Peter Seamus O’Toole was born on the 2nd August 1932, in Connemara, Ireland and was a versatile actor, so in addition to working in the theatre, he appeared in more than 90 film and television roles from the middle of the 1950s, winning among others four Golden Globe Awards, an Emmy and was nominated for an Oscar eight times. He probably enjoyed his greatest success in the title role in the film “Lawrence of Arabia” (1962). O’Toole was active in the entertainment industry from 1954 to 2012 – he passed away in 2013.
How rich was the actor? It has been estimated by authoritative sources that the size of Peter O’Toole’s net worth was as much as $50 million, converted to the present day. Acting was the major source of O’Toole’s wealth.
Peter O’Toole Net Worth $50 Million
To begin with, Peter O’Toole was the son of bookmaker Patrick Joseph O’Toole and Constance Ferguson, a nurse. He grew up largely in Leeds, England under poor conditions. At the age of 11, O’Toole began his high school education at St. Anne’s convent, in which he was struggling to get rid of his left- handedness. Three years later, O’Toole left the school and found employment as a photographer and journalist for the Yorkshire Evening News, before he took his military service in the Royal Navy as a submariner. From the age of 17, O’Toole appeared as a lay actor on stage. After seeing a stage adaptation of “King Lear” with Michael Redgrave in the title role in Stratford-upon-Avon, he decided to pursue a professional acting career. In 1952 O’Toole received a scholarship from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, and subsequently had his first engagement at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre, in which he portrayed Hamlet. From Bristol he made his way to London and Stratford-upon-Avon, where he played, among others Petruchio in “The Taming of the Shrew” at the newly founded Royal Shakespeare Company.
On television, he debuted in “O’Toole” in the mid-1950s. However, to a worldwide audience, he was known for his numerous theatre performances. In 1962, he played the title role in David Lean’s “Lawrence of Arabia” (1962), for which he received his first Oscar nomination, a Golden Globe Award and the British Film Academy Award. It was the beginning of a successful career that brought him seven more Oscar nominations as the Best Actor: two for his portrayal of King Henry II in “Becket” in 1964 and in “The Lion in Winter” in 1968; for his role as a shy English teacher who falls in love with a showgirl ( “Goodbye, Mr. Chips” in 1969); for the part of the intellectual and deeply religious British aristocrat Jack Gurney ( “The Ruling Class” in 1972); for his portrayal of the ruthless film director Eli Cross ( “The Long Death of Stuntman Cameron” in 1981) and the formerly successful, alcoholic film actor Alan Swann, who enters new territory with his television work ( “A New Yorker” 1982). O’Toole received his final Oscars nomination in 2007 for the lead role in Roger Michell’s tragicomedy “Venus” in which he is torn out of his lethargy by a 19-year-old (played by Jodie Whittaker) as a minor successful London veteran actor. In 2002, he was awarded the Oscar for his lifelong contribution to the film industry. In July 2012, O’Toole announced his retirement from film and theatre.
Finally, in the personal life of the actor, he was married to the Welsh actress Siân Phillips from 1959 to 1979; they had two daughters Kate and Pat, both of whom are actresses. From a relationship with the American model Karen Brown, he has a son Lorcan O’Toole. Peter O’Toole died in London after a long illness with stomach cancer on the 14th December 2013, at the age of 81.
