In 2004, Peter O'Toole provided a terrific description of himself during a Daily News interview.
The then-72 year old acting legend unfolded his 6-foot-2 frame and draped an arm around my shoulder.
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Star Peter O'Toole cuddles with Audrey Hepburn in a scene from How to Steal A Million.
"OK, here's one more," he purred, then launched into a hilariously ribald anecdote about being a young actor at Bristol's Old Vic theater when a director advised him to "take the crucifixion out of my voice and put in more cockiness!"
Right there, you can see T.E. Lawrence, King Henry II and a past-his-prime swashbuckling movie star - and the actor who could embody them all.
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Peter O'Toole puts hands to concrete in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater on April 30, 2011 in Hollywood, Calif.
O'Toole never made any of his characters serious sufferers. His cinematic alter-egos were survivors - not always as regal as they proclaimed but not as bad as they could be. They were charmers, rogues and bellowers.
O'Toole outlived his contemporaries Richard Burton and Richard Harris, yet like those hard-drinking, hard-living artists, could tell a tale so deliciously you'd think you were there, too. By far his most charming Oscar-nominated turn was for "My Favorite Year" in 1982. O'Toole played a boozy, broken-down matinee idol who shows a young writer how to be a man. In the role, O'Toole effortlessly caught several eras of star power at once.
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