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Robert Oxton Bolt, CBE (15 August 1924 – 21 February 1995) was an English playwright and a two-time Oscar winning screenwriter.

Career[link]

He was born in Sale, Cheshire. At Manchester Grammar School his affinity for Sir Thomas More first developed. He attended the University of Manchester, and, after war service, the University of Exeter. For many years he taught English and history at Millfield School and only became a full time writer at the age of 33 when his play The Flowering Cherry was staged in London in 1958, with Celia Johnson and Ralph Richardson.

Although he was best known for his original play A Man for All Seasons - a depiction of Sir Thomas More's clash with King Henry VIII over his divorce from Catherine of Aragon - which won awards on the stage and in its film version, most of his writing was screenplays for films or television.

Bolt was known for dramatic works that placed their protagonists in tension with the prevailing society. He won great renown for A Man for All Seasons, his first iteration of this theme, but he developed it in his existential script for Lawrence of Arabia (1962). In Lawrence, he succeeded where several before him had failed, at turning T. E. Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom into a cogent screenplay by turning the entire book on its head and making it a search for the identity of its author. Lawrence, by Bolt, is presented as a misfit both in English and Arab society.

It was at this time that Bolt himself fell foul of the law and was arrested and imprisoned for protesting nuclear proliferation. He refused to be "bound over" (i.e., to sign a declaration that he would not engage in such activities again) and was sentenced to one month in prison because of this. The producer of the Lawrence film, Sam Spiegel, persuaded Bolt to sign after he had served only two weeks. Bolt later regretted his actions, and did not speak to Spiegel again after the film was completed.

Later, with Doctor Zhivago, he invested Boris Pasternak's novel with the characteristic Bolt sense of narrative and dialogue - human, short and telling. The Bounty was Bolt's first project after a stroke, which affected not only his movement, but his speech. In it, Fletcher Christian takes the "Lawrence" role of a man in tension with his society who in the process loses touch with his own identity. The Mission was Bolt's final film project, and once again represented his thematic preoccupations, this time with 18th century Jesuits in South America.

Bolt's final produced script was Political Animal, later made into the TV movie Without Warning: The James Brady Story (1991), about the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan and the struggles of his press secretary, James Brady, to recover from a near-fatal gunshot injury he received in the process. Bolt was initially reluctant to make the film, but after meeting with Brady he felt he could relate to Brady's struggles with a cerebral injury; thus, a lot of his own experiences recovering from his stroke found their way into the script.

Personal life[link]

Bolt was married four times, twice to British actress Sarah Miles. His first wife was Celia Ann "Jo" Roberts, by whom he had three children; they divorced in 1963. He was married to Miles from 1967 until 1976; Bolt had his fourth child, Thomas, with Miles. In the early 1980s, he had a short-lived third marriage, to Ann Queensberry before remarrying Sarah Miles in 1988, with whom he remained until his death in 1995.^[1]

He had four children: Sally (who died in a car crash in 1982)^{[citation needed]}, Ben (who later became a film and television director), Joanna, and Tom.

Death[link]

Bolt suffered a heart attack and a stroke that left him paralyzed in 1979. He died aged 70, in Petersfield, Hampshire, England, following a long illness.

Honours[link]

He had been appointed CBE in 1972.

Partial list of plays[link]

Bolt wrote several plays for BBC Radio in the '50s, as well as several unproduced plays, so this list is incomplete. Many of his early radio plays were for children, and only a few (see below) were adapted for the stage.

