An acting great has died today. Peter O’Tool is dead at age 81. Via CNN
Actor Peter O’Toole died peacefully Saturday in a hospital, his agent Steve Kenis said Sunday. O’Toole was 81 years old.
“Ireland, and the world, has lost one of the giants of film and theatre,” Irish President Michael D. Higgins said in a statement.
O’Toole’s first major film success came in the title role of T.E. Lawrence in “Lawrence of Arabia” in 1962. It earned him the first of eight Academy Award nominations, but O’Toole never won an Oscar for his film work.“His family are very appreciative and completely overwhelmed by the outpouring of real love and affection being expressed towards him, and to us, during this unhappy time,” daughter Kate O’Toole said in an written statement. “Thank you all, from the bottom of our hearts.”
O’Toole had “been ill for some time,” his daughter said.
“In due course there will be a memorial filled with song and good cheer, as he would have wished,” she wrote. “We will be happy to speak to you all then but in the meantime if you could give Peter O’Toole the respect he deserves and allow us to grieve privately we’d appreciate it.”
O’Tool was nominated but not chosen for best actor Academy Awards for “The Lion in Winter” (1968), “Goodbye, Mr. Chips” (1969), “The Ruling Class” (1972), “The Stunt Man” (1980), “My Favorite Year” (1982) and “Venus” (2006). He was awarded an honorary Oscar by Meryl Streep in 2003.
