied all my life by bigger experts than Larry Olivier, I can assure you, and he's just got to get in line.”
“I'm not working-class: I come from the criminal classes.”
“I am human, all too bloody human.”
“The script sits in front of you. The writer’s translated into ink what is in his spirit and his soul and his mind. Bum. [Thumps table.] I come along, I pick it up, and the ink goes into my eyes, into my mind, into my body, flows around and that part starts to inhabit me. And I know a good part when I see one.”
“When did I realize I was God? Well, I was praying and I suddenly realized I was talking to myself. ”