• The Last of the Wine (1956) - A play showcasing the reactions of ordinary Englishmen to the advent of nuclear armageddon - one of Bolt's pet political issues. One of Bolt's radio plays which Bolt tried to adapt to the stage. However, the play was either never performed or performed a few times and then cancelled. Wine has never been published or performed since.
• The Critic and the Heart (1957) - Bolt's first professionally produced work, it involves Winifred Blazer, a middle-aged spinster whose life is ruined by the arrival of a mean-spirited art critic into her life. It was a very modest success; Bolt was never satisfied with it, and greatly re-wrote it, retitled Brother and Sister, in a version produced in 1967.
• The Flowering Cherry (1958) - concerns an aging man who loses touch with reality and gradually isolates those around him. Ran on the West End starring Ralph Richardson and Celia Johnson (succeeded by Wendy Hiller) to success but mixed reviews - many critics felt it too closely resembled Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman - and had a brief but unsuccessful run on Broadway starring Hiller and Eric Portman.
• The Tiger and the Horse (1960) - this play is the first of Bolt's to develop his themes of individualism, society, authority, and politics. It concerns an aging college professor, John Dean, who is running for Vice-Chancellor of a prestigious university, but finds his election undermined by his daughter's love affair, a political petition, and his wife's deteriorating mental state. The play starred Michael and Vanessa Redgrave, among others. It was also the first play directed by Bolt's frequent collaborator, celebrated actor-director Noel Willman.
• A Man for All Seasons (1960) - as mentioned above, involves Sir Thomas More's conflict with Henry VIII over his break with the Catholic Church. Adapted from a radio play Bolt had written in 1954, it is generally regarded as Bolt's finest work - and certainly his most successful. The play develops in full his themes of individuality versus society and authority as corrupt. The strain of Brechtianism which would pervade many of his later works is first present here, in the character of the 'Common Man', who both narrates and takes part in the action as various minor characters. The original run starred Paul Scofield as Thomas More, as well as Keith Baxter as Henry VIII, George Rose as the Common Man, Leo McKern as the Common Man in the West End production and Thomas Cromwell in the Broadway show (a role originated in London by Andrew Keir and later taken over by Thomas Gomez), and Albert Dekker as the Duke of Norfolk. It was a huge critical and commercial success on both sides of the Atlantic, has had several revivals, and was made into an equally acclaimed film in 1966.
• Gentle Jack (1963) - a somewhat unusual work by Bolt, a comedy involving Man's involvement with Nature. A banker, Jacko, is sent to the countryside on vacation, and becomes influenced by a Nature spirit who convinces him to abandon his mundane, materialistic life and live in a state of nature, indulging in base pleasures such as murder, sex, and general mischief. Jack, however, is torn between his desire to inhabit both the "Natural" and "Logical" Worlds. It was one of Bolt's few unsuccessful plays; Bolt, who considered the play his best work for the stage, regretted this, feeling that perhaps he had not articulated his points well enough. The play starred Kenneth Williams, Michael Bryant, Siân Phillips, Edith Evans, Timothy West and Bernard Kay in its run; the play has not been professionally produced since.
• The Thwarting of Baron Bolligrew (1964) - a children's play, involving a heroic knight, Oblong Fitz-Oblong, sent to slay a vicious dragon on a far-away island, leading him to face off with the crooked Baron Bolligrew, who controls the island, and an evil wizard he recruits to help him. The work contains many of Bolt's favorite themes of integrity and honor - as well as Brechtian devices which fit naturally within the general fantasy setting of the story. The show was commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company for a showing at Christmastime, 1964. Among the original cast were John Normington as Fitz-Oblong, Michael Jayston as the play's narrator, Bolt perennial Leo McKern as the title character, and a very young Malcolm McDowell in a small part; a revival in the late 1960s featured Roy Kinnear as Fitz-Oblong. Paul Scofield provided a voice recording for the dragon. Like A Man for All Seasons, the play had been written for the BBC, and in 1995 was re-written into a children's book. The play was extremely popular, and throughout the 1960s/70s, it had a yearly revival at Christmas in Britain. In the early 60s, the Augsburger Puppenkiste puppet theatre produced the play for German television in six sequels titled Der kleine dicke Ritter.
• Vivat! Vivat Regina! (1971) - Bolt's most successful show after A Man for All Seasons, a historical account of the reigns of Mary, Queen of Scots, and Elizabeth I of England, comparing and contrasting the personalities and reigns of the two female rulers. Highly successful, it ran for several months on Broadway, winning several Tony nominations. The original cast included Eileen Atkins as Elizabeth and Bolt's wife Sarah Miles as Mary.
• State of Revolution (1977) - An in-depth political depiction of the Russian Revolution of 1917, focusing on Lenin as "a great man possessed by a terrible idea", and the struggles of Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin to gain power under him. It is told from the point-of-view of Lunacharsky, Lenin's Minister of Education. The original cast included Michael Bryant as Lenin, Terence Rigby as Stalin, Brian Blessed as Maxim Gorky, and Michael Kitchen as Trotsky. Though meticulously researched, the play received mixed reviews and had a short run before being shelved. Bolt himself felt that he hadn't gotten the play quite right.

State of Revolution was Bolt's final produced play, though he wrote several others that were never published or produced. He spent much of the mid-to-late 1970s, working on a play about portrait artist Augustus John (famous for a series of portraits of T. E. Lawrence), but his work on The Bounty, and later his failing health, forced him to abandon it.

Screenplays[link]

Bolt may be best-remembered for his work on film and television screenplays. Bolt's work for director David Lean garnered him particular acclaim and recognition, and Bolt tried his hand at directing with the unsuccessful Lady Caroline Lamb (1972). While many criticized Bolt for focusing more on the personal aspects of his protagonists than the broader political context (particularly with Lawrence and Man), most critics and audiences alike praised his screenplays. Bolt won two Oscars, two BAFTA Awards, and won or was nominated for several others.

