Editing Peter O'Toole (section)

== Early life and education ==
Peter Seamus O'Toole was born on 2 August 1932, the son of Constance Jane Eliot (née Ferguson), a Scottish nurse,<ref name="constance">O'Toole, Peter. ''Loitering with Intent: Child'' (Large print edition), Macmillan London Ltd., London, 1992. {{ISBN|1-85695-051-4}}; pg. 10, "My mother, Constance Jane, had led a troubled and a harsh life. Orphaned early, she had been reared in Scotland and shunted between relatives;..."</ref> and Patrick Joseph "Spats" O'Toole, an Irish metal plater, football player, and [[bookmaker]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/12/15/peter-otoole-dead_n_4449740.html|title=Peter O'Toole Dead: Actor Dies At Age 81 |work=Huffington Post |access-date=19 December 2013 |date=15 December 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Peter O'Toole profile at |work=Film Reference |url=http://www.filmreference.com/film/26/Peter-O-Toole.html |year=2008 |access-date=4 April 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Murphy |first=Frank |title=Peter O'Toole, A winner in waiting |url=http://www.theirishworld.com/article.asp?SubSection_Id=10&Article_Id=1911 |work=The Irish World |date=31 January 2007 |access-date=4 April 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150509203608/http://www.theirishworld.com/article.asp?SubSection_Id=10&Article_Id=1911|archive-date=9 May 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.enotes.com/loitering-with-intent-peter-otoole-salem/loitering-with-intent-0080500496|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130122044422/http://www.enotes.com/loitering-with-intent-peter-otoole-salem/loitering-with-intent-0080500496|url-status=dead|archive-date=22 January 2013|title=Loitering with Intent Summary – Magill Book Reviews|publisher=Enotes.com|access-date=12 June 2012}}</ref> O'Toole claimed he was not certain of his birthplace or date, stating in his autobiography that he accepted 2 August as his birth date but had birth certificates from England and Ireland. The birth certificate recorded at the Leeds General Register Office says he was born at [[St James's University Hospital]] in [[Leeds]], Yorkshire, England, on 2 August 1932.<ref name="independent.ie"/>

O'Toole had an elder sister named Patricia and grew up in the south Leeds suburb of [[Hunslet]]. When he was one year old, his family began a five-year tour of major racecourse towns in Northern England. He and his sister were brought up in their father's Catholic faith.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/features/3631524/Too-late-for-an-Oscar-No-no-no....html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220110/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/features/3631524/Too-late-for-an-Oscar-No-no-no....html |archive-date=10 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Too late for an Oscar? No, no, no...|work=The Daily Telegraph |date=24 January 2007 |access-date=11 September 2010 |first=Neil |last=Tweedie |location=London}}{{cbignore}}</ref> O'Toole was [[Evacuations of civilians in Britain during World War II|evacuated]] from Leeds early in the Second World War,<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/latest-news/top-stories/peter-o-toole-lad-from-leeds-who-became-one-of-screen-greats-1-6317796 |title=Peter O'Toole: Lad from Leeds who became one of screen greats |newspaper=[[Yorkshire Evening Post]] |access-date=17 December 2013 |date=15 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170926235357/http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/peter-o-toole-lad-from-leeds-who-became-one-of-screen-greats-1-6317796 |archive-date=26 September 2017 |url-status=dead}}</ref> and went to a Catholic school for seven or eight years: St Joseph's Secondary School in Hunslet, Leeds.<ref>{{cite news |title=Obituary: Peter O'Toole, actor |url=https://www.scotsman.com/news/obituaries/obituary-peter-otoole-actor-1550298 |access-date=22 March 2020 |work=The Scotsman}}</ref> He later said, "I used to be scared stiff of the nuns: their whole denial of womanhood—the black dresses and the shaving of the hair—was so horrible, so terrifying. [...] Of course, that's all been stopped. They're sipping gin and tonic in the [[Dublin]] pubs now, and a couple of them flashed their pretty ankles at me just the other day."<ref>{{cite news |last=Waldman |first=Alan |title=Tribute to Peter O'Toole |url=http://www.films42.com/tribute/otoole.asp |work=films42.com |access-date=4 April 2008}}</ref>

[[File:Architectural sculpture, RADA.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|right|O'Toole studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art ([[RADA]]) in London from 1952 to 1954]]
Upon leaving school, O'Toole obtained employment as a trainee journalist and photographer on the ''[[Yorkshire Evening Post]]'',<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/2013/news/youll-never-make-a-reporter-editor-told-otoole/ |title='You'll never make a reporter' editor told O'Toole |last=Lambourne |first=Helen |date=16 December 2013 |access-date=4 August 2018 |work=Hold the Fronte Page}}</ref> until he was called up for [[national service]] as a [[signaller]] in the [[Royal Navy]].<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/12/peter-otoole-dead-81-great-actor-outrageous-party-boy-royal-navy/ |title=How the Royal Navy Helped the Late Peter O'Toole Become an Acting Legend |last=Suebsaeng |first=Asawin |date=15 December 2013 |access-date=4 August 2018 |magazine=[[Mother Jones (magazine)|Mother Jones]] |publisher=[[Foundation for National Progress]]}}</ref> As reported in a radio interview in 2006 on [[NPR]], he was asked by an officer whether he had something he had always wanted to do. His reply was that he had always wanted to try being either a poet or an actor.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/12/remembering-peter-otoole-oscar-less-legend/356169/ |title=Remembering Peter O'Toole |last=Lee |first=Adrian |date=15 December 2013 |access-date=4 August 2018 |magazine=[[The Atlantic]]}}</ref>

He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art ([[RADA]]) in London from 1952 to 1954 on a scholarship. This came after being rejected by the [[Abbey Theatre]]'s drama school in Dublin by the director [[Ernest Blythe]], because he could not speak the [[Irish language]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Sheehy|first=Michael|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M4HWAAAAMAAJ&q=%2522narrowing+effect%2522|title=Is Ireland Dying?: Culture and the Church in Modern Ireland|date=1969|publisher=Taplinger Publishing Company|isbn=978-0-8008-4250-5|page=141}}</ref> At RADA, he was in the same class as [[Albert Finney]], [[Alan Bates]] and [[Brian Bedford]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Cochrane |first=Claire |title=Twentieth-Century British Theatre: Industry, Art and Empire |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fMtOarGzdxkC&pg=PA212 |publisher=Cambridge University Press|date=27 October 2011 |page=212 |isbn=978-1-139-50213-9}}</ref> O'Toole described this as "the most remarkable class the academy ever had, though we weren't reckoned for much at the time. We were all considered [[wikt:dotty#Etymology 1|dotty]]."<ref>{{cite web|first=Guy |last=Flatley|title=The Rule of O'Toole|url=http://www.moviecrazed.com/outpast/otoole.htm|work=MovieCrazed|date=24 July 2007|access-date=4 April 2008}}</ref>