Monday, December 16, 2013

Peter O'Toole (1932-2013)

Peter O'Toole was nominated for Best Actor more times than anyone without winning. Here are the films he was nominated for and the actor he lost to:

Lawrence of Arabia (1962) — Gregory Peck (To Kill A Mockingbird)

Becket (1964) — Rex Harrison (My Fair Lady)

The Lion in Winter (1968) — Cliff Robertson (Charly)

Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969) — John Wayne (True Grit)

The Ruling Class (1972) — Marlon Brando (The Godfather)

The Stunt Man (1980) — Robert De Niro (Raging Bull)

My Favorite Year (1982) — Ben Kingsley (Gandhi)

Venus (2006) — Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland)

Even though I personally think Lawrence of Arabia is O'Toole's best performance, I'd bet 1968 is the one the Academy wishes it could do over. In fact, once a year, the Academy should be allowed one do-over. Let's start with Peter O'Toole.

2 comments:

Polo tshirts said...

I hope you have a nice day! Very good article, well written and very thought out.

Erik Beck said...

I agree with you on both fronts - his performance for Lawrence is one of the single greatest performances in film history, up there with Welles in Citizen Kane and Nicholson in Chinatown.

But losing to Cliff Robertson in Charly might be the single most ridiculous moment in Academy history - the time when there was the most descrepency between the winner and one of the losing nominees.