• Lawrence of Arabia (with Michael Wilson) (1962) - despite disputes between Wilson and Bolt over who contributed what to the script, Bolt provided most of the film's dialogue and the interpretation of the characters while Wilson provided the story and outline. Wilson was uncredited, and Bolt alone was nominated for, but did not win, an Academy Award. Bolt and Lean refused to recognize Wilson's contribution to the film, and Wilson was not credited until 1995.
• Doctor Zhivago (1965) - Bolt won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay
• A Man for All Seasons (1966) - Bolt won the Oscar again, adapting his own play to the screen (with some help from Constance Willis).
• Krasnaya Palatka, released in the U.S. as "The Red Tent", (1969) (uncredited additional dialogue)
• Ryan's Daughter (1970)
• Lady Caroline Lamb (1972) (also directed)
• The Bounty (1984)
• The Mission (1986) (originally published as a novel)
• A Man for All Seasons (1988)
• A Dry White Season (uncredited revisions of screenplay)
• Without Warning: The James Brady Story (1991) (TV)

Bolt also worked on the early drafts of the script for Gandhi, but his script was considered unsatisfactory and he was replaced by John Briley. Bolt also had several unrealized projects, including a TV miniseries of Gore Vidal's novel, Burr and an adaptation of Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time.

After being paid $400,000 US plus ten percent of profits for his Ryan's Daughter screenplay, Bolt became for a time the highest-paid screenwriter in Hollywood (with only William Goldman in serious competition).

Bibliography[link]

• Prufer, Sabine. The Individual at the Crossroads: The Works of Robert Bolt, Novelist, Dramatist, Screenwriter. Frankfurt-am-Man; New York: P. Lang, 1998
• Turner, Adrian. Robert Bolt: Scenes from Two Lives. London: Hutchinson, 1998. ISBN 0-09-180176-1.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Obituary in The Independent
• Correction to obituary in The Independent
• Robert Bolt at the Internet Movie Database
• Robert Bolt biography and filmography at the British Film Institute's Screenonline
• The Making of Lawrence of Arabia, Digitised BAFTA Journal, Winter 1962-63, including article by Robert Bolt

A Man for All Seasons is a play by Robert Bolt. An early form of the play had been written for BBC Radio in 1954, and a one-hour live television version starring Bernard Hepton was produced in 1957 by the BBC,^[1] but after Bolt's success with The Flowering Cherry, he reworked it for the stage.

It was first performed in London opening at the Globe Theatre (now Gielgud Theatre) on 1 July 1960. It later found its way to Broadway, enjoying a critically and commercially successful run of over a year. It has had several revivals, and was subsequently made into a feature film and a television movie.

The plot is based on the true story of Sir Thomas More, the 16th-century Chancellor of England, who refused to endorse King Henry VIII's wish to divorce his ageing wife Catherine of Aragon, who could not bear him a son, so that he could marry Anne Boleyn, the sister of his former mistress. The play portrays More as a man of principle, envied by rivals such as Thomas Cromwell and loved by the common people and by his family.

Title[link]

The title reflects 20th century agnostic playwright Robert Bolt’s portrayal of More as the ultimate man of conscience. As one who remains true to himself and his beliefs under all circumstances and at all times, despite external pressure or influence, More represents "a man for all seasons". Bolt borrowed the title from Robert Whittington, a contemporary of More, who in 1520 wrote of him:

"More is a man of an angel's wit and singular learning. I know not his fellow. For where is the man of that gentleness, lowliness and affability? And, as time requireth, a man of marvelous mirth and pastimes, and sometime of as sad gravity. A man for all seasons."^[2]

Themes[link]

Sir Thomas More, one of the most famous early Lord Chancellors, served and was executed under King Henry VIII.

A Man for All Seasons struggles with ideas of identity and conscience. More argues repeatedly that a person is defined by his conscience. His own position is depicted as almost indefensible; the Pope is described as a "bad" and corrupt individual, forced by the Emperor Charles V to act according to his will. But as More says to Norfolk, "What matters is not that it's true, but that I believe it; or no, not that I believe it, but that I believe it." More fears that if he breaks with his conscience, he will be damned to hell, while his associates and friends are more concerned with holding onto their own temporal power.

At another key point of the play, More testifies before an inquiry committee and Norfolk attempts to persuade him to sign the Act of Succession (pp. 78, Heinemann edition):

"Norfolk: Oh, confound all this.... I'm not a scholar, as Master Cromwell never tires of pointing out, and frankly I don't know whether the marriage was lawful or not. But damn it, Thomas, look at those names.... You know those men! Can't you do what I did, and come with us, for fellowship?

More: And when we stand before God, and you are sent to Paradise for doing according to your conscience, and I am damned for not doing according to mine, will you come with me, for fellowship?"

