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Updated 7.59pm
PETER O’TOOLE, ONE of the most gifted actors of his generation, has died in a London hospital at the age of 81.
The actor found fame as the lead role in Lawrence of Arabia in 1962 and was critically acclaimed during his career spanning five decades on stage and screen.
His agent said tonight that he had died on Saturday at the Wellington hospital in London following a long illness.
President Michael D Higgins has paid tribute to his friend and said the world has lost “one of the giants of film and theatre”.
O’Toole was nominated for eight Academy Awards during his career but never won, making him the ignominious record holder for the most nods without a win. He did however receive an honorary Academy Award in 2003.
His most recent nomination was for the 2006 British film Venus, also gaining nominations for Goodbye Mr Chips (1969), The Lion in Winter (1968) and Lawrence of Arabia (1962).
He worked up until last year when he announced he was retiring from acting as he no longer had the heart for it, saying: “I bid the profession a dry-eyed and profoundly grateful farewell”.
O’Toole was at times claimed as an Irish actor but uncertainty exists over his actual place of birth. In his autobiography, he notes he was either born in Connemara or else in Leeds.
President Higgins said he had known O’Toole since 1969 and had spent time with him in Galway a decade later.
“Sabina and I and our children will miss him, as will all those who saw him on screen or stage or had the privilege, as I had, of enjoying his friendship and humour,” he said.
“He was unsurpassed for the grace he brought to every performance on and off the stage”.
(Video: MoviesHistory/YouTube)
Originally published 6.20pm
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Not this time but I did on the previous 18 coronavirus’…
@HearMeNow33: Ahh 15, that was a good one. I remember stealing through the bushes past the cops with a gimp mask for my husband and a bouncy castle for the little one….fun times!!
@Green Lentils: now there is a mental image…
After reading the article I think the poll should have been, did you judge anyone for breaking the lockdown rules?
@Logan Shepherd: ah yes…all those..”while i was in the park today..there were SO many people in the park..its a disgrace” comments
@Trish O’Leary-Dunne: Thems the ones :-)
@Trish O’Leary-Dunne: Reminds me of the audience on Gay Byrne’s The late late show who would complain about Ireland becoming sexually depraved.
@Yolita Ferue: what park are you going to
Drove from kilkenny to cavan to get the ride
@Minamino: definitely wouldn’t be the other way around unless it was free petrol
@Minamino: was it good?!!
@John Jones: lol
@Minamino: That’s nothing compared to what Meehole is doing to become the most hated Merry go Round Taoiseach Ireland ever had
@Minamino: did you get a ride back?
@Caoimhín O’Cheallacháin: thinking of making the trip yourself Caoimhín?
@Lisa Rowe: haha no I’m good Lisa thanks…. Smells too much like effort!!!
@Minamino:
Did you Social Distance and sanitise during the ride ?
What’s a non essential item to you may be essential to me. How do you decide. Who decides?
@Green Lentils: I queued up for nearly an hour to get into The Range and when you got in 80% of the shop was tapped off. Half an aisle would have stickers on the products saying “This is not for sale, as it’s an non essential item” Board games, jigsaws and the like were not for sale which I thought was ridiculous. I could see someone snapping like Michael Douglas in Falling Down Before all this is over
@David Garland: I was in Tesco and they had the make up section closed but you could still buy false nails?!
@Trish O’Leary-Dunne: Tesco had the stationery aisle and the books blocked off last time I was in.
I mean surely books would be an essential item for anybody stuck at home.
@Trish O’Leary-Dunne: Yes, but even the worst DIY enthusiast knows they are no good.
@Green Lentils: chuck norris decides
@Kendra Jackson: I thought the reason for this was to stop people picking up/touching everything..
@David Garland: I hear you , was fuming
@David Garland: in New York if you sell food, then you can sell everything that you normally sell along with it. It’s been convenient but then it’s caused some people to just go to these places for a browse.
