A good way to get to know Peter
O'Toole, star of "Lawrence of
Arabia" and strong contender to
win an Oscar Monday night for
Best Actor of the Year, is to spend
a relaxed evening with him. I did
this in London a short while back.
I met O'Toole backstage after one of the
most strenuous stage performances I have
ever witnessed. In "Baal," a mediocre play
that has become a huge success because of
Peter's personal magnetism, he is on stage
every minute the curtain is up.
Peter went into the play because "it
solved in advance the question of what was
ifoing to happen after the premiere of
Lawrence.' If it was a terrible failure, I'd
be too busy to be depressed. If it was a suc
cess, the outside influences that can turn a
bloke's head wouldn't apply to me because
I'd be gainfully employed." He reconsidered
his thoughts for a moment. "A lot of people
keep talking about being ruined by success.
Let's face it : more have been butchered by
failure. I felt I'd be protected either way."
Yet this deliberate, look-ahead planning
is not typical of Peter; he has the reputa
tion of being one of the most devil-may-care
itizens of London! Staying out all night
iind sleeping all day seems to have become
his permanent routine.
I got to know him during a tour d la
O'Toole of some of London's brightest night
spots. In telling me about his early, forma
tive years, he said: "As far back as I re
member, my family told me that my life
was my own to do with as I pleased. And
they meant it, although my father assured
me that if I ever needed help, he would give:
it to me whether he could afford it or not
and most of the time he couldn't."
At times Peter slept in a park. Another
time he and a friend got a flat - then
sneaked 18 other fellows In to help pay the
rent. When the landlord realized the inva
sion, he threw them all out. which was
strictly routine for Peter. "During one year
1 had 22 different addresses-one of which
was a houseboat that slowly sank during a
wild party. But I've made up for it today
with a 14-room house in Hampstead."
According to his official biography.
. Peter was born in Connemara. Ireland,
Au, 2, 1933, moved to Dublin when he was
one wear old, then to Gainsborough, Leeds,
and finally London. His father, so the biog
raphy says, ". . . traveled wherever his ac
counting business took him." Peter claims
his father was a bookie and was proud of
his trade.
From his father, Peter inherited a love
of gambling-and an Irish temper that has
earned him a broken nose, a split lip, count
less broken ribs, and several sessions in jail.
Plastic surgery has repaired his nose-in
fact, improved it.
Peter's formal education was limited to
four years. His parents didn't object when
he quit school at 13 to become a paperboy,
and then, in turn, a cement mixer, mail car
rier. Yo-yo demonstrator, ditch digger, and
reporter. He never held any job long, be
cause he wasn't interested in anything
until he won a scholarship to the Royal
Academy of Dramatic Arts. There he ap
plied himself vigorously, and he has kept
it up. Producer Sam Spiegel calls him "the
most disciplined actor I've ever met."
His "Hamlet" with the Bristol Old Vic
Company first won him the attention of the
London critics. After that, he scored in a
number of other plays, including "The Holi
day," in which an attractive young Welsh
actress, Sian Phillips, played his sister. She
is now his wife.
Peter admits Sian doesn't have an easy
time with him. "But when aroused, she is
quite capable of giving me the old ham-
Peter'. aetrcxx-icifc Sian tea a welcome
visitor on et of "Laurence nf Arabia."
mer throw out of the window and into the
trees," he adds. Just what arouses her, he
didn't say, but the fact that he often stays
out all night gambling while she is home
asleep, and sleeps all day while she is tak
ing care of the house and their three-year-old
daughter might give her some justifi
cation for an occasional hammer lock.
But in spite of Peter's frolicking about
town, he and his wife seem to have a gen
uine fondness for each other and have
worked out a relationship which appears to
have some substance-even though Peter re
fuses to work with her any longer. "It led
to nothing but fights."
He wax delighted when Sian visited him
on the Jordanian location of "l.awrence,"
and before he agreed to sign for the title
role in Columbia's forthcoming "Lord Jim."
he insisted the studio pay for his wife's
round-trip fare to the Bangkok location at
least once every six weeks.
Today, Peter O'Toole is considered the
hottest property on either side of the Atlan
tic, but he chooses his script carefully. A
grin formed on his handsome face when he
told me: "I don't want much money-just
enough to keep me in suffocating luxury
for the rest of my life."
Family WMkl, April 7, IMI
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