Peter O'Toole is perhaps used to playing second fiddle.
While his performance as Lawrence of Arabia secured him iconic status in the film world, he has never won a best actor Oscar despite seven nominations, stories of his legendary drinking days have often overshadowed his work, and throughout his career, he has often been mistaken for his friend and fellow Irishman, the late Richard Harris.
So it should probably come as little surprise that he is about to be upstaged by a dog in the big screen remake of Lassie, a film which has more than tested the old cliche, "Never work with children and animals".
"Don't act with children and dogs?" smiles O'Toole, who was raised in Leeds. "Well, try children, dogs, horses and hounds, coal miners and a fox. Try acting with that lot. Very tricky. It's painstaking and you need a lot of patience. Which fortunately our director, Charles Sturridge did have."
Despite the inevitable chaos on set, the 73-year-old admits Lassie did turn out to be man's best friend, as did his young co-stars, Hester Odgers, who plays Cilla, the part made famous by Elizabeth Taylor, in the original 1943 movie Lassie Come Home and Jonathan Mason, who appears as nine-year old Joe, Lassie's best friend.
"Hester's a delight," remarks Peter.
"She's an intelligent young girl and a great mischief," he adds. "Her concentration is exemplary. How she does it, I do not know.
"And the little fellow, Jonathan, he's a charmer. The children really were a delight."
Based on the book Lassie Come Home by Yorkshireman Eric Knight, the film is the latest in a long line of big screen adaptations, and it will inevitably invite comparisons with the previous 10 films and the two-time Emmy award-winning television series, which became one of the longest-running shows in history.
Filmed on location in both Ireland and the Isle of Man, the latest movie outing, also starring Nottingham-born actress Samantha Morton, sees Lassie (played by three dogs, Mason, Carter and Dakota) being forced to live in a remote Scottish castle belonging to the Duke of Rudling, played by O'Toole, after being sold by his hard-up Yorkshire mining family.
Despite the enduring, world-wide appeal of Lassie, O'Toole, who worked for a brief stint on the Yorkshire Evening Post before becoming an actor, confesses he's never seen any of the previous movies or read the bestselling 1940 novel by Knight, who was killed in the Second World War, at the age of 34.
"Charles Sturridge sent me a script entitled Lassie and I chuckled," he smiles. "Charles and I have done a few films together, but another thing we have in common is that neither of us have seen the other Lassies, and, unlike Charles, I have never read the book, though I read Charles's script and liked it very much. I rang him straightaway and said, 'I'm on'."
He might not be that familiar with all the Lassie adventures, but for the actor who made his film debut in 1960 in Kidnapped it is another notch on a CV which already includes Lawrence of Arabia, Goodbye Mr Chips, The Lion in Winter and Becket.
"Working with Katharine Hepburn in The Lion in Winter was actually one of the highlights of my life," he says.
"I loved working with her and working with Richard Burton in Becket was another great joy."
However, life hasn't always run smoothly. Severe illness related to his legendary heavy drinking almost ended his life in the late 1970s, and he had to have his pancreas removed. It was an operation which triggered his recovery, and while he gradually returned to work, he found it increasingly difficult to get parts in films, relying on television and stage roles.
He still jokes: "The only exercise I take is walking behind the coffins of friends who take exercise", but while he may have passed pensionable age some years ago, his recent scene-stealing performance as the dying Casanova in the hit television drama of the same name showed that some things do get better with age.
Yet, despite the enviable track record, despite still being as busy as ever, and despite apparently writing to the Academy when he heard he was to given a Lifetime Achievement Award to say he was "still in the game" and would like more time to "win the lovely b****r outright," he still regards himself as a jobbing actor foremost and loathes any association with celebrity.
"Acting is my job, it's what I do, it's what I'm on earth to do and it's who I am," he says, "I don't like premieres and things like that. I'd rather just do my acting and then clear off.
"I was shocked and deeply honoured when I was recognised at the Oscar, it was the highest honour that the motion picture industry can pay to anybody. I joined people like Charlie Chaplin."
The award hasn't been an incentive to take things easy though. The busy star has no plans to retire, but does admit he won't be treading the boards again any time soon.
"Playing a leading role in the theatre is too exhausting, and I won't shuffle on as an old butler. I won't," he says with a wry smile.
The star who has three children, Pat and Kate, by his ex wife Sian Philips, and son Lorcan, by model Karen Brown, says he doesn't fear growing older and relishes his rare moments of solitude.
"I love good company, but I'm never less alone than when I'm on my own," he says simply. And though he may be approaching his mid-seventies, he's proof that you can teach an old dog new tricks.
"Lassie isn't about me, it's about the dog, but admittedly the dog isn't all that good an actor – with the right cuts and the odd lamb chop we got the job done," he says those famous blue eyes twinkling mischievously.
n Lassie is on general release from December 16.

Lassie on screen
Eric Knight who wrote the original book Lassie Come Home worked for the Ministry of Information during the Second World War making propaganda films alongside Frank – It's A Wonderful Life – Capra.
The story met with immediate popularity in both America, where Knight had moved as a teenager, and his native Yorkshire. Adapted into a MGM feature film in 1943, it spawned a further six sequels between 1945 and 1953, most of which dealt directly with the English experience of the Second World War. Fearing Lassie's popularity was waning, the film studio sold the television rights to Robert Maxwell Productions, believing the company might get a couple of years of children's shows out of the collie. They slightly underestimated its popularity, with the show running for 19 years and sparking a wealth of novels, toys, and merchandise.
All the dogs that played Lassie in the long-running television series were male, for the simple reason that while both sexes shed their fur in the summer (when TV shows shot their episodes), male collies tend to have a thicker coat, which looks better on camera.
While Peter O'Toole may be the biggest name in the 2005 remake, the film boasts a wealth of cameos from British stars, with Nicholas Lyndhurst, Edward Fox, Robert Hardy and Jemma Redgrave all making an appearance.