Peter O'Toole dies at 81

[Chris James]

It had to be the eyes, you could drown in those pools of blue. Lawrence of Arabia is probably the most stunning film I've ever seen, and now that O'Toole is gone I will have to sit down and watch it once again.

The articles in the news remember him well as a notorious drinker and prankster. He gave up the former but never the latter. They quote Noel Coward as saying that O'Toole had such beauty that they should have called his most famous film "Florence of Arabia."

He was a formidable presence on the stage and perhaps one of England's greatest actors, but they seem to have a handful of those. He will be missed but what a legacy he has left us. Time to slap the first disk in the player and prepare myself to be stunned once again.

[Merkin]

Sad news. A wonderful actor with great stage presence. He will be missed.

[Nigel Gordon]

It had to be the eyes, you could drown in those pools of blue. Lawrence of Arabia is probably the most stunning film I've ever seen, and now that O'Toole is gone I will have to sit down and watch it once again.

The articles in the news remember him well as a notorious drinker and prankster. He gave up the former but never the latter. They quote Noel Coward as saying that O'Toole had such beauty that they should have called his most famous film "Florence of Arabia."

He was a formidable presence on the stage and perhaps one of England's greatest actors, but they seem to have a handful of those. He will be missed but what a legacy he has left us. Time to slap the first disk in the player and prepare myself to be stunned once again.

Be careful Chris, the Irish claim him as one of their finest actors! Either way it does not matter he was one of the greatest presences on stage or screen. In 1960 I saw him playing Shylock at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre Stratford Upon Avon, it was a very powerful performance and a couple of years later when I played the same role in a school play I must admit I was highly influenced by it. Unfortunately I had neither the skill or the presence to carry it off.

I think his reputation for drinking was somewhat over played. In the late1960s I was often in Sheba's and The Londoner, clubs in London that were often frequented by the theatrical set from the nearby theaters. O'Toole was frequently in, sometimes with Richard Burton, and I often got the impression that he was never quite as drunk as he made out. This was especially true when somebody tried to fleece him.

Over the years I was able to see him in a number of productions. The one I liked best was his portrayal of King Magnus in the Apple Cart.

He was a great actor and his death is a great loss to the stage and to film.

.

[Chris James]

The opening of this show is enough to allow you a glimpse of what a crazy man O'Toole was. But the interview is also interesting:

http://youtu.be/K561m7Nq7kk

[Cole Parker]

I wonder if his character in My Favorite Year influenced his reputation as a drunk and a womanizer. Was the movie based on him in real life, or the other way around? In any case, that was a wonderful movie. Anyone having missed it should make in a point to see it.

C

[DesDownunder]

In some ways I never recovered from watching Peter O'Toole's performance in Lawrence of Arabia. The film itself was one of those that set the standard, a milestone in cinematic achievement and history.

Not only was the film a perfectly crafted motion picture, Peter inspired the audience to immerse themselves in the life and times of T.E. Lawrence, as much as the large 70mm screen invited the audience to experience every salient moment.

Peter's contribution to the art of performance was as good as it gets, right up there with that other Laurence, Olivier.

I never saw him give a bad performance, and I mourn his passing with all the acclaim I can muster for having been fortunate enough to have lived during the same time as him.

However it's in The Ruling Class (movie) that Peter gave, for me, the most wonderful line when his Character was asked,

"How do you know you're God?"

he replied,

"Simple. When I pray to Him, I find I'm talking to myself."

[The Pecman]

I wonder if his character in My Favorite Year influenced his reputation as a drunk and a womanizer. Was the movie based on him in real life, or the other way around? In any case, that was a wonderful movie. Anyone having missed it should make in a point to see it.

Great movie. The script was based on a story told to writer Dennis Palumbo by one of the staffers of Your Show of Shows about the time they had 1940s swashbuckling hero Erroll Flynn on as a guest star in the 1950s. It was a problematic show because it was live, and because it was NBC's biggest show at the time. For legal and rights reasons, they changed Sid Caeser's name and Errol Flynn's name for the movie, but many of the characters are recognizable, including a Neil Simon-type and a Mel Brooks-type in the writers room. [benjy, the junior writer, is kind of a combination of Woody Allen and Mel Brooks.] "King Kaiser" was their thinly-disguised version of Sid Caeser. A great, great movie with a lot of laughs and a lot of heart. [The 1960s Dick Van Dyke show was also inspired by the writers room on Your Show of Shows.]