More's persecution is made to seem even more unjust by the inclusion of Eustace Chapuys, the long-time Spanish ambassador to England, into the story. Chapuys recognizes More as a stout man of the church, and in Act II, after More's resignation from the Chancellorship, he informs More of a planned rebellion along the Scottish border, expecting More to be sympathetic. Instead, More informs Norfolk of the plot, showing him to be patriotic and loyal to the King. This, along with More's refusal to actually speak out against the King, shows him to be a loyal subject, and thus Cromwell appears to prosecute him out of personal spite and because he disagrees with the King's divorce.

Bolt also establishes an anti-authoritarian theme which recurs throughout his works. All people in positions of power — King Henry, Cromwell, Wolsey, Cranmer, Chapuys, even Norfolk — are depicted as being either corrupt, evil, or at best expedient and power-hungry. Bolt's later plays and film screenplays also delve into this theme. The theme of corruption is also illustrated, in Rich's rise to power, the Common Man being drawn into the events of the storyline, and in the (deliberately) anachronistic portrayal of Henry as a younger, athletic man (in 1530 he would have been in his forties and already putting on weight).

Although it is the law that eventually forces More's execution, the play also makes several powerful statements in support of the rule of law. At one point More's future son-in-law, Roper, urges him to arrest Richard Rich, whose perjury will eventually lead to More's execution. More answers that Rich has broken no law, "And go he should if he were the Devil himself until he broke the law!" Roper is appalled at the idea of granting the Devil the benefit of law, but More is adamant.

"What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil? ... And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned round on you – where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's, and if you cut them down -- and you're just the man to do it -- do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!"

Some historians and critics have criticized the play's portrayal of More as a saintly character, noting that Bolt mentions none of More's more negative activities, such as his campaign against William Tyndale and his persecution of Lutherans while serving as Chancellor. The depictions of Thomas Cromwell, the Duke of Norfolk, and Richard Rich are also historically suspect. (Also, in real life More had three paternal daughters, a son, and an adoptive daughter, but only his eldest, Margaret, appears in the play.) Bolt's decision to portray More through his relations with family and friends, and not the broader political context of the time period, has also been criticized.

The character of the Common Man serves as a narrator and framing device. A Brechtian character, he plays various small parts — More's servant, a publican, a boatman, More's jailer, jury foreman and executioner—who appear throughout the play, both taking part in and commenting on the action. Several sequences involving this character break the fourth wall—most notably, a sequence where the Common Man attempts to exit the stage and is addressed by Cromwell, who identifies him as a jury foreman. (Indeed, the "jury" consists of sticks or poles with the hats of the Common Man's various characters put on top.) Bolt created the Common Man for two main reasons: to illustrate the place and influence of the average person in history, even though they are usually overlooked, and to try to prevent the audience from sympathizing with the more titled characters such as More, realizing that the audience is more closely related to him—a classic case of Brechtian alienation, designed to prevent the audience from being too engrossed in More's plight. The character's role in the story has been interpreted in many different ways by different critics, from being a positive to a negative character. Many of Bolt's subsequent works featured similar characters.

Endings[link]

Two different endings were written by Bolt. The original ending, performed during the show's preliminary run in England, had Cromwell and Chapuys confront each other after More's execution and then exit the stage, hand in hand, chuckling with "the self-mocking, self-indulgent, rather rueful laughter of the men who know what the world is and how to be comfortable in it".

This particular ending is exemplary of Bolt's notion of "riding with the current", as is demonstrated by "men who know what the world is and how to be comfortable in it", forsaking one's conscience in exchange of a life of "convenience". For the show's London production – and most, if not all, subsequent runs of the show – the Common Man sheds his executioner's garb and addresses the audience one final time:

"... It isn't difficult to keep alive, friends – just don't make trouble – or if you must make trouble, make the sort of trouble that's expected... If we should bump into one another, recognize me."

The film version of the play ends with More's execution, followed by a narrator reading off the fates of the various characters involved (originally, this was dialogue spoken by the Common Man prior to the Tower of London Inquiry).

Stage productions[link]

Paul Scofield, who played the leading role in the West End premiere, reprised it on Broadway in 1961, winning a Tony Award. Both productions were directed by Noel Willman.

The original West End cast included:

• The Common Man – Leo McKern
• Sir Thomas More – Paul Scofield
• Richard Rich – John Brown
• Duke of Norfolk – Alexander Gauge
• Alice More – Wynne Clark
• Margaret – Pat Keen
• Cardinal Wolsey – Willoughby Goddard
• Thomas Cromwell – Andrew Keir
• Chapuys – Geoffrey Dunn
• Attendant – Brian Harrison
• Will Roper – John Carson
• Henry VIII – Richard Leech
• Woman – Beryl Andrews
• Archbishop Cranmer – William Roderick

In London, Man ran simultaneously to another of Bolt's plays, The Tiger and the Horse. Both plays were major hits, although Horse was the more successful of the two. British critical reaction was largely positive, albeit reservedly so; few reviews at the time regarded the play as a classic. The show ran for 320 performances.

