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The forever kinda man

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His devilishly handsome looks only added charisma to the chiselled visage. His azure eyes only made the penetrating gaze pierce right through you. And when all this came with that immaculate accent and flamboyant dialogue delivery, he did not have to be that gaunt 6’2’’ to tower over anyone else.

But that Peter O’Toole did, portraying the relatively diminutive TE Lawrence, the British archaeologist, soldier and adventurer who led Arab tribesmen against the Ottoman Turks during World War I, in Lawrence Of Arabia. The performance was ranked number one in Premiere magazine’s list of the 100 Greatest Performances of All Time. It had to.

For such was O’Toole’s screen presence. He, like his close friends Richard Burton and Richard Harris, could tower over everyone else in the cast and carry a film solely on his shoulders. Yet, this aura, as in the case of his two friends, extended to his off-screen life as well. His image was as vibrant in real life, and his drunken carousels were legion.

It is therefore ironic that in spite of being nominated for the Oscar as many as eight times, he failed to win it even once. This, of course, his includes his nomination for the acclaimed Lawrence Of Arabia. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences tried to make amends, albeit late, in 2003 when he was bestowed an Honorary Academy Award.

Initially, O’Toole, the son of an Irish bookmaker and a Scottish nurse, wanted to throw the honour back across the Atlantic. He even wrote a letter to the Academy insisting that he was “still in the game” and would like more time to “win the lovely bugger outright.” The Academy was equally adamant — they said that would honour him whether he liked it or not. Eventually, O’Toole yielded, reportedly at the admonition of his children.

Knowing O’Toole, if you did, this could have been expected of him. He had reportedly even turned the offer of a knighthood long back in 1987. The reasons were said to have been political. He had always been a political animal, and never minced words about what he thought. He had protested British involvement in the Korean War and had opposed the Vietnam War as well. And at the time of Bloody Sunday, he had sympathised with the Provisional IRA. He couldn’t care less about consequences.

It was this very hell-raising attitude that had even almost cost O’Toole his life in the early 1970s. His stomach almost gave up because of excessive drinking and his wife of almost 20 years left him for a younger man. O’Toole, nevertheless, let the show go on.

Broadcaster Michael Parkinson told Sky News television it was difficult to be too sad about O’Toole’s death. “Peter didn’t leave much of life unlived, did he?” And that is a given, from the family too. His daughter, Kate, said in a statement, “In due course there will be a memorial filled with song and good cheer, as he would have wished.”

That’s what it ought to be like — O’Toole can only be celebrated.

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