Peter O'Toole Will Accept Honorary Oscar

[Monday, February 17th, 2003]
Peter O'Toole has decided to accept an honorary Academy Award after politely balking because he thought the honor meant his career was over, Hollywood Reporter.

The 70-year-old Irish actor, who has never won an Oscar despite being nominated seven times, apparently reassessed the situation and will now appear at the ceremony, according to Frank Pierson, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. "It looks like that may indeed happen, and we couldn't be happier," Pierson said.

O'Toole initially mistook the offer as a sign that his peers thought he could no longer win a competitive award. He sent a handwritten letter to the academy last month saying he was "enchanted" at the thought of an honorary Oscar but that he was "still in the game, and might yet win [the award] outright."

He asked if it was possible for the academy to "please defer the honor until I am 80?" O'Toole's manager, Johnnie Planco, declined to confirm the academy's announcement, saying the matter was being kept a surprise.

The 75th Annual Academy Awards will be held Sunday, March 23, in a ceremony broadcast live on television from Los Angeles.

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