I find it hard to choose favorites, but he was probably my favorite actor when it comes down to it. Simply astounding performances, no matter how serious or silly the film.
It is a great loss, but he had already almost completely bowed out of acting for years now. He left behind an incredible body of work and felt no need to keep doing it once he felt he no longer had it in him. And good for him… if any actor deserved to feel satisfied with his career, as so few do, it was him.
Not uncoincidentally, Lawrence of Arabia is perhaps my favorite film… I first saw it as a teenager and since then I tend to end up watching it maybe once a year or so, sometimes more if I’m introducing it to someone else. Absolutely everything that he was in is worth watching, though, even if overall the movie isn’t very good (like Casino Royale). You leave any film he’s in feeling satisfied.
