O'Toole's passing

[devifemme]

"I know I’m pushing myself too hard, but something has to be done today. Watching Peter O’Toole movies and sorting the laundry. Not exactly the best send off to one of the best, but there’s no alcohol in the house. Now Peter can join his drinking buddies Richard Burton and Richard Harris in the big pub in the sky."

From Janet at "yoochunsnoona

Comments

[ghost_light]

Perfectly said

[ggary]

Until the news of his death reached me a few hours ago I had confidently expected him to live forever. It's hard to believe that he was 81. Everyone is talking about LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, but my favourite of his movies was MY FAVOURITE YEAR. It's a lovely, funny performance but he manages to give it depth and gravity. There's a lovely bit towards the end where the main character finds O'Toole's swashbuckling actor leaving his friends in the lurch. He recalls Swann's (O'Toole) heroic movie roles. The actor rails

[devifemme]

I thought I'd replied to your O'Toole piece last night, Gary -- but it seems not to be here. I THINK it was to the effect that "Stone" got the better lines. But mostly I applauded your thought that it's a shame we "don't do stars anymore..."

[pornboy000]

Very cool actor and man. And this advert he did for The Sunday Times a few years ago was delightful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcOqPOvBDOg

[devifemme]

A class act, no doubt.

[awakenyourfaith]

Well said.

[devifemme]

Thanks, sweetie. Still keeping those pre-dawn hours??

[awakenyourfaith]

You're welcome :) And yep - old habits die hard.

[ggary]

He was one of those actors who, to an extent, were always playing themselves. That white-suited, self-mocking, dissipated, cigarette-holdered dandy with a drink in one hand, is a character who turns up in more than one of his films. I read a fascinating story about what happened when his marriage to Sian Philips broke up. He stormed out of his beautiful Georgian house in Hampstead and moved into digs. Things moved on, and he went to live elsewhere. About three years ago, an elderly Hampstead neighbour of his wrote a letter to him. It said "I'm sorry to bother you but I thought you might like to know that there's a tree growing from your basement right up to your roof". Checking up, he discovered that Philips had moved out of the house shortly after he did. He still owned the house, but no-one had lived in it for thirty years, and it was returning to nature!

[devifemme]

Great story! Hampstead is such a lovely zone -- hard for me, a Yank, to imagine a tree could take over a house with little reaction -- but the neighbor's "sorry to bother you..." says it all!

[karenpiper]

I really like Lawrence of Arabia too, but why no mention of Supergirl? He must've been really drunk when he accepted that one.

Sad too to hear that Joan Fontaine died on the same day. I thought she was wonderful in those early Hitchcocks, Rebecca and Suspicion are two of my favourite films. Always so beautiful and classy. We'll never see the like of either of them again.

[devifemme]

Actually, Karen, I'm pleased at your fondness for Joan's work. The obits this side of the Pond all focus on the rivalry between Joan and her sis, Olivia de Havilland (their uncle was the aircraft manufacturer, while their mom's maiden name was Fontaine). Joan started in film later than Olivia, but won the first Oscar (for Suspicion); Olivia won one a few years later, and each scorned the other's successes. Earlier, Joan was turned down for the role of Melanie in Gone with the Wind, but successfully pitched her sis for it -- and Olivia supposedly hated Joan for that... And it went on like that for over four decades!

Supergirl was a flop, with O'Toole earning Harvard's not-so-beloved Golden Raspberry Award nomination for Worst Actor of the year. And, yeah, drunk could account for it, I gather...