February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
The Galway-born actor has never won the prize despite having been nominated for an Academy Award seven times during his distinguished career.
When the organization’s president, Frank Pierson, announced that O’Toole would be awarded a special trophy this year, the actor demurred. He sent Pierson a polite note stating that he “was still in the game” and hoped to win the honor outright.
O’Toole requested that the Academy defer the honor for another years, but, unfortunately, that’s not how things work in La-La Land. It was a take it or leave it deal, and they were hoping that O’Toole would choose the former. This way, they could do a swell retrospective with clips from “Lawrence of Arabia,” “Beckett,” “Goodbye Mr. Chips,” “The Ruling Class,” “The Stunt Man,” “My Favorite Year” and “The Lion in Winter.” (What, you want to sit through some crappy Debbie Allen dance number?)
Actually, O’Toole hasn’t come out and said he’ll definitely show up to collect his goody bag . . . er, his Oscar. But Pierson is optimistic, telling the press, “It looks like it may indeed happen, and we couldn’t be happier.” The actor will be at the ceremony on March 23, but his manager will neither confirm nor deny reports that the award is a done deal. (Apparently, it’s going to be a surprise.) But we figure that if O’Toole snubs the Academy on the night, he’ll need a stunt man to help him bid goodbye to the ruling class — which might make No. 70 his favorite year.