Transcripts for CNN CNN Newsroom 20131215 22:40:45 archive.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from archive.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
and sciences honored the then 71-year-old actor with the oscar for lifetime achievement, initially he declined the accolade fearing it would signal the end of his career. i suppose fighting for love makes more sense than all the rest. reporter: but o toole carried on returning to the desert sands where his career began with a turn in 2004 s sword and sandals epic troy. i ve got a in job modeling. reporter: his role as an out of work actor in his golden years who became obsessed with a much younger woman, in 2006 s venus earned him yet another best actor nomination. further cementing his status as a legendary performer. in terms of people that have gone, i ve lost a few. through the last few years. oh, i miss them dreadfully, but they re not here. on we go. reporter: finally in july of 2012, o toole himself admitted that he could not go on in the acting business. he officially retired, giving
side he made great fun of. this swashbuckler, hard drinking, hard loving side to him that will forever be part of his legend. speaking of lawrence of arabia, do you know what he did with all that money? rosa, after that movie opened he went to the casinos of casablanca with omar sharif and gambled most away, shrugged it off and said, oh, well. i ll go earn some more. having a little fun. many don t know even though he was so epic, epic in so many films, peter o toole never won an oscar. is that one of those big, great hollywood mistakes, do you think? oh, it s the biggest of all, because if this man, and he is, one of the greatest actors who ever lived, he went to his grave at oscar s biggest loser. nobody lost more than him. and a few years ago when his best friend richard burton was still alive, they were both tied at 7-7. burton went to his grave,