Everybody agreed that casting Peter O'Toole in the part was perfect, but he was acting and did not drink during production, because he was a total pro. O'Toole got the similarities between his on-screen life and that of Flynn's. The real broadcast TV show was a lot more tame than how it was depicted in the film. O'Toole was nominated for Best Actor for that role, but did not win -- one of 8 Oscars he didn't win, which was a tragedy. He really, really deserved it for this film.

A few years before that, I actually worked on O'Toole's movie The Stunt Man, and while O'Toole played a drunken director in the film, he was not drunk on the set. That was a very troubled production, which many days of reshoots and almost a year of editing, and it was a confused mish-mash when it was finally released.

In some ways I never recovered from watching Peter O'Toole's performance in Lawrence of Arabia. The film itself was one of those that set the standard, a milestone in cinematic achievement and history. Not only was the film a perfectly crafted motion picture, Peter inspired the audience to immerse themselves in the life and times of T.E. Lawrence, as much as the large 70mm screen invited the audience to experience every salient moment.

Perfect except they left out the fact that T.E. Lawrence was gay and had a long-running affair with two of the servant boys that assisted him during his time in Arabia. It's touched on very, very subtly, but blink and you'll miss it. Lawrence was also a masochist who enjoyed pain, and they did at least show that, in the scene where he gets whipped.

[Chris James]

I was but 13 years of age when Lawrence of Arabia was released. I saw it at the Uptown Theater in Washington, D.C., one of the best movie houses on the east coast. 70mm on a huge screen made the film larger than life.

Perhaps it was the visual images or the sheer length of the film that kept me enthralled. They don't make films with intermissions anymore, they just cut the hell out of things to leave us with a sound bite of a film. I watched Lawrence last night, up until midnight marveling at what had been and what should remain an incredible classic. My Favorite Year is next on the list...so much for authoring a new story today.

[Nigel Gordon]

Chris, I hope you watched the Director's Cut version, the extra scenes (which add about 20 min) make it a much better film.

[DesDownunder]

Perfect except they left out the fact that T.E. Lawrence was gay and had a long-running affair with two of the servant boys that assisted him during his time in Arabia. It's touched on very, very subtly, but blink and you'll miss it. Lawrence was also a masochist who enjoyed pain, and they did at least show that, in the scene where he gets whipped.

I think it is important top remember that 1962 was a closeted period, with barely a mention of anyone being homosexual let alone gay. The disdain for the charismatic T.E. Lawrence is referenced in the opening (funeral - memorial) scene, but the film would never have been released if it had described the relationship with the Arab boys. Lawrence's book, The Seven Pillars of Wisdom does reveal all; how he stood guard whilst the boys were in the tent together. Lawrence's fascination with Arab culture wasn't just the nomadic lifestyle in the desert. He was in love with it all, sadomasochism included. As Lawrence says in the film, "The trick is not to mind that it hurts."

Remember too, that when the movie was made we had barely managed to get a couple of films made about the life and trials of Oscar Wilde, and even they had to hide behind the phrase of "The Love That Dare Not Speak Its name." Even so, no matter that we were headed towards a more open public discussion on homosexuality and the nature of our unjust persecution under British law, many notable actors and artists, amongst other members of the general public, were being arrested and jailed for their activities. To have included references to Lawrence's homosexuality would probably, at that time, have killed the film's box office. Given the times, it was really gutsy for the Turkish torture scene to be so obvious with its sexual subtext. Consider too, that the bath scene between Tony Curtis and Laurence Olivier in Spartacus (1960), was cut in the original release as being too much for the audiences of the day. (The scene was restored in the later reconstructed release.)

Tolerance, was not a feature of daily life when Lawrence of Arabia was made. As a young gay man working in the cinema, i was warned many times to make sure I did not 'embarrass' the company by getting myself arrested for my personal life activities. If you kept it quiet, you were reasonably safe.

