Acclaimed British actor Peter O’Toole best remembered for portraying T.E. Lawrence in the 1962 classic 'Lawrence of Arabia' past away in London’s Wellington hospital on December 14, 2013.

As well as being a distinguished actor of stage, screen and television the other notable reputation he had was for being one of Hollywood’s biggest hellraisers. To say he liked to drink would be an understatement. He was once quoted as saying “Booze is the most outrageous of drugs which is why I chose it.” His drinking buddies would include such famous Brit actors as Richard Harris, Richard Burton, Robert Shaw and Peter Finch to name but a few. There was a story that O’Toole went out for a drink in Paris and woke up in Corsica.

Peter O’Toole was born in County Galway in Ireland but spent the best part of his life living in London a city which he loved. O’Toole trained at the famous Royal Academy of Performing Arts in London and gained his early acting experience on stage and made his movie debut in 1959. It wasn’t until he played his first leading man role in David Lean’s epic film 'Lawrence of Arabia' that the public and his piers really took notice of his performing abilities showing a talent to dominate the screen.

He was nominated in the Best Actor category for an Academy Award eight times, which made him the most-nominated actor ‘never’ to win the award. It wasn’t until 2003 that the Academy awarded him with an Honorary Award for his lifetime achievement to the film industry.

Renowned film critic Barry Norman called O’Toole “A true movie star!” with “Tremendous charisma.”

Some of the highs of his movie acting career were ‘Becket’(64), ‘Man of La Mancha’(65), ‘The Lion in Winter’ (68), ‘Goodbye, Mr. Chips’(69) and ‘The Stunt Man’(80). He also showed a knack for comedy in film such as Woody Allen’s ‘What’s New Pussycat’(65) which also starred Peter Sellers and had the title track made famous by Tom Jones. O’Toole was nominated for his comedy role as an aging swashbuckling hellraising actor loosely based on Errol Flynn ‘My Favourite Year’(82). More recently you would have seen him appear in ‘Troy’(2004) alongside Brad Pitt, ‘Ratatouille’(2007), as food critic Anton Ego and ‘Stardust’(2007) as the King.

His television appearances included the acclaimed ‘Rogue Male’(77) about an assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler, ‘The Tudors’(2008) and ‘Casonova’(2005) playing the older Casanova to David Tennant’s younger lothario.

So, another iconic old fashioned movie star bites the dust. Peter O’Toole was a real larger than life character the likes of which we will never see again. A fond farewell.