O’Toole wants a nice clean
epitaph for his tombstone
Irish actor Peter O’Toole has decided on an off-the-wall epitaph
for his tombstone.
The 74-year-old — who was nominated for a Golden Globe award for
his new movie Venus — said he chose the unusual slogan: It Distresses
Me To Return Work That Is Not Perfect.
O’Toole, who lived on the Sky Road outside Clifden, Co. Galway,
described how he stumbled across the phrase to sum up his life after sending
his favourite leather jacket to the cleaners.
He said: “In the 1960s I had a leather jacket I was inordinately
fond of and my wife sent it to the cleaners because it was covered in
blood, Guinness, scotch and corn flakes.
“It came back with a large notice pinned on it saying: ‘It
distresses us to return work which is not perfect’ so I want that
on my tombstone. That’s my epitaph!”
The star — who was interviewed on David Letterman’s Late Show
in the US — has been nominated for an Oscar seven times and is expected
to get another nod this year.
O’Toole, who plays an older man mentoring a younger woman in the
movie Venus, revealed how he and the late actor Peter Finch bought an
Irish pub in the early hours of the morning in order to get served more
alcohol.
He said: “My friend the late Peter Finch and I were in Dublin together
on the lash.
“It was about four in the morning and there was a tiny little hole-in-the-wall
bar so we thought we’d just drop in for a last one. We had a couple
of drinks and the barman said we had had enough — so we bought the
bar!
“When we went in the next day the barman was such a sweet guy he
hadn’t bothered cashing the cheques.
“He gave them to us and we tore them up and he told us to behave
ourselves.”
|
