Peter O’Toole dies: Which role should have netted him the Oscar?

The death of Peter O’Toole at the age of 81 Sunday called to mind not only O’Toole’s remarkable career but something less remarkable: his run of Oscar-nominated performances without actually ever winning one.

No other movie actor had such a Lucci-like turn. Eight times O’Toole’s name was called on nomination day, over a span of 44 years. Yet sitting in the theater on moviedom’s biggest night, he never once was called up for a little golden man. (He did take home an honorary prize in 2003.)

With that in mind--and with the knowledge that he often faced stiff competition, from John Wayne to Gregory Peck to Robert De Niro--we ask which instance was the greatest oversight. Was it his turn as the epic T.E. Lawrence in “Lawrence of Arabia” that most deserved an Oscar? His legendary-actor character in “My Favorite Year”? His career swan song as an aging performer with a complicated crush in “Venus?”

PHOTOS: Peter O’Toole | 1932-2013

Maybe it was as a scheming Henry II in “Lion In Winter” that he most merited a walk onto that podium? Or his other turn as Henry II in “Becket” a few years earlier?

Or, just because, was it his turn as Jack Gurney in the bizarro British black comedy “The Ruling Class” which has been dividing fans and critics since pretty much the moment it came out?

Vote below on which movie the Motion Picture Academy should have given him the Oscar for. It won’t make everything right, but it might make us feel a little better about his Oscar-free mantle.

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