I sure did. I took my son for a short drive to calm him down. After 10 weeks of being cooped up at home it was essential. I have done 1 or 2 more since and I was dying for the guards to stop me. I’d roll down the window and the screams out. Or I’d open the door and let my son out and drive off :D Some people might understand what I mean, more might if i say, he’s not a toddler. He’s 20.
@Marie Broomfield: 10 weeks? Fair play to you.. was there a prize? Lol
@Ian Breathnach: yep 10. we self isolated before the lockdown too. Priize? Olanzapine.
I went to a store outside the 5km from my home for an essential item which the store deemed not essential. I then travelled further from my home where I got the essential item no problem.
I won’t be returning to the first store again.
@Vladimir Macro: you do understand that would not be breaking the rules. Why do people confuse the distance for exercise up so much?
@Vladimir Macro: A store that was open wouldn’t sell you something because they deemed it non-essential ? What kind of muppet is running that store ?
@Tommy Roche: Just reading other comments and it seems it was common. Haven’t seen it myself. 2 hardware stores where I live. 1 never closed, other opened about a month ago. No restrictions on what could be bought.
Imagine if we were all back living in the 1950s where Magdalene laundries existed and pregnant, unmarried women were pretty much shunned and ostracised from Irish society and the headline was targeted towards them with the words “Have you broken any chastity vows?”
@Yolita Ferue: The same mind set prevails, that of judging others, you would imagine we had learnt something from our dark past but evidently not, we carry on.
@Honeybee: I know I’ll probably get slammed for writing this but it just goes to show you what judgmental pr**** Irish people can be.
Is there any cat tax refund since Cars are idle during lockdown.
@Divad Nayr: Yes. If you take your car off the road, and notify the motor tax department, you won’t have to pay tax on it. Same as always.
@Derek Walsh: agreed Derek but I can see what he means in if it was already taxed you cant be reimbursed retrospectively. But sure look. It is what it is. Global pandemics dont happen that often. We cant moan about everything ha. Not that the original poster was moaning.
@Divad Nayr: no, hubby works in MTO, you can take your car off the road but think it has to be for 3 months and there’s a form or something, I don’t really be listening, but the answer to your question is no!
@Divad Nayr: I didn’t know cats were taxed?
@Thomas O’ Donnell: vat on pussy
@Divad Nayr: i took mine off the road as tax was up end of April,filled out an online form. The minimum time is for three months, rang and asked before hand to find out if that’s the minimum time and was told yes but you can re tax it at any time you want.
Let’s try another one: how many countries did not have a lockdown and are in the same (or better) shape as Ireland today?
@Stan Papusa: none I would say.
@mr magoo: Incorrect
@Stan Papusa: None. Those showing exceptionally low rates of infection have an exceptionally low rate of testing, like some in the Third World. Or in situations where the country’s government gives wrong or no information on infection / testing numbers.
@Stan Papusa: Or how about countries that did a more severe lock-down to us and fared much better – e.g. New Zealand that closed everything including airports – 21 total deaths – that’s total not per day!
@Anthony Clark: A very strict, but short and early lockdown is not what Ireland is enduring at the moment.
You gotta break the rules yourself to see others break them……
@Coco86: Not necessarily true. You could be exercising alone respecting social distancing within your 5km zone and see a group of people gathering outside of their zone showing no regard to guidelines.
Then there are the Gemma O’Doherty mob who showed no respect to the guidelines.
Large garden centres could have stayed open once strict social distancing kept and gloves supplied. Gardening, even just to grow seeds in window boxes, along with the good weather, was one of the very few pleasures left.
I always assumed that they were advisories not rules
Went 4 km instead of 2km for a cycle .
@Gabriel Holmes: Say 3 our fathers, 3 hail mary’s and a glory be to the father, clean the candle wax that dripped from the penny candles on your way out,…. oh, and I’m still telling your mother Gabriel Homes, a bicycle ….a bicycle…..
@Gabriel Holmes: So that would be 8 kms ?
Marie, these are really difficult and stressful times we are living in, you have to do what is right for your boy and I would do the same, this lock down is causing a huge and hidden toll on our mental health, keep well and reassure your son, so many families are suffering silently . We have all broken rules, sometimes it is not a choice.
