For Your DL Entertainment - Let's Discuss Peter O'Toole

[quote] Someone posted Peter O"Toole was most hammy British actor.

Plenty O'Ham.

What's "N & A", precious? What's "N & A"?

Would, would, would.

I love him, I absolutely love him! He's capable of infinitely more than ham mode, he can also be quiet and delicate, or loopy and weird, but always totally charismatic. He really is a fantastic actor, one of those rare birds who can do anything - comedy or drama, historical or modern, war or peace, hero or villain, romantic or repellent, etc. A unique talent with tremendous range, and good looks that lasted until old age.

I've had a mild crush on him for most of my adult life, as you might guess, but not just a crush. I'm both hormonal, AND a huge fan!

[quote] He really is a fantastic actor

Not anymore.

Saw him in a play. Drunk and embarrassing. I felt bad for the rest of the cast. He was a mess.

In film Dr. Zhivago Alexander Maximovich Gromeko reading a newspaper exclaims in disgust "they've gone and killed the tsar!". His daughter asks why Soviets would do such a thing, and her father replies "to show there is no going back"... Truer words were never spoken.

Things were still touch and go even after Russia reached a treaty with Germany to end hostilities. Lenin and Soviets were not sure of their success in holding onto Russia, and indeed the White Army did have some significant gains.

If things went the other way and monarchy was restored things would end very badly for Lenin and everyone else. On another front Russia would return to a system of government Lenin was morally opposed.

So as with the Bourbons and few other royals, you simply cut things off at the head so to speak. Eliminate a monarch, his heir and anyone else you can lay hands upon that has slightest claim to throne.

This is exactly what Lenin and his nasty band of Soviets did; almost without exception they butchered and murdered any Romanov in Russia they could lay hands upon. This included the women like Alexandra, her daughters, etc... Women had ruled Russia at least once before, so Lenin wasn't taking any chances....

R7 posted in error, please disregard.

Carry on!

Only reason sat though that awful film "High Spirits" was to gaze upon Steve Guttenberg in hopes of seeing him yet again shirtless. Could have done with more of that and less of by then aged Peter O'Toole and his "British teef...."

Yeah Baby!

I adored him in Goodbye, Mr. Chips

When we’re done let’s talk about Dick Bigness.

Lenin and Soviets generally feared White Army would be assisted by Germany, France, Great Britain and anyone else invading Russia to put down revolution, and restore monarchy. Germany and Great Britain at least had monarchs who were related to the Romanovs on both sides.

United States did have a military presence in Russia from 1918 to 1920.

Great read by his ex.

Again wrong thread.

Disregard R13 and carry on.

[quote] Great read by his ex.

Livia and TIberius were married to each other in the alternative universe of film.

By the way, don't touch the figs....

GD Steve Guttenberg was hot as fuck when young.

Never under estimate those dark shaggy Jew guys.

An ordinary couple...

My Favorite Year, Masada, How To Steal A million Dollars. At one time he was my favourite actor. He was funny, riveting and memorable. Who cares if he bordered on ham when you are that charismatic.

R2 Nicholas and Alexandra.

[quote] … he can also be quiet and delicate…

When and where?

I can imagine being quiet after he's fallen down drunk.

Peter O'Toole actually was quite good in "The Last Emperor"

His hammy acting style was put in a very tight lead, as such performance was brilliant.

R15 That's an attractive picture— especially compared to the long nose he had previously.

The Britmovie website says her first nose job was 1952.

[quote] She suffered facial, nose, and jaw injuries after the car she was in was hit from behind. Being before the seat belt era, she was propelled through the windscreen, hitting the rear-view mirror on the way.

[quote] After some initial patch-up work, she was operated on by Sir Archibald McIndoe, one of the pioneers of Reconstructive Maxillofacial Surgery. (He pioneered the use of flap construction to rebuild the facial features and hands of Airmen who had been burned during the air battles of World War II.)

No, R24. The attractive picture was at R19!

fucker kept at it till the end

[quote] fucker kept at it till the end

What? Kept at what?

Your sentence has no verb.

He was great in the lion in winter.

So was the rest of the cast.

Bad nose job.

