I think this may be his greatest scene. I loved him in Lawrence of Arabia, The Stunt Man, My Favorite Year. This one, from his last film Venus, moved me. He is reciting Shakespear’s sonnet “Shalll I compare thee to a summer’s day…” I knew it but not every word, and I had to look it up, and remember every word of the sonnet, when I watched the scene again.
“So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.”
Just found this
One nitpick, in this interveiw, O'Toole gives great credit to Churchill. "We shall fight on the beaches...." It is very common to lionize Churchill. There have been a couple of recent movies. He was execrable human being, a white nationalist to his dying day defended the British domination of India. Without Churchills speaches rallying the British people, WWII been lost? I don't think so.But Peter O’Toole was a very young man then. And inspired. And maybe I am wrong, maybe without Churchilll’s speeches, Britian would have fallen.
Opinons?
ETA. Forget about my last post. That is for another discussion, Can we just talk about the movies? Moderator can you delete?
My favorite line of his was from My Favorite Year. As I recall, he was urinating in a women’s bathroom - possibly in the sink. An offended woman says something like, “This is for ladies only.” He looks down at his dick in his hands and says, “So is this, but every once in a while I like to run a little water through it.” 
Came in here to quote just that.
“I’m not an actor - I’m a MOVIE STAR!!”
I LOVE LOVE LOVE My Favorite Year!
One of my husband’s favorite movies is Becket, with O’Toole as Henry II - I like it even better than The Lion in Winter. And even the rather silly *Creator *shines because of him.
Yeah, I’m a fan.
As had I. 
Here’s the scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7z-M92N4L8
The woman in the scene was played by Selma Diamond, who later played Selma the bailiff on Night Court.
And, since FairyChatMom mentioned it – The Lion in Winter is one of my favorite movies of all time, and he’s awesome in it.
A great actor who could do both comedy and drama.
I found he was great in The Ruling Class and The Stunt Man
“If God could do the tricks we can do, he’d be a happy man.”
I loved The Ruling Class. The Creator was good too.
That whole scene is worth quoting:
“Usually it takes me two or three takes to warm up, but tonight I think we’ll get it on the first take.”
[His handler] “We always get it on the first take. This is live television.”
“Live? Live? What does “live” mean?”
[Handler] “It means when you’re leaping and cavorting on that stage, twenty million people are seeing it at home.”
[as the blood drains completely out of his face] “Wait a minute! Wait! A! Minute! You mean it all goes into the camera lens and then just spills out into people’s houses?? Why didn’t anybody explain this to me before?!”
[Handler] “Don’t worry! Our audiences are always terrific.”
“Audience? What audience? Nobody said anything about an audience?”
[Handler] “What did you think all those seats were for??”
“I haven’t played in front of an audience in twenty-eight years! I played a butler. i HAD ONE LINE!! I forgot it!”
And, you know the rest…
The best line in The Lion in Winter:
“My, God, I love being King!”
“How tall is King Kong?”
“That door is the looking glass, and inside it is wonderland. Have faith Alice, and enjoy.”
Someone asks why he’s ordered the royal household to immediately decamp to Rome, and he declares, “That’s where they keep the Pope, isn’t it?”
Why start a new thread; couldn’t you have posted this in the existing Peter O’Toole thread?
You call that a thread? It’s barely a couplet.
I, too, loved him in Creator.
He once said that he wanted to be remembered for two roles – Lawrence of Arabia and the Roman Commander Silva in the TV series Masada. He might have been exaggerating for the publicity, but he did do a really good job in that one.
I also loved him as Reginald Johnston in Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor.
IN My Favorite Year when the older gentlemen approaches O’Toole’s character and explains that his wife is a huge fan and could Swann say hello, and Swann/O’Toole asks her to dance and my god, what a panty dropper, the way O’Toole looks directly into her eyes as he dances with her with that famous wry smile. While his handler is planning a “distraction.”
I loved him in King Ralph as well, not to mention the TV movie Svengali.
He does have one of the best porn names in the business.
He’s magnificent in everything. Even Lassie.
Peter O’Toole was almost always great, even in otherwise crap movies.
He was great in Creator, a basically crappy movie if not for him. He was great in High Spirits a completely terrible movie except for his parts.
In Lion in the Winter he was magnificent, he stood his own in Ham to Ham combat with Katherine Hepburn. And in How to Steal a Million he did a high concept Rom Com with Audrey Hepburn and they were both brilliant of course.
Another crappy script saved by great actors, King Ralph is a stupid movie, thanks to Peter, John Goodman and John Hurt is works and is funny. But those are 3 awesome actors.
Do you know where he wasn’t good? I’ll tell ya … He wasn’t good in Man of La Mancha