August 2
Peter O’Toole
On this date in 1932, Peter OāToole was born in Connemara, Ireland. When he was 16 he began working at the Yorkshire Evening News, but his journalism career was cut short when he was drafted into the navy. OāToole later attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where he began acting in the theater. Starting in 1955, he spent three years apprenticing as a Shakespearean actor with Bristol Old Vic, a prominent theater company in Bristol, where he performed in over 70 productions.
OāToole acted in his first film, āThe Savage Innocents,ā in 1960. The role that brought him to fame was his portrayal of T.E. Lawrence in the 1962 classic āLawrence of Arabia.ā OāToole has since starred in many other notable films, including āBecketā (1964), āThe Lion in Winterā (1968), āGoodbye, Mr. Chipsā (1969) and āThe Stunt Manā (1980). He received eight Best Actor Oscar nominations and in 2003 was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Oscar. OāToole was married to actress SiĆ¢n Phillips for 20 years and had two children with her, actress Kate OāToole, born in 1960, and Patricia OāToole, born in 1963. He also has a son, Lorcan, born in 1983.
OāToole described himself as a āretired Christianā to The New York Times in 2007, as well as during an interview with Charlie Rose on PBS in 2008. He told the Times that he prefers āan education and reading and factsā to faith. In 1972 he played a delusional character who believed he was Jesus in the film āThe Ruling Class.ā During the film, OāTooleās character says, āWhen did I realize I was God? Well, I was praying and I suddenly realized I was talking to myself.ā D. 2013.
Public domain photo: O'Toole in "Lawrence of Arabia" in 1962.
āI am a retired Christian.ā
ā“Papal Robes, and Deference, Fit O’Toole Snugly,” The New York Times, July 26, 2007
James Baldwin
On this date in 1924, writer James Arthur Baldwin (nĆ© Jones) was born in New York City to Emma Berdis Jones and an unknown father. His mother later married David Baldwin, a minister and factory worker who adopted him. The family, which included Baldwinās eight siblings, led a life of poverty in Harlem. Baldwin had a particularly troubled relationship with his abusive and religious stepfather. He attended DeWitt Clinton High School and was a preacher for a Pentecostal church during his early teenage years.
At age 17 he left his family and traded Harlem for Greenwich Village to pursue a writing career. He eventually relinquished his religion and committed fully to his literary ambitions. He worked for a few years as a freelance writer, befriending novelist Richard Wright. After earning a scholarship in 1945 and publishing his first major essay, āThe Harlem Ghetto,ā Baldwin moved to Paris, where he spent most of his life. He published his best-known work, āGo Tell It on the Mountain,ā in 1953 and wrote numerous novels, essays and poetry, including āNotes of a Native Sonā (1955) and Giovanniās Room (1956). He also wrote the plays The Amen Corner (1955) and Blues for Mister Charlie (1964), both well received.
Much of his work was inspired by 20th century social movements as well as his experiences living as a poor, black and homosexual man in a country that largely shunned these characteristics. For a while Baldwin returned to the U.S. to assist with the civil rights movement, for which he became a voice. He received the George Polk Award in 1963 for his journalism and was inducted into La LĆ©gion DāHonneur, the prestigious French order, in 1986. He continued writing and maintained a professorship at Hampshire College and the University of Massachusetts until his untimely death from stomach cancer at age 63. D. 1987.
Baldwin in London's Hyde Park in 1969. Photo by Allan Warren. CC 3.0.
āIf the concept of God has any validity or use, it can only be to make us larger, freer, and more loving. If God cannot do this, then it is time we got rid of him.ā
āBaldwin, "The Fire Next Time" (1963)