Amusing and sauced on the Tonight Show with Johnny.

Gorgeous man!

He almost drank himself to death.

He seems like a relic from a lost world; gets cast in a big budget film for his star power & reputation only to show up falling down drunk and make a hammy mess of things or deliver a brilliant stand up performance that put everyone else to shame. A guy like him could not exist in Hollywood today

R32

Not with those teeth anyway....

The meta element of a drunken movie star made [italic]My Favorite Year[/italic] more fun.

Told this story here before. Being a life long movie fan, I have never written a fan letter in my life but one day out of the blue I wrote to the The Academy of Arts and Sciences aka The Oscars Academy. I wrote they need to award O'Toole the honorary, they can't let him leave the world without an Oscar like they did with Richard Burton. So six months later they announce him as thats year's honoree. Cool I thought, but he promptly turned down the award. Now I don't think my letter was the reason but I thought it was hilarious I stuck my nose in and he says no. His children finally convinced him to go.

Peter O'Toole receiving an Honorary Oscar

Mom & Dad

The Stunt Man is incredible. The cinematography is insane. The complexity of what's going on in this shot is totally lost on viewers used to digital photography and tiny cameras.

PS Barbara Hershey's accent here is awful. I think the actress she is playing isn't supposed to be a great actress

Hershey's acting improved a lot after this: by the mid to late 80s she was giving some really memorable performance.

@R35

[quote] I wrote they need to award O'Toole the honorary, they can't let him leave the world without an Oscar like they did with Richard Burton.

So you realised back then that O'Toole was drinking himself to death.

His body fell apart over one decade.

His body desiccated.

It was wasting-away disease.

As much as I loved Gregory Peck (and, in retrospect, would have given him the Oscar for either Twelve O'Clock High or The Keys of the Kingdom), I think O'Toole was much more deserving for Lawrence of Arabia--he managed to make an enigmatic figure both charismatic and still mysterious and suggested layers of complexity.

And he was gorgeous in it--especially in the white robe.

And he was certainly more deserving than either John Wayne or Cliff Robertson the years they won--while no one can replace Donat as my Mr. Chips, O'Toole brought a different take to the role and, along with Clark, made the romance lovely. He seemed more urbane than Donat's sweet classicist, but that was a function of Rattigan's script and the decision to make Clark a music hall performer (with a hysterical performance by Mrs. O'Toole). I think the script for The Lion in Winter feels too self-consciously aiming to be Noel Coward goes medieval, but O'Toole made a great Henry. In fact, his Henry in Becket was more interesting than Harrison redoing Henry Higgins as a waxwork and even the farcical style of My Favorite Year (with melancholy tones around his neglected daughter) is more interesting than Kingsley as Gandhi (one of the most tedious Best Picture and Best Actor winners--Kingsley is a good actor, but this was not his most interesting role). I've never seen The Stunt Man--I hear he's wonderful and the film is supposed to be good as well.

O'Toole was fine with everyone, except perhaps if one were married to him. He remained or strove to remain detached, and as his more-active alcoholism receded into the mists of half-misremembered time, he got funnier, sharper and wiser. And certainly his Lawrence is one of the finest film performances ever.

Most hammy? Lord. Olivier, yes. But add all actors whose capacity far exceed their material and context, or who are trying to work under the wrong influence.

But one thing I didn't see with O'Toole was an inability to accept other talent, which differs from some of the "best." He wasn't jealous. But he'd certainly let his imperious impishness out when the occasion seemed warranted.

Compared to Richard Harris, Richard Burton, Oliver Reed and Robert Newton, O'Toole managed to have a late career (with a nod to Harris managing a dithered wizard he died playing) and a pulse longer than most.

r42 dear god he was only 70 there. I think 10 years ago i thought of that as very old when I saw O'Toole. It was just the alcohol.

His mind was not addled though. Quite impressive.

[quote] His mind was not addled though

What makes you say that? Did you see him tabulate his bar tab? Did you see him stuff up everything for the last 40 years of his life?

The fuck? Listen to his interviews. Your mama was a drunk I suspect.

Look at the bags under his eyes.

He was haggard just 3 years after his big breakthrough film,

He drank like a sewer-rat until he was comatose.

