Cinema: LIFE SENTENCE - PETER O'TOOLE.

Celebrating his 70th birthday today, Peter O'Toole has starred in over 35 films during a 53-year career, though he wasn't born into a theatrical family since his father, a bookie, led a more humble life at home in Connemara, Ireland, but shortly after his birth the family moved to Leeds where at school he was beaten by nuns to correct his left-handedness, but he sought release in acting and made his stage debut at the age of 17 despite an interruption of two years' service in the Royal Navy, and when he was demobbed he attended the Royal Academy Of Dramatic Arts where fellow pupils included Alan Bates and Richard Harris, after which he earned his first film role in 1960 but his status as an international superstar came when he was chosen to star in Lawrence Of Arabia (1962, below), and despite seven Oscar nominations he has never won the coveted award, however, O'Toole - who has two children from his marriage to Sian Phillips and a son by Karen Brown - hit a bad patch in his career in the 1970s when his heavy drinking threatened his health but after treatment he returned to star in the films The Stunt Man (1980) and My Favourite Year (1982) plus the hit West End play Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell (1989).