In the USA, the play was first performed on Broadway on November 22, 1961, at the ANTA Playhouse

Original Broadway Cast

• The Common Man- George Rose
• Sir Thomas More- Paul Scofield
• The Duke of Norfolk- Albert Dekker
• Thomas Cromwell- Leo McKern (later Thomas Gomez)
• King Henry VIII- Keith Baxter
• Margaret More- Olga Bellin
• William Roper- Peter Brandon
• Catherine Anger- Sarah Burton
• Attendant- John Colenback
• Cardinal Wolsey – Jack Creley
• Alice More- Carol Goodner
• Thomas Cranmer- Lester Rawlins
• Richard Rich- William Redfield
• Signor Chapuys- David J. Stewart

The Broadway production was a huge hit, running for 620 performances. While the play had drawn mixed critical reviews in London, it was almost unanimously praised by the New York critics, who showered it with plaudits and awards.

Leo McKern played the Common Man in the West End version of the show, but was shifted to the role of Cromwell for the Broadway production – a role he later reprised in the film. While playing Cromwell, he appeared with one brown and one blue eye (McKern of course had lost an eye in an accident and wore a glass one) to accentuate his character's evil nature.

Charlton Heston played More in several versions of the play off-Broadway in the '70s and '80s, eventually playing it on the West End. The play was a success and the West End production was taken to Aberdeen, Scotland, for a week where it was staged at His Majesty's Theatre. Heston considered it among his favourite roles. He also produced, directed, and starred in a film version of it (see below).

Another famous graduate of the play is Ian McKellen, whose first theatrical role was as Will Roper in a revival production in the late '60s. He would go on to play More in a later run of the show. Faye Dunaway also made her stage debut as a replacement Margaret in the original Broadway run.

An acclaimed Canadian production starring William Hutt and directed by Walter Learning was presented at the Vancouver Playhouse and the Stratford Festival in 1986. At Stratford the production was paired with a production of Shakespeare's Henry VIII, with both plays sharing many actors, and showing two perspectives on historical events.

The play was staged in London's West End at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket starring Martin Shaw and produced by Bill Kenwright. It closed on 1 April 2006.

A Broadway revival of the show, produced by the Roundabout Theatre Company, starring Frank Langella as More and directed by Doug Hughes, played at the American Airlines Theatre through December 2008.^[3]

More recently, the play has been revived for an Oxford production at the University Church of St Mary the Virgin in December 2011: [1].^[4]

Film and TV movies[link]

1966 film[link]

Paul Scofield, who played the leading role in the West End stage premiere, played More again in the first of two film versions (1966), winning an Oscar in the process. The film also stars Robert Shaw as Henry VIII, Orson Welles as Wolsey, a young John Hurt as Richard Rich, and an older Wendy Hiller as Lady Alice, More's second wife. It was directed by Fred Zinnemann. In addition to the Best Actor Oscar won by Scofield, the film won Academy Awards for screenplay, cinematography, costume design, Best Director, and Best Picture.

1988 film[link]

The 1988 version starred Charlton Heston (who also directed it) as More, Vanessa Redgrave (who appeared briefly and mutely in the 1966 version as Anne Boleyn) as More's wife, and Sir John Gielgud as Cardinal Wolsey.

Radio productions[link]

The play was produced, with the following cast, as the Saturday Play on BBC Radio 4 on 7 October 2006, as part of its Betrayal season:

• Sir Thomas More ...... Charles Dance
• Master Richard Rich ...... Julian Rhind Tutt
• Master Thomas Cromwell ...... Kenneth Cranham
• Cardinal Wolsey ...... Timothy Bateson
• King Henry VIII ...... Brian Cox
• Duke of Norfolk ...... Nicholas le Prevost
• Master William Roper ...... Martin Freeman
• Lady Alice More ...... Kika Markham
• Mistress Margaret (Meg) More ...... Romola Garai
• Boatman/Steward (aka Matthew) /Jailer ...... Sam Dale
• Archbishop Thomas Cranmer/Headsman ...... Peter Tate^{[disambiguation needed ]}
• Catherine of Aragon ...... Adjoa Andoh

See also[link]

• Trial movies
• Cultural depictions of Henry VIII of England

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: A Man for All Seasons

• A Man for All Seasons at the Internet Broadway Database
• Free Study Guide for "A Man for All Seasons" at TheBestNotes.com
• Complete text of the play at cooper.edu (Dead Link March 2012)
• Complete text of the play at veng6a.pbworks.com

