He was Henry II, he was Lord Jim, Emperor Tiberius, Miguel de Cervantes and Don Quixote de la Mancha, Sherlock Holmes and Arthur Conan Doyle… he laid siege to Masada, he saw his beloved Troy fall, he wrote critiques of food made for rats and he even challenged King Henry VIII… and he will always be remembered as history's great enigma, T. E. Lawrence, as he conquered the Turkish Empire in a plight to save Arabia.
I won't pretend that I knew Peter O'Toole very well, because I don't. If I say anything about him acknowledging his personal life here, it's just quick research. All that I can say definitively is that when I read of his death just an hour ago, I knew we had lost a treasure of screen and stage and a true craftsman, as well as the actor who I most trusted, admired, respected for their work. Ever since I saw Lawrence of Arabia at age 17, I knew that I had witnessed the performance of a lifetime, something that no other actor could possibly provide the role. O'Toole inspired so many performers from such an early age and is well acknowledged for it; anything that I say can hardly add very much to what has already been said about him, except what I've seen and admired so much about his craft.
Long time friend of classic actor Richard Burton, with whom he collaborated on Becket, O'Toole shared with Burton the record of most Academy Award nominations never to have won (seven) at the time of Burton's death; O'Toole later broke that record in 2006 with his eighth nomination for the film Venus. He did eventually receive an Honorary Oscar at the 75th Academy Awards and a well deserved one. Like Burton, O'Toole was among the most energetic and enthusiastic of the performers from the classic era of filmmaking, which is why I came to appreciate him so much. Every character of his was portrayed with incredible joy and commitment to a degree that some people may call flamboyance. His performance in the musical film Man of La Mancha demonstrates O'Toole at his most excitable, playing both the playwright and his creation in both their most agitated and most vulnerable. But at the same time, there are still any number of performances where he proved just as expressive in subtler ways; if you watch The Last Emperor, wherein he played Reginald Johnston, Scottish diplomat and tudor to Emperor Puyi, you see a man of honour and courtesy who expresses himself with incredible restraint, acting as both a voice of reason and a kindly, supporting man in a curious land which both he and his student have yet to fully comprehend.
Although today better known for his film work, any number of his performances showed his continual love and appreciation of the theatre. His first major appearance in England was a highly acclaimed presentation of Shakespeare's Hamlet and he once said on Charlie Rose that the major difference between his generation and modern actors was that he was trained for theatre and nothing else. I mentioned in my review of O'Toole's breakthrough film, Lawrence of Arabia, how I thought that O'Toole's Lawrence stood out as the grander and more exciting character when compared to Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird - with no disrespect to Gregory Peck - partially because of O'Toole's theatrics. If you will, rather than giving a cinematic performance in a theatrical film - as I had often interpreted other actors to be doing in other epic films - he gave a theatrical performance in a cinematic film. His was a performance that embraced and expressed every little detail within the character through both grand and subtler means and not just a stoic man of a single expression; his Lawrence is a man of unbelievable energy, fluidity, versatility and strength.
The same can be said for his other roles, not just Don Quixote but also his other Oscar-nominated performances, three of which were based on stage plays. Look at his Henry II in The Lion in Winter, a role which he reprised after Becket and the film that many say should have won him the Oscar. Look at the "My Life" soliloquy made to his sons and you see not a man simply angry but a man in agony, a man of fortitude, sadness and jealousy all at once, and all of these expressed in just three scenes each about thirty seconds long; not even his co-star Katherine Hepburn succeeds in conveying such a mesmerizing blend - no disrespect to her either. Even later in life, in the role of King Priam in Troy, the first film of his I ever saw before I was even an admirer of his, he still gave incredible heart to a man of weary mind and body. No other actor really was quite as successful at bringing to life what may otherwise be such dramatic and theatrical characters.
O'Toole had long struggled with illness, including a diagnosis of stomach cancer in the 1970's, but this hardly stopped him from carrying on and though his career had its peaks and low points, no one could disregard the passion and strength of his presence and skill. It was a sad day for me when he announced his retirement in 2012, yet it also seemed appropriate; though I may have wanted to find out, how can one predict the nature of the man's career after such an enormous number of honours and distinctions? Peter O'Toole broke through with a character who was certain he could change history and in a way, he himself did; I may never see an actor of such equal power and I would not be disappointed at all.
It is as Don Quixote once said: Peter O'Toole come in a world of iron and made a world of gold. My condolences go to his family and my thanks to him for his vibrant and resounding contribution to the world of film.
Seamus Peter O'Toole
1932 - 2013