@Honeybee: Thanks for understanding. My husband say’s it’s not breaking the rules because we are doing it as part of our caring for someone role. but that Dr would say that we just “more readily find excuses for our own bad behaviour than we do for others”.
Mortality rate amongst under 50s is less then 1% – this lockdown is a joke
@John Hoare: continue in your research Dr. Hoare and I think you may find that this virus is a pretty scary thing. If you’re still skeptical at this point I would say you simply struggle to understand most things, if you’re just being obstinate however at that point i’d call you selfish and borderline sociopathic. It’s never to late to re – educate ourselves
@Wayne Connor: “scary” the fastest way to dumb down a population is to scare them”
@John Hoare: you can’t be helped. I wish you and your family well
During Covid 12, 15 and 17 I did……got better during 18 and am really sticking to rules during Covid 19.
@Michael Patrick Newell: I’m betting that comment is a joke. At least I hope it is.
I met a friend for a socially distant walk..was very down in the dumps and isolating alone, needed a chat with someone that wasn’t over zoom, we were 2m away from each other and it did me the world of good! Dont regret it and dont see how it increased anyones risk..I can be 2 metres away from a stranger in a park but not a friend?
Broke one going to buy bottle of Dettol
@pat seery: Did you feel saucy
I once went to the local small shop twice in one day. The first time was for food and the second was immediately afterwards to buy as many bottles of soft drink as I could carry which I guess is non-essential. You can piss off if you want to tell me that I can’t have the simple pleasure of a glass of Coke when hundreds of people are travelling here to pick strawberries.
I’ve barely left the house other than to buy food until the other day when I started going for very short walks to an area with plenty of room to avoid people. I was enjoying yesterdays walk when some baseball-capped buffoon cycled right up to me and said “sorry” (not as in an apology, as in “I want to ask you something”). I turned and walked in the other direction as fast as I could.
I don’t judge people for breaking the rules. I judge people for being idiots. Once when I was in the shop buying food I saw someone picking up some ice pops. That’s non-essential but I don’t begrudge him a nice Brunch or Loop The Loop. What I judge him for is how he almost ran into the shop and walked right past me down a narrow aisle before I had a chance to move.
If someone wants to drive twenty miles I couldn’t care less as long as they’re careful. Honestly I think the two kilometer rule is ridiculous because it means if you live somewhere with not many nice places to go everyone will end up going to the one park for a walk.
If others coming within 2 metres of me counts then yes.
I live by the Phoenix Park so during the 2km exercise restriction, my cycle around the Phoenix park each day involved a period of time where as the crow flies, I was a little further than 2km, it was probably 3km or so.
Makes no difference since I was never anywhere near anyone for more than a fleeting moment as I cycled past and always well beyond 2m distance.
Not following them and neither is anyone I know. Listen to this expert.
https://youtu.be/Avc6_ftzk3w
@Robert Nugent: that’s a misinformation video from the far right extre Dolores Cahill. She clearly has an agenda, look her up. She’s anti vax, anti abortion etc. ask yourself would you rather listen to Travis Bickle or Tony Fauci
@Robert Nugent: that “opinion” has been debunked repeatedly but you keep posting it. Why is she claiming lifetime immunity for anyone that catches it? There’s no scientific basis for that. There’s also no basis for her theory that social distancing is totally unnecessary. And her theory that Bill Gates is deliberately infecting meat processing plants in the US is just insane. You were complaining about them being tough to stick to the other day so when you say you’re not following them you’re full of sh!t
I had sex with my wife for the first time in months.does that count
@tuco: was she in Cavan by any chance
@tuco: depends how far away the other woman/women you’ve been having sex with are and how far they travel after reading this.
Breaking the rules… take the poll next week after the golf clubs open. Time sheet filled with lots if people breaking the 5km rule.
Two junctions on my 40k cycle route are 5.5k away from my house,.
I went to the local Co-Op to buy Chloras to power-wash my house…and to the local machine rental shop to rent the power washer. Is that essential? Doubt it…considering the house has been unclean for a few years now LOL
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