Yesterday marked the passing of a great man and one of and possibly the greatest actors of the modern era, the wonderful Peter O'Toole.
Born in 1932, his exact place of birth in uncertain. Mr. O'Toole possessed two birth certificates, one from England and one from Ireland, and was himself uncertain as to which was accurate.
His career began on stage and grew to include the motion picture screen, where he became on of the brightest stars of his age. A flamboyant artist both on and off screen, he was nominated for more Academy Awards I acting than anyone else before or since.
This was spite of a larger than life personal life that included legendary drinking binges and countless offscreen adventures often in the company of many of the other greatest actors of his time. These included Richard Burton, Richard Harris, Anthony Hopkins and more.
Stories of his excesses are beyond legendary. One of our favorite involves a production of Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Mr. O'Toole was about to open in the lead role in a stage production. For the scene following the murder of the King, the character of Macbeth was to enter the stage covered in blood from the deed. The director complained in rehearsals that the costume was not “bloody” enough. So Mr. O'Toole, applies more blood. The director was still unsatisfied. This happened several times. The following day, prior to the rehearsal, Mr. O'Toole is reputed to have had a tub backstage filled with pigs blood from a local butcher shop. He then immersed himself in the tub from head to foot before entering for the scene in question literally soaked with blood and trailing copious quantities behind him.
“Good Lord, man, you are drunk!”
To which, without missing a beat, Harris replied:
“If you think I'm bad, wait'll you see O'Toole!”
Geoff Beauchamp is the Regional Manager of Mobile Ed Productions where "Education Through Entertainment" has been the guiding principal since 1979. Mobile Ed Productions produces and markets quality educational school assembly programs in the fieldsof science, history, writing, astronomy, natural science, mathematics, character issues and a variety of other curriculum based areas. In addition, Mr. Beauchamp is a professional actor with 30 years of experience in film, television and on stage. He created and still performs occasionally in Mobile Ed's THE LIVING LINCOLN. He also spent ten years coordinating assembly programs for the elementary school where his own children went to school.