Peter O'Toole, 1932-2013

What can you say about an actor like Peter O'Toole?  It's ridiculous the man was nominated 8 times for an Oscar but never won it- ridiculous.  But he was unique, an original presence on screen in an age that seems to breed would be movie stars by the bucket load, he was probably one of the last, true icons of Hollywood that stood out.  It didn't have to be a good movie or even a great movie- any movie that had Peter O'Toole in it was elevated just by his presence.

I think it was his eyes.  Such an unusual shade of blue, that piercing stare seemed to jump straight off the screen and come right at you.  Or maybe it was his range:  from the evolution of the quiet, reserved Lawrence to the warrior leading the final assault on the Turks at Damascus in Lawrence of Arabia or the thunderous bellows as King Henry II in The Lion In Winter, he could be everywhere and nowhere at once, emotionally speaking.  It's astonishing to watch.

Lawrence of Arabia was probably the first movie I ever saw him in and it remains (along with Gandhi) one of the only three hour long movies I'll watch again on a regular basis and it was amazing.   The sheer epic scale of it- all without one bit of CGI.   I sort of want to go home and watch it tonight, actually...   but despite discoveries like this one and the fact that he was King Priam in the limp, tepid destruction of one of the greatest pieces of writing in human history in Troy, where he burned brightest, for me personally was in The Lion In Winter.

Maybe it was the fact that Katherine Hepburn was a perfect foil for him.  Maybe it was the fact that it was loaded with star power- Anthony Hopkins, a young Timothy Dalton- everyone could act in this movie. But I'd like to think it was the writing...  I would love to see a stage production of it.  It's so simple: a dysfunctional family stuck in a castle for Christmas and yet the words, the viciousness of the machinations and political games...  it's the power of the writing that carries the movie.  (I stumbled on a nice long form piece from Gay Talese way back in 1963 profiling O'Toole.  It's well worth a read.)

Peter O'Toole was one of the best.  There was no one like him before him and will be no one like him after he's gone, on either stage or screen.  He will be missed...