As it was, most people knew the nature of what had been left out of the movie; the sexual proclivities of Lawrence were obvious to most, and it was relatively recent history for them. I think audiences were a little more sophisticated in those days, even if. paradoxically they were naive about the nature of same sex relationships. I would maintain that far from leaving out the fact that Lawrence was gay, the film-makers went to elaborate lengths to allude to his sexuality in a way that did not try to conceal it. As such, i believe that many of the people who were inspired by the film to read Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom, actually became supporters of the decriminalisation of the homosexual law. T.E. Lawrence's life, tortured as it was in so many ways, including his own personal trepidations were fuelled by much of his culture's condemnation of his sexual orientation, Not even his legendary education and intelligence managed to placate his need for the desert or acceptance back home.

I seriously doubt, if someone made a new film about Lawrence of Arabia, with sex scenes in 3D, that it could be anything like the masterpiece which Peter O'Toole's performance made accessible.

[Nigel Gordon]

I think it is important top remember that 1962 was a closeted period, with barely a mention of anyone being homosexual let alone gay. The disdain for the charismatic T.E. Lawrence is referenced in the opening (funeral - memorial) scene, but the film would never have been released if it had described the relationship with the Arab boys.

....

Tolerance, was not a feature of daily life when Lawrence of Arabia was made. As a young gay man working in the cinema, i was warned many times to make sure I did not 'embarrass' the company by getting myself arrested for my personal life activities. If you kept it quiet, you were reasonably safe.

As it was, most people knew the nature of what had been left out of the movie; the sexual proclivities of Lawrence were obvious to most, and it was relatively recent history for them. I think audiences were a little more sophisticated in those days, even if. paradoxically they were naive about the nature of same sex relationships. I would maintain that far from leaving out the fact that Lawrence was gay, the film-makers went to elaborate lengths to allude to his sexuality in a way that did not try to conceal it.

....

The nature of Lawrence's sexuality comes out a lot more in the Director's Cut than in the released version. If any of you have not seen the Director's Cut I would recommend you do so.

Nigel

[DesDownunder]

The nature of Lawrence's sexuality comes out a lot more in the Director's Cut than in the released version. If any of you have not seen the Director's Cut I would recommend you do so.

Nigel

For reason's known only to the distributor, and possibly theatre managers, the original Australian release was only 2 or 3 minutes shorter than the later Director's cut. I also have an original VHS video version which also shows the time as only some two minutes shorter than the director's cut.

This raises the thoughts that cuts were made to suit local conditions, censors, or desire to increase the number of screening sessions per day.

[FreeThinker]

I remember watching one night on the David Letterman show, Peter O'Toole appeared on stage riding a camel. He was so marvelous.

I went to the theater with my grandparents to see The Lion in Winter and not long after, Good-bye Mr. Chips, which I enjoyed more, being 12 at the time and strangely infatuated with Petula Clark. Thus, along with the BBC production of Tom Brown, began a lifetime of fantasies about English boarding schools. I saw Lawrence on television, when I was too young to understand and appreciate it, but fell in love with the movie when I saw it in college. My grandmother had The Seven Pillars of Wisdom in her library, which I read after seeing the movie. Peter O'Toole was truly beautiful in the movie, even more so than the real T.E. Lawrence.

[Nigel Gordon]

I remember watching one night on the David Letterman show, Peter O'Toole appeared on stage riding a camel. He was so marvelous.

I went to the theater with my grandparents to see The Lion in Winter and not long after, Good-bye Mr. Chips, which I enjoyed more, being 12 at the time and strangely infatuated with Petula Clark. Thus, along with the BBC production of Tom Brown, began a lifetime of fantasies about English boarding schools. I saw Lawrence on television, when I was too young to understand and appreciate it, but fell in love with the movie when I saw it in college. My grandmother had The Seven Pillars of Wisdom in her library, which I read after seeing the movie. Peter O'Toole was truly beautiful in the movie, even more so than the real T.E. Lawrence.

Everybody remembers Peter O'Toole for Lawrence of Arabia but personally I have always thought his best performance was in The Lion in Winter. That is a truly great film with some great acting in it.