Peter O'Toole birth location, Leeds

Peter O'Toole was one of those actors with an innate acting talent, who seemed to slightly burn the television screen. I thought he might have been born in Ireland from a family submerged in the acting world. However he grew up in Leeds and here I am St James's University Hospital where he popped out into the world in 1932.

The family lived nearby in Purton Street in the Harehills district (I’ve grave-hunted there - it’s known for its high population density and crime.) Peter's dad was a jack of all trades (metal plating, football player, and bookmaker) and his mum was a nurse. He pretended he was Irish like his dad but his birth certificate states otherwise. He was called Peter James O'Toole and - still affecting Irish background - made "Seamus" his middle name.

Leaving school he worked as a trainee journalist and photographer on the Yorkshire Evening Post but was called up for national service and became a signaller in the Royal Navy. When World War Two ended he began working in the theatre mainly as a Shakespearean actor. He made his television debut in 1954 aged 22. He was twenty when he left Leeds and went down south to “big London” where he studied at Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) for two years.

On the way back from the coast I had a few graves to find in Leeds and thought I’d stop by this sprawling hospital. Luckily I parked opposite the main entrance and had a cheese sandwich and frothy coffee while looking across to a bold frontage. This huge Victorian building has 1157 beds. It’s known as Jimmy's and there was documentary television coverage of the same name broadcast between 1987 and 1996. It was here that serial killer orthopaedics nurse Colin Norris worked and killed two of his own patients in cold blood. He’d been transferred from Leeds General Hospital where he’d already murdered two patients (insulin overload.) His crimes have been sent to the Court of Appeal in 2021 and he may now be released.

Peter died aged 81 in Wellington Hospital in London. He was known for his long-term daily bottle-of-whisky consumption so predictably died of the classic boozer’s cancer - stomach cancer (how did he last so long?) No grave for me to find. He was cremated in London in a wicker coffin and his family honoured his wishes to take his ashes to the west of Ireland.

It all started here though. I had a chocolate flapjack and moved away before a traffic warden forced me to. I did a salute and left.

Peter at his old home....