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2012)

Peter O'Toole
In Lawrence of Arabia, 1962
Born	Peter Seamus Lorcan O'Toole (1932-08-02) 2 August 1932 (age 79) Location of birth uncertain; either Connemara, County Galway, Ireland or Leeds, Yorkshire, England[1]
Nationality	Irish
Alma mater	Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1954–present
Spouse	Siân Phillips (m. 1959–79)
Children	Kate O'Toole (b. 1960) Patricia O'Toole Lorcan O'Toole, born on (1983-03-17) 17 March 1983 (age 29)

Peter Seamus Lorcan O'Toole^[1] (born 2 August 1932) is an Irish actor of stage and screen.^[2] O'Toole achieved stardom in 1962 playing T. E. Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia, and then went on to become a highly-honoured film and stage actor. He has been nominated for eight Academy Awards, and holds the record for most competitive Academy Award acting nominations without a win. He has won four Golden Globes, a BAFTA, and an Emmy, and was the recipient of an Honorary Academy Award in 2003 for his body of work.

Early life[link]

Peter Seamus Lorcan O'Toole was born in 1932. Some sources give his birthplace as Connemara, County Galway, Ireland, and others as Leeds, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England, where he grew up. O'Toole himself is not certain of his birthplace or date, noting in his autobiography that, while he accepts 2 August as his birthdate, he has a birth certificate from each country, with the Irish one giving a June 1932 birthdate.^[1] O'Toole is the son of Constance Jane (née Ferguson), a Scottish^[3] nurse, and Patrick Joseph O'Toole, an Irish metal plater, football player and racecourse bookmaker.^[4][5] When O'Toole was one year old, his family began a five-year tour of major racecourse towns in Northern England. He was brought up Roman Catholic.^[6][7] O'Toole was evacuated from Leeds early in World War II and went to a Catholic school for seven or eight years, where he was "implored" to become right-handed. “I used to be scared stiff of the nuns: their whole denial of womanhood – the black dresses and the shaving of the hair – was so horrible, so terrifying,” he later commented. “Of course, that's all been stopped. They're sipping gin and tonic in the Dublin pubs now, and a couple of them flashed their pretty ankles at me just the other day.”^[8]

Upon leaving school O'Toole obtained employment as a trainee journalist and photographer on the Yorkshire Evening Post, until he was called up for national service as a signaller in the Royal Navy. As reported in a radio interview in 2006 on NPR, he was asked by an officer whether he had something he had always wanted to do. His reply was that he had always wanted to try being either a poet or an actor. O'Toole attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) from 1952 to 1954 on a scholarship after being rejected by the Abbey Theatre's drama school in Dublin by the director Ernest Blythe, because he couldn't speak Irish. At RADA, he was in the same class as Albert Finney, Alan Bates and Brian Bedford. O'Toole described this as "the most remarkable class the academy ever had, though we weren't reckoned for much at the time. We were all considered dotty."^[9]

Career[link]

Peter O'Toole as T. E. Lawrence

O'Toole began working in the theatre, gaining recognition as a Shakespearean actor at the Bristol Old Vic and with the English Stage Company, before making his television debut in 1954. He first appeared on film in 1959 in a bit part in The Day They Robbed the Bank of England.^[10] O'Toole's major break came when he was chosen to play T. E. Lawrence in David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia (1962), after Marlon Brando proved unavailable and Albert Finney turned down the role.^[11] His performance was ranked number one in Premiere magazine's list of the 100 Greatest Performances of All Time.^{[citation needed]} The role introduced him to U.S. audiences and earned him the first of his eight nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actor.

O'Toole is one of a handful of actors to be Oscar-nominated for playing the same role in two different films; he played King Henry II in both 1964's Becket and 1968's The Lion in Winter. O'Toole played Hamlet under Laurence Olivier's direction in the premiere production of the Royal National Theatre in 1963. He has also appeared in Seán O'Casey's Juno and the Paycock at Gaiety Theatre, Dublin, and fulfilled a lifetime ambition when taking to the stage of the Irish capital's Abbey Theatre in 1970 to perform in Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot alongside Donal McCann. In 1980, he received wide critical acclaim for playing the director in the behind-the-scenes film The Stunt Man. He received good reviews as John Tanner in Man and Superman and Henry Higgins in Pygmalion, and won a Laurence Olivier Award for his performance in Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell (1989).^{[citation needed]} O'Toole was nominated for another Oscar for 1982's My Favorite Year, a light romantic comedy about the behind-the-scenes at a 1950s TV variety-comedy show, much like Your Show of Shows, in which O'Toole plays an ageing swashbuckling film star strongly reminiscent (intentionally) of Errol Flynn.

