Peter O'Toole is retiring from show business, saying he no longer has the heart for it and that it's time to "chuck in the sponge".
O'Toole, who turns 80 on August 2, said in a statement in Los Angeles that his career on stage and screen fulfilled him emotionally and financially, bringing "me together with fine people, good companions with whom I've shared the inevitable lot of all actors: flops and hits."
"However, it's my belief that one should decide for oneself when it is time to end one's stay," he said. "So I bid the profession a dry-eyed and profoundly grateful farewell."
Peter O'Toole in Lawrence Of Arabia
In retirement, O'Toole said he will focus on the third volume of his memoirs.
An eight-time Academy Award nominee who never won Hollywood's top acting honour, O'Toole shot to screen stardom 50 years ago in the title role of Lawrence of Arabia, which earned seven Oscars, including best picture and director for David Lean.
O'Toole's grand performance as British adventurer TE Lawrence brought him his first best-actor nomination but set him on an unenviable path of Oscar futility. His eight losses without a win is a record among actors.
The honours stacked up quickly as O'Toole received Oscar nominations for 1964's Becket, 1968's The Lion in Winter, 1969's Goodbye, Mr Chips, 1972's The Ruling Class, 1980's The Stunt Man and 1982's My Favourite Year.
In the latter film, O'Toole played a dissolute actor preoccupied with drink and debauchery, seemingly a tailor-made role for a star known in his early years for epic carousing with such fellow drinkers as Richard Burton, Richard Harris and Peter Finch.
O'Toole went into acting after serving in the Royal Navy, studying at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. His early stage successes included the lead in Hamlet and Shylock in The Merchant of Venice.