Born to a vagabond bookie working the U.K's racetracks, Peter O'Toole became "the most notorious sailor in Her Majesty's Royal Navy" and then worked as a street vendor, a paparazzo, a newsman, and a steeplejack before drifting into the London theatre. After his spectacular success in David Lean's four-hour epic, Lawrence of Arabia, he announced, "I've arrived Ignore me at your peril " He then went on to be nominated for seven Oscars before emerging as the Crown Prince of the British Theatre. An orgiastic hellraiser, he starred in week-long binges and sex orgies of near Biblical proportions, bedding everyone from Elizabeth Taylor to Princess Margaret, who relentlessly pursued him. Mercurial acting talent on the screen was combined with a lethal off-screen life that "would have landed most blokes in jail" (his words).