In 1972, he played both Miguel de Cervantes and his fictional creation Don Quixote in Man of La Mancha, the motion picture adaptation of the 1965 smash hit Broadway musical, opposite Sophia Loren. Widely criticised for using mostly non-singing actors and shunned by the public at the time, the film has gone on to become more of a success on videocassette and DVD, though there are those who still find fault with it. O'Toole's singing was dubbed by tenor Simon Gilbert,^[12] but the other actors sang their own parts. O'Toole and co-star James Coco, who played both Cervantes's manservant and Sancho Panza, both received Golden Globe nominations for their performances. In 1980, O'Toole starred as Tiberius in the Penthouse-funded biographical film Caligula.

O'Toole won an Emmy Award for his role in the 1999 mini-series Joan of Arc. In 2004, O'Toole played King Priam in the summer blockbuster Troy. In 2005, he appeared on television as the older version of legendary 18th century Italian adventurer Giacomo Casanova in the BBC drama serial Casanova. O'Toole's role was mainly to frame the drama, telling the story of his life to serving maid Edith (Rose Byrne). The younger Casanova, seen for most of the action, was played by David Tennant, who had to wear contact lenses to match his brown eyes to O'Toole's blue.

He was once again nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award for his portrayal of Maurice in the 2006 film Venus, directed by Roger Michell, his eighth such nomination. Most recently, O'Toole co-starred in the Pixar animated film Ratatouille, an animated film about a rat with dreams of becoming the greatest chef in Paris, as Anton Ego, a food critic. O'Toole appeared in the second season of Showtime's hit drama series The Tudors, portraying Pope Paul III, who excommunicates King Henry VIII from the church; an act that leads to a showdown between the two men in seven of the ten episodes.

Personal life[link]

In a BBC Radio interview in January 2007, O'Toole said that he had studied women for a very long time, had given it his best try, but knew "nothing." In 1959, he married Welsh actress Siân Phillips, with whom he had two daughters: award-winning actress Kate (b. 1960) and Patricia. Peter and Sîan were divorced in 1979. Phillips later revealed in two autobiographies that O'Toole had subjected her to mental cruelty — largely fuelled by drinking — and was subject to bouts of extreme jealousy when she finally left him for a younger lover.^[13]

O'Toole and his girlfriend, model Karen Brown, had a son, Lorcan Patrick O'Toole (born 14 March 1983, when O'Toole was fifty years old). Lorcan, now an actor, was a pupil at Harrow School, boarding at West Acre from 1996.

Severe illness almost ended his life in the late 1970s. Owing to his heavy drinking and a digestive defect from birth, he underwent surgery in 1976 to have his pancreas and a large portion of his stomach removed, which resulted in insulin-dependent diabetes. In 1978 he nearly died from a blood disorder. He eventually recovered and returned to work, notably in The Stuntman (1980) and My Favorite Year (1982), both of which brought him Academy Award nominations. He also appeared in 1987's much-garlanded The Last Emperor. The late eighties and nineties brought fewer film roles but more work for television as well as the occasional stage performance.

He resided in Clifden, County Galway, Ireland from 1963, and at the height of his career maintained homes in Dublin, London, and Paris (at the Hotel Ritz, which was where his character supposedly lived in the film How to Steal a Million). Currently, he makes his home solely in London.

While studying at RADA in the early 1950s he was active in protesting against British involvement in the Korean War. Later, in the 1960s, he was an active opponent of the Vietnam War.

It may be of interest that he played an important role in the creation of the current form of the well known folksong Carrickfergus (song) which he related to Dominic Behan, who put it in print and made a recording in the mid-1960s.

He is perhaps the only one of his "London" acting contemporaries not to be knighted. However, according to London's Daily Mail, he was offered a knighthood or honorary knighthood in 1987, but turned it down for personal and political reasons.^[14]

In an interview with National Public Radio in December 2006, O'Toole revealed that he knows all 154 of Shakespeare's sonnets. A self-described romantic, O'Toole regards the sonnets as among the finest collection of English poems, reading them daily. In the film Venus, he recites Sonnet 18, "Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer's Day." O'Toole has written two memoirs. Loitering With Intent: The Child chronicles his childhood in the years leading up to World War II and was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year in 1992. His second, Loitering With Intent: The Apprentice, is about his years spent training with a cadre of friends at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. The books have been praised by critics such as Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times, who wrote: "A cascade of language, a rumbling tumbling riot of words, a pub soliloquy to an invisible but imaginable audience, and the more captivating for it. O'Toole as raconteur is grand company." O'Toole spent parts of 2007 writing his third installment. This book will have (as he described it) "the meat," meaning highlights from his stage and filmmaking career.

