Irish-Born Actor’s Hand and Footprints to be Enshrined in Concrete at Famed Grauman’s Chinese Theater

Celebration to Include Extensive Conversation with Robert Osborne, Plus Special Screening of O’Toole’s Oscar®-Nominated Performance in Becket (1964)
Legendary actor Peter O’Toole will be a special guest at the 2011 TCM Classic Film Festival as attendees from around the globe join TCM in honoring the Irish-born actor’s extraordinary career. Several special events are planned for the celebration, including an in-depth conversation between O’Toole and TCM host Robert Osborne and a special screening of O’Toole’s Oscar®-nominated performance in Becket (1964).

The TCM Classic Film Festival will take place April 28 - May 1 in Hollywood. As part of the festival activities, O’Toole will place his hand and footprints in cement in front of the world-famous Grauman’s Chinese Theatre on Saturday, April 30. “Caught at last. Forensics will have my dabs forever,” O’Toole said about the honor.

On Friday, April 29, Osborne will sit down with O’Toole for an extensive conversation about his life and career for a special live taping that will air later on TCM. The conversation will be recorded in front of a live audience of festival attendees at The Music Box, the newest venue to be added to the TCM Classic Film Festival.

Also on Friday, the celebration will include a screening of Becket (1964), which earned O’Toole the second of eight Best Actor Oscar® nominations. O’Toole will introduce the film, in which he plays England’s King Henry II, whose friendship with Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Becket turned into a power struggle that ended with Becket’s murder. Richard Burton, who plays the title role, joined his co-star and good friend on the list of 1964’s Best Actor Oscar nominees. O’Toole took on the visage of Henry II again four years later in The Lion in Winter (1968), which marked his third Oscar nomination.

“For more than five decades, Peter O’Toole has been a commanding presence on film with his impeccable talent and artistry, all of which has only grown stronger over time,” Osborne said. “We couldn’t be more pleased that he will be with us in person in Hollywood when we celebrate his life and career at the 2011 TCM Classic Film Festival. His being with us promises to be one of the highlights of an amazing and star-studded event.”

O’Toole was born in County Galway, Ireland, and grew up in Leeds, England, the son of a bookmaker father and a Scottish-born nurse mother. After service in the Royal Navy, he became interested in theatre and acting and was accepted by the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

O’Toole was in repertory at the Bristol Old Vic for three years. Followed by work at the Royal Court with the other so-called ‘angries’ and then at Stratford playing Shakespeare where, at the age of 27, his ‘Shylock’ was hailed by press and public as the finest of his generation, perhaps even of the century. Prior to Stratford he had played in a film called The Day They Robbed the Bank of England (1960). This film was seen by David Lean who telephoned O’Toole in Stratford. They met in London. Lean offered O’Toole the part of T.E.L. in Lawrence of Arabia. In the first major screen role of O’Toole’s career, the golden-haired, blue-eyed actor made a powerful impact on audiences as the conflicted British liaison officer caught at the center of an Arab revolt. The film also marked O’Toole’s first Oscar nomination.

Over the next 10 years, he would garner a string of nominations for performances in Becket and The Lion in Winter (1968), as well as the musical version of Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969) and the wildly offbeat comedy The Ruling Class (1972).

O’Toole garnered his sixth Oscar nomination as a tyrannical director in The Stunt Man (1980). Two years later, he received a seventh nomination for his funny-yet-touching performance in the nostalgic My Favorite Year (1982), in which he plays a former screen idol brought out of the woodwork to guest-star on a live television comedy show in the 1950s. Since then, he has co-starred in a wide range of films, including Bernardo Bertolucci’s Oscar-winning film The Last Emperor (1987), the comedy hit King Ralph (1991) and the epic blockbuster Troy (2004).

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences bestowed its Lifetime Achievement Award on O’Toole in 2003. Four years later, he was back at the Oscars with his eighth Best Actor nomination for the May-December romance Venus (2006). He continues to be extremely active, with such recent credits as Ratatouille (2007), Stardust (2007), Dean Spanley (2008), Christmas Cottage (2008) and the popular television series The Tudors.

