Peter O'Toole

Born: August 2 1932
Where: Connemara, County Galway, Eire

The veteran actor first attracted international attention when he was "introduced" as Lawrence of Arabia in David Lean's 1962 classic.

He had already appeared in three films - his debut Kidnapped, The Day They Robbed the Bank of England and The Savage Innocents.

Born in Ireland, the bookie's son was raised in Leeds and became a copy boy after deciding to become a journalist.

Although he succeeded in becoming a reporter, he discovered the theatre and made his stage debut at 17.

He served as a radioman in the Royal Navy for two years, then attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, where his classmates included Albert Finney, Alan Bates and Richard Harris.

At the time he tested for the role of Lawrence, the blond, blue-eyed O'Toole was playing three parts for The Shakespeare Memorial Theater Company at Stratford-on-Avon.

Prior to that, he had worked for years at The Bristol Old Vic Company in such roles as Jimmy Porter in John Osborne's Look Back in Anger and the title role in Hamlet.

After two years in the desert with Lean, living the life of Thomas E Lawrence, O'Toole leaped off the screen to overnight, international fame.

His performance, which netted him the first of seven Oscar nominations, remains one of the most raw, wired and charismatic portraits on film.

O'Toole's peculiar flair for portraying abstracted, visionary characters resulted in some superb performances in the 1960s and early 70s.

These included his appearance alongside Richard Burton in Becket and in the title role of Richard Brooks' adaptation of Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim.

He also received unanimous praise opposite Katharine Hepburn in The Lion in Winter.

O'Toole also excelled at personifying upper-class English eccentricity, bordering on neurosis in Brotherly Love.

His performance in The Ruling Class allowed him to show his English Music Hall "chops" to much greater advantage than had his singing schoolteacher in the musical remake of Goodbye, Mr Chips.

O'Toole's well-publicized bout with alcoholism sent his career on a downward spiral in the 70s, but he made a creditable comeback in The Stuntman.

He garnered his seventh Oscar nomination, drawing heavily on his alcoholic escapades, as the over-the-hill swashbuckling actor Alan Swann in the riotous comedy My Favorite Year.

He was also impressive in Bernardo Bertolucci's Academy Award-winning The Last Emperor.

He also become a writer during the 90s, publishing two books (The Child and The Apprentice) of his proposed three-volume memoirs, Loitering with Intent.

British audiences will remember his portrayal of drunkard Jeffrey Bernard in the Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell.

In 2003, he appeared in Stephen Fry's Bright Young Things and, the following year, in Wolfgang Petersen's Troy alongside Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom.

Recent work includes the part of a lecherousl old actor alongside Leslie Phillips in the drama Venus.