He died in his 80's so he lived longer than most.

I just wonder if George Cukor could have kept O'Toole's drinking under control to make a satisfactory Henry Higgins in 1964?

A 32 year old Higgins would have made him 3 years younger than Audrey.

But it might have made a more lively show with a younger Colonel Pickering and a younger Mrs Higgins.

[quote] He died in his 80's

But he looked like a corpse for the last 38 years.

He was great in "The Stunt Man." You need to pay close attention because it's a tricky film.

O'Toole was laugh out loud funny through out "My Favorite Year". He lost the Golden Globe to Dustin Hoffman in "Tootsie" and the Oscar to Ben Kingsley in "Gandhi"

Yes, he could play things big and hammy and play larger-than-life characters like Alan Swann, make going over the top seem completely believable. But there are some here who unfairly dismiss him as just a ham, because he had so much charisma and screen presence that if he held still and whispered he'd still have so much impact that some here would dismiss it as hamminess.

But yeah, when he chose to ham it up, he went BIG! Is "My Favorite Year" on youtube?

[quote] he can also be quiet and delicate…

[quote] if he held still and whispered

R55, are you also R4?

Which films are you talking in which suppressed his normal hamminess and was 'quiet, delicate, still and whispery'?

He was so bloody charming in everything. How did he do it? What a rare gift.

Because of this thread I watched "The Ruling Class" for free on youtube, and bought a virtual copy of "My Favorite Year". Wonderful movies, and holy christ O'Toole is turning it up to 11 in both!

But he totally works in both roles. Some movie needs a star who plays it big.

He was hawt before the abominable nose job.

Has that been mentioned?

R59 The abominable nose job was mentioned at R24, R29.

I think he was more like a theatre actor than a movie actor. That's where the hammieness comes from.

R61

Could be.....

Many actors, especially from Peter O'Toole's generation that came from theatre had problems toning things down for the intimacy of films. Used to grand acting that could be seen and felt in the far reaches of back rows in nosebleed sections, they need to learn working in a smaller box.

Happily this is where a good director comes in to play.

R30 Thank you! He was so fun to look at. Great bone structure, great hair, playful, etc.

Think how they would have "packaged" him in this day and age. His teeth would have been even and chiclets white.

Peter O"Toole was Irish, not English.

This scene never fails to make me laugh....

If I didn't know better, I'd say Peter was on the DL team! Love him!

My guess is that he's just an artsy effete straight Brit, but what do I know, I never got a chance to hit on him and see what happened.

R67 Are you suggesting that "the DL team! are hopeless drunks who abuse their wives?

R68 Are you pretending to be Tallulah Bankhead?

He seems positively gurlie in that Tonight Show clip.

[quote] positively gurlie

'In Vino Veritas'

He was supposedly raped playing TE Lawrence in 'Lawrence Of Arabia' in 1962

He was supposedly raped playing the three angels in "The Bible" In 1966.

And I've been told he was raped in the lead role in 'Lord Jim' in 1965. But this film is so messy that I have trouble trying to watch it.

R67 here. Nope. I meant you DLr's all have a certain, something, where people like Peter O'Toole and Paul Lynde would fit right in. It isn't a word, maybe a series of phrases, not sure, but I like it.

Too bad O'Toole was a wife-beater.

Mon Dieu. He was raped all over the place.

"He was supposedly raped playing TE Lawrence in 'Lawrence Of Arabia' in 1962

"He was raped playing the three angels in "The Bible" In 1966.

"And I've been told he was raped in the lead role in 'Lord Jim' in 1965. "

Tell me more! Because I've seen "LaA" about ten bazillion times, but can someone fill me in on the scene in "The Bible" and "Lord Jim"? Because I'm not about to watch either.

[quote] but can someone fill me in on the scene in "The Bible"

O'Toole walks into the tent in the twin towns of Sodom and Gomorrah.

He looks as normal as Peter OToole can look normal (see picture below).

But he emerges five minutes later and his eyes are popping. He was transfixed!

Was he a gay?

I'm not an actor I'm a movie star!

[quote] I'm a movie star!

You're an effete drunk!