Throughout his film career O’Toole has continued his theatre work, averaging a play every two years. He retired from the stage in 1999.

http://realitymouse.com/otoole/pictures/otoolepics2010/

Enjoy! Remember if you find anything interesting about O'Toole, be it a link to a review, a photo, shots of him on set or performing, personal reminiscences, etc... Please feel free to send them in to me here at

bigdaddyhame@gmail.com

or post them to the Unofficial Peter O'Toole Pages Facebook Page:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Unofficial-Peter-OToole-Pages/143210999044144

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Unofficial-Peter-OToole-Pages/

Cheers,
Hamish

Here's a link to the Facebook Group for Cristiada as well.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cristiada/313576978430#!/pages/Cristiada/313576978430?v=info

While his schedule hasn't been exactly *busy* for the past few years, he continues to contribute great roles to 1-2 films a year, as well as television appearances. In the next year Peter is slated to appear in the following:

Eldorado (Narrator) - completed
Cristiada - filming
Katherine of Alexandria - filming
Mary Mother of Christ - in production
You can see more details about these films at imdb.com.

Veteran Irish actor Peter O’Toole (Venus, Goodbye Mr. Chips) and Geraldine Chaplin (Doctor Zhivago, Chaplin) will headline ‘Jennifer and the Swan Boat’, a new feature film from Palancar Company Ltd which will explore the unlikely friendship between a former ballet star and a gifted albeit mute orphan.

O’Toole will play a former ballet star who strikes up a friendship with an orphan before tutoring her to stardom. The film will be principally set in Paris’ Opera House where Geraldine Chaplin’s Marianne manages the ballet company. Casting is still underway to find the actress who will play the part of the young ballet dancing orphan.

The film is set to shoot in March 2011 for eight weeks in Paris’ Opera House, the city itself and the bordering areas. Three-time Academy Award winner Michel LeGrand (The Thomas Crown Affair) will score the film and Claude Bessy, former prima ballerina of the Paris Opera Ballet, will play herself and choreograph the dance sequences. The other cast members involved include Larrio Ekson (Aurore), Brigitte Maoti (Tony Zoreil), Daniel Downing and Jeanne Manson.

Michael Beyer (All in One Hand: The Pianist Paul Wittgenstein) will direct the film which is written by David Amory Lown (The Man Who Couldn’t Sleep) who also produces alongside Patricia Twohill Lown who tells IFTN that the funding for the film has come from Région Ile-de-France and private sources. The film’s director of photography and the film’s release date are TBC.

With regards Peter O’Toole’s role in the film producer Twohill Lown is full of praise for the Irish actor, telling us “when Peter read the script, he immediately fell in love with it. As you can imagine, Peter O'Toole does not need to audition - David did not have him in mind when he wrote it, but he is a perfect fit.”

Both David Amory Lown and Patricia Twohill Lown will be in attendance at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival to discuss ‘Jennifer and the Swan Boat’.

http://www.iftn.ie/actors/actorsnews/?act1=record&only=1&aid=73&rid=4283043&tpl=archnews&force=1

I'd like to thank the publishers, St. Martin's Press, once again for providing the books for the contest.

Happy New Year everyone!

Robert Sellers' book, "Hellraisers: The Life and Inebriated Times of Richard Burton, Richard Harris, Peter O'Toole, and Oliver Reed" has been released in North America, finally. I've got a copy on order, I hope to post a capsule review shortly. Stay tuned for a Hellraisers-related contest in the next couple of weeks as well!

Also, the tiscali site has a rather extended biography of O'Toole posted - check it out. http://www.tiscali.co.uk/entertainment/film/biography/artist/peter-o-toole/biography/185?page=1

"a story of disguise and forbidden love,
set against the building of the railroad"

Peter stars as the character Relic in a Canadian-produced miniseries, 'Iron Road', which debuts tomorrow night (Sunday August 9, 2009) on CBC television.

Relic is "an alcoholic recruiting agent who teaches English to the kid, Little Tiger, and tries to dissuade him from his dream of going across the ocean to build a railroad."

Readers of the site should feel welcome to extend their wishes to Peter via our guestbook.

Peter plays Simeon in Mary Mother of Christ, along with Jessica Lange, Al Pacino and Jonathan Rhys-Myers.

Not much in the casting details dept for God's Spy other than that Josh Lucas is in it, and the plot synopsis is "A Jesuit priest working undercover as a Wall Street trader becomes caught up in a political and financial conspiracy involving the Vatican Bank, the CIA, the Mafia, and Masonic Lodge P2" - sounds intriguing! More details as they come to light.