Galway-born actor Peter O’Toole joined the ranks of Hollywood’s most celebrated stars at the weekend when he added his hand and footprints to the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
O’Toole was joined by luminaries of the film industry including Angelica Huston and Rose McGowan, along with his son Lorcan, daughter Kate, and a crowd of wellwishers and fans, for the ceremony.
The ceremony, which took placed in the forecourt of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles, was held as part of the 2011 TCM Classic Film Festival, an annual event honouring classic films and their stars. The famous forecourt features the imprints of some of the best known names in film history including Charlie Chaplin, Fred Astaire, John Wayne, Elizabeth Taylor, Steve McQueen, Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, and the young stars of the Harry Potter franchise.
The former hellraiser joked about his previous dealings with cement — when he worked in construction as a young man to raise the money to attend drama school — during the ceremony on Saturday, and declared that his favourite film was “the next one — I’m still at it.”
O’Toole was, according the more widely accepted of two versions of his early childhood, born in Connemara in 1932 and grew up in Leeds. His acting career has spanned over half a century and he has been nominated for eight Oscars, from 1962’s Lawrence of Arabia to the critically acclaimed Venus in 2006. He will appear in three films due out later this year.
