Colorful veteran Irish actor Peter O’Toole, famous for films including Lawrence of Arabia, announced his retirement on Tuesday, saying it was time to “chuck in the sponge” aged 79.
The acclaimed stage and screen star said he was taking his last bow “dry-eyed and profoundly grateful” for his half--century-long career.
“It’s my belief that one should decide for oneself when it is time to end one’s stay. So I bid the profession a dry-eyed and profoundly grateful farewell,” O’Toole said in a statement cited by People magazine.
Irish-born, blue-eyed Peter Seamus Lorcan O’Toole was raised in northern England, the son of a bookie. After school, he initially became a journalist and a radioman for the Royal Navy, before deciding to be an actor.
He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where his classmates included Albert Finney, Alan Bates and Richard Harris, who would also go on to illustrious acting careers.
O’Toole’s first stage role came at the age of 17. He started out on stage in Bristol and London, notably performing in Shakespeare dramas before his big break in director David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia (1962).
Medical problems, which were initially attributed to heavy drinking, but turned out to be stomach cancer, threatened his career and life in the 1970s, but he overcame them after giving up alcohol.
He received eight Oscar nominations and was given an honorary Academy Award in 2003.
O’Toole nearly refused the award, asking the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to delay his honorary Oscar until he was 80, saying in a letter: “I am still in the game and might win the bugger outright.”
However, he finally accepted, and told the Oscars show audience: “I have my very own Oscar now to be with me until death us do part,” according to CBS.
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