Actor: Peter OToole

Peter O’Toole was nominated for Best Actor eight times and never won, which is a record, and he initially declined the honorary award in 2003 on the grounds that he was still in the game.

Lawrence of Arabia is the debut and the problem. At twenty-nine he gave a performance of such scale that everything afterward was measured against it, and the film itself is enormous enough to swallow a career.

Becket, The Lion in Winter and The Ruling Class show the range, and My Favorite Year is the late comic performance that people who love him name first.

He was a serious drinker for decades in a generation of them, and his memoirs are among the better-written actor’s books.