Addie Morfoot Contributor Nearly 10 years after his death, Peter O’Toole is making a return to the screen in a BritBox documentary from Jim Sheridan.The revered Irish director, known for narrative films including “My Left Foot” and “In the Name of the Father,” interviewed colleagues and family about the “Lawrence of Arabia” star for “Peter O’Toole: Along the Sky Road to Aqaba.” They range from Kenneth Branagh, Brian Cox, Anthony Hopkins, Derek Jacobi and Stephen Fry to ex-wife Siân Phillips and daughter Kate O’Toole.

Each interview helps shed light on the actor’s complicated yet brilliant life and career. O’Toole, who grew up in England with Irish heritage, was nominated for eight Oscars, winning an honorary Academy Award in 2003.

The actor was also known for his stage work and fondness for alcohol. Sheridan, who met and began a friendship with O’Toole over 50 years ago, agreed to make the docu after producer Brian O’Flaherty asked him to do it. “The force of O’Toole’s personality and his power as an actor was just astonishing,” says Sheridan. “I thought that somebody like O’Toole, who was a big Irish star and groundbreaker, deserved some memory.”Sheridan structured “Peter O’Toole: Along the Sky Road to Aqaba” into four acts, each introduced by a quote about the performer that encapsulates his life during a specific period.“We just really wanted to have a good bit of his childhood and a little bit of where he came from,” Sheridan says. “Then there were a lot of interviews with people that loved and adored him and thought he was crazy.

So, the film covers his early, big rise to stardom, and then the little lull that he had, and then he comes back again. That’s basically the structure.”In addition to talking heads,

Jim Sheridan on Making a Documentary About Pal Peter O’Toole: ‘You Couldn’t Not Love the Man’

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