The Young O'Toole - a Nubbing Thespian
The New Statesman has a good article on a theatrical tradition known as "nubbing" - spouting believable but not legitimate Shakespearean prose to cover a lost line while in performance. Apparently O'Toole was good at it in his days walking the boards:
"...the young Peter O'Toole, when at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, had a few nubs up his sleeve. One can imagine O'Toole falling back on his nub after a particularly hung-over matinee. . .or indeed using it to spice up a dull evening - rather in the way that Michael Gambon or Judi Dench allegedly cause mischief with a misplaced word or an unexpectedly unbuttoned corset.O'Toole's best nub required an actor to carry a purse with him at all times, explained Caird. On being lost for words, you clap the actor standing next to you on the back, look sharply into the wings and say: "Here come the lords of Ross and Willoughby, bloody with spurring and fiery-red with haste; take thou this purse, thou naughty knave, and meet me straightway in the marketplace." You then hand the actor your purse and stride off into the prompt corner to reacquaint yourself with the text."
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Also, I found this article by Guy Adams in the BC Weekly "The Boards" on drinking, Stanislavski, and that particular class of actor who gains a rep for ripping it up. Oddly, the article makes mention of O'Toole...