At the age of 79, with some 50 years of classic performances behind him, Peter O'Toole has decided the time has come to retire from acting, having achieved the very pinnacle of his career by seeing a clip from Lawrence Of Arabia cameo in Prometheus. Okay, not really: He's simply had enough, saying in a statement that it's "time for me to chuck in the sponge"—the "sponge" being what Richard Harris affectionately called his liver—and bring an end to his professional life. "The heart for it has gone out of me: it won’t come back," O'Toole writes, concluding, "It’s my belief that one should decide for oneself when it is time to end one’s stay. So I bid the profession a dry-eyed and profoundly grateful farewell." The statement also includes a note from his representatives that O'Toole will now focus on completing the third volume of his memoirs, which he will presumably do when not saying aloud the names of ordinary household items in his stately, mellifluous voice. ("Dear boy, we must remember to obtain more Lemon Pleeeedge.")
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