What Becomes of a Playboy Past His Prime?

Feb. 9, 2007 — -- Peter O'Toole is nominated for a best actor Academy Award for his 54th film.

In "Venus," O'Toole plays Maurice, an actor in decay, a natural leading man resigned to playing the occasional corpse.

In the film, Maurice finds a new reason for living in the form of a friend's grandniece, a young woman more than 50 years his junior.

Maurice finds the young girl working as a nude model for an art class, and eventually she warms up to him, without knowing who he once was. The audience is reminded by Vanessa Redgrave, playing Valerie, the wife he abandoned but still visits.

"Maurice! You're on the telly!" Valerie says. "Look how gorgeous you were."

The film's director doesn't show the audience what the characters see on the television, but any fan of Peter O'Toole can imagine a host of iconic images: O'Toole as a young Lawrence on the windswept dunes of Arabia, perhaps, or opposite Katharine Hepburn in "The Lion in Winter," two of the roles that also earned him Oscar nominations.

This year, the nomination for "Venus" brings the total to eight, but victory has eluded him -- after four decades, no statue. Even for a legend like O'Toole, the prospect of an elusive Oscar remains the holy grail.

O'Toole's nomination dry spell goes back to 1982, when he earned the nod for his role as Alan Swann in "My Favorite Year." In the 25 years since, good scripts have become harder to find.

"A few years back I was asked if I would go and meet a director and his various acolytes, and it occurred to me halfway through the meeting that what I was doing was auditioning," O'Toole said. "And I thought, 'Well, hang on buddy. I've done half a century of this.' And I just felt, 'Oh f--k you.' I beg your pardon."

His language was cleaner, but the sentiment was the same, when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences offered to present him with an honorary Oscar four years ago. Thanks anyway, he told the academy, but "I'm still in the game, and may win the lovely bugger outright."