Peter O'Toole

Irish actor whose charismatic appeal appeared on-screen from 1959. A raconteur, he could toss off stories about boozy escapades and acting mishaps with as much style and charm as he used to sweep across the desert in the stunning 1962 classic film, "Lawrence of Arabia," (for which he received his first Oscar nomination). He was also nominated for his performances in "Becket," 1964, with co-star Richard Burton, "Lion In Winter, 1968 (his co-star Kathrine Hepburn received the Best Actress nod) and "Goodbye, Mr. Chips" in which he co-starred with Petula Clark.

His other films included: "The Stuntman," "How To Steal A Million," with Audrey Hepburn, and "My Favorite Year," a film which parodied his own life.

The son of an Irish bookie and a nurse, Peter grew up in a Dickensian back-street of a northern industrial town under the shadow of Nazi Germany. He flirted a bit with journalism, enough to give a credible and enjoyable later set of autobiographies. After three years at Leeds College of Commerce and two years in the Royal Navy, in 1953 he entered the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art where he learned a lifetime lover of fine theater. With his first film sweeping successes, he became a drinker and carouser of mythic proportions.

In 1959 he married Welsh actress Sian Phillips and they had two daughters. "I was very happily married," he said but apparently Sian was not. In 1977, she left him for a younger man.

Cheerful and unrepentant after years of boozing and brawling, he gave up liquor in 1970. He was worn but still magical in the '80s, when his girlfriend, Karen Sommerville, bore him a son, Lorcan, on 17 March 1983 in Dublin. A custody battle raged from then on.

Troubled with his stomach from the time he was a kid, O'Toole had great flare-ups of pain from the time he was 19. In his 40's, he hemorrhaged badly and nearly died before surgery removed "something in my innards that was not benign." In his later years he dealt with throat problems.