8 Hollywood Stars Who Didn't Accept Their Oscars

Times have moved on and Hollywood is no longer wedded to the need to cast hetero white men as the heroic saviour in every foreign-set film. That said, the problematic aspects of Lawrence of Arabia don't negate the fact that Peter O'Toole's turn in the film is one of the cinematic canon's cornerstone performances -- and still worthy of its Oscar nomination today.

Though nominated eight times, for films including The Lion In Winter (1968) and My Favorite Year (1982), O'Toole never managed to win an Academy Award in competition. Appreciating the need to recognise his talent though, the Academy conferred an Academy Honorary Award on him.

O'Toole initially rejected this olive branch and declined the invitation to accept it, believing he was still in the running to win the award competitively (and rightly so, given his nomination for 2007's Venus). All's well that ends well, however, and his children admonished him for this slight, wore him down, and persuaded him to appear at the 75th Awards in 2003.

Curiously, an Oscar is not the highest accolade O'Toole has ever turned down. In 1987 he was offered a knighthood (you know, that thing presented by the Queen) but rejected it, ostensibly as a protest against the policies of Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who had working class Britain in a stranglehold.