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Home , Albert Finney, Alec Guinness, Claude Rains

O'TOOLE

OSCAR WINNER? After conquering the desert and himself, the brash son of a bookie now is touted as a prize talent.

By TREVOR ARMBRISTER

Deter Seamus O'Toole is a cocky, outspoken, destiny through haunting stretches of desert. The cycle accident. He pored over the 40-odd books thin-shouldered Irishman who hates physical shimmering sand, whiplashing wind and cur- written by and about the man and nearly memo- exercise, shuns all forms of discipline and wears dling bloodbath of war backdrop a first-