O'Toole is a noted fan of rugby union, and used to attend Five Nations matches with friends and fellow rugby fans Richard Harris, Kenneth Griffith, Peter Finch and Richard Burton. (O'Toole, Harris and Burton have a combined 17 Oscar nominations.) He is also a lifelong player, coach and enthusiast of cricket. O'Toole is licensed to teach and coach cricket to children as young as ten.

O'Toole has been interviewed at least three times by Charlie Rose on The Charlie Rose Show. In the 17 January 2007 interview, O'Toole said that Eric Porter was the actor who had most influenced him. He also said that the difference between actors of yesterday and today is that actors of his generation were trained for "theatre, theatre, theatre." He also believes that the challenge for the actor is "to use his imagination to link to his emotion" and that "good parts make good actors." However, in other venues (including the DVD commentary for Becket), O'Toole has also credited Donald Wolfit as being his most important mentor. In an appearance on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on 11 January 2007, O'Toole said that the actor he most enjoyed working with was Katharine Hepburn, his close friend; he played Henry II to her Eleanor of Aquitaine in The Lion in Winter.

O'Toole remains close friends with his Lawrence of Arabia co-star Omar Sharif and his RADA classmate Albert Finney.

O'Toole is a fan of Sunderland A.F.C., as he told Chris Evans on an episode of TFI Friday, dated Friday, October 11, 1996. The allegiance has lapsed, according to an article at the Salut! Sunderland website.^[15] Coincidentally, however, the mother of T. E. Lawrence, Lawrence of Arabia, was born in Sunderland.

Although he lost faith in organised religion as a teenager, O'Toole has expressed positive sentiments regarding the life of Jesus Christ. In an interview for The New York Times,^[16] he said 'No one can take Jesus away from me...there’s no doubt there was a historical figure of tremendous importance, with enormous notions. Such as peace.' Earlier in the interview, he announced 'I am a retired Christian'.^[16]

Academy Award nominations[link]

O'Toole has been nominated eight times for the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, making him the most-nominated actor never to win the award.

In 2003, the Academy honoured him with an Academy Honorary Award for his entire body of work and his lifelong contribution to film.^[17] O'Toole initially balked about accepting, and wrote the Academy a letter saying that he was "still in the game" and would like more time to "win the lovely bugger outright." The Academy informed him that they would bestow the award whether he wanted it or not. Further, as he related on The Charlie Rose Show in January 2007, his children admonished him, saying that it was the highest honour one could receive in the filmmaking industry. O'Toole agreed to appear at the ceremony and receive his Honorary Oscar. It was presented to him by Meryl Streep, who has the most Oscar nominations of any actress (17).

Filmography[link]

Stage appearances[link]

1955–1958 Bristol Old Vic[link]

• King Lear (1956) (Cornwall)
• The Recruiting Officer (1956) (Bullock)
• Major Barbara (1956) (Peter Shirley)
• Othello (1956) (Lodovico)
• Pygmalion (1957) (Henry Higgins)
• A Midsummer Night's Dream (1957) (Lysander)
• Look Back in Anger (1957) (Jimmy Porter)
• Man and Superman (1958) (Tanner)
• Hamlet (1958) (Hamlet)
• Amphitryon '38 (1958) (Jupiter)
• Waiting for Godot (1957) (Vladimir)

1959 Royal Court Theatre[link]

• The Long and the Short and the Tall (Bamforth)

1960 Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford[link]

• The Taming of the Shrew (Petruchio)
• The Merchant of Venice (Shylock)
• Troilus and Cressida (Thersites)

1963 National Theatre[link]

• Hamlet (title role) directed by Laurence Olivier

1963–1965[link]

• Baal (Phoenix Theatre, 1963) (Baal)
• Ride a Cock Horse (Piccadilly Theatre, 1965)

1966 Gaiety Theatre, Dublin[link]

• Juno and the Paycock (Jack Boyle)
• Man and Superman (Tanner)

1969 Abbey Theatre, Dublin[link]

• Waiting for Godot (Vladimir)

1973–1974 Bristol Old Vic[link]

• Uncle Vanya (Vanya)
• Plunder
• The Apple Cart (King Magnus)
• Judgement (monologue)

1978 Toronto, Washington and Chicago[link]

• Uncle Vanya (Vanya)

• Present Laughter (Gary Essendine)

• Caligula (Tiberius)

1980–1999[link]

• Macbeth (1980) (Macbeth) (Old Vic Theatre)
• Man and Superman (Theatre Royal, Haymarket)
• Pygmalion (Professor Higgins) (Shaftesbury Theatre, 1984, Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford, and Plymouth Theatre, New York, 1987)
• The Apple Cart (Theatre Royal Haymarket, 1986)
• Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell (Apollo Theatre, 1989, Shaftesbury Theatre, 1991 and Old Vic, 1999)
• Our Song (Apollo Theatre, 1992).

References[link]