`Lawrence of Arabia` star Peter O`Toole dies aged 81

London: Irish actor Peter O`Toole, the star of the 1962 Oscar-winning epic "Lawrence of Arabia," has died aged 81, his agent Steve Kenis said Sunday. "He was one of a kind in the very best sense and a giant in his field," Kenis said.

The hell-raising icon of stage and screen was nominated for eight Oscars before finally being given an honorary award in 2003. Irish President Michael D Higgins said it was "with great sadness" that he heard of O`Toole`s death. "Ireland, and the world, has lost one of the giants of film and theatre," he said in a statement. The son of an Irish bookmaker, O`Toole was born in 1932 and raised in northern England. After working briefly as a journalist and a radioman for the Royal Navy he went to study at the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, in a class that included future stars Albert Finney, Alan Bates and Richard Harris. After making a name in theatre, his big break arrived in the form of David Lean`s 1962 desert epic "Lawrence of Arabia".