President pays tribute to O’Toole’s ‘talent and genius’

Actor Peter O’Toole, who achieved stardom in the Oscar-winning classic film Lawrence Of Arabia, has been remembered as a man of grace and genius by the president.

President Michael D Higgins led tributes to O’Toole — who received an honorary Academy Award in 2003 for his lifetime’s work — at a special celebration at London’s Old Vic Theatre marking his memory.

O’Toole, who died, aged 81, in December, was renowned for his wild living as well as his brilliance on stage and screen.

Mr Higgins said: “The Peter O’Toole that I knew and loved was a man of immense charm, grace, intelligence, and eloquence, who was assiduously professional about the vocation of acting.

“To be in his company or to share his friendship was not an experience in the raising of hell — as some tabloids would have it — rather it was about the witness of great talent, mischief, and genius too.”

O’Toole retired from showbusiness in 2012. The eight-time Academy Award nominee — who never won Hollywood’s top acting honour — shot to screen stardom 50 years ago in the title role of Lawrence of Arabia, which earned seven Oscars, including best picture and director for David Lean.

O’Toole’s performance as British adventurer TE Lawrence brought him his first best actor nomination but set him on an unenviable path of Oscar futility. His eight nominations without a win is a record among actors.

O’Toole received Oscar nominations for 1964’s Becket, 1968’s The Lion In Winter, 1969’s Goodbye, Mr Chips, 1972’s The Ruling Class, 1980’s The Stunt Man, and 1982’s My Favourite Year.

No living person is sure whether O’Toole’s birthplace was Connemara, Dublin, or Leeds, but he lived in Clifden.

President Higgins met O’Toole in 1969, being introduced by a mutual friend and beginning a friendship lasting 44 years.

The President said that O’Toole was destined to be a star, and when he was a boy he had written in his notebook: “I will not be a common man. I will stir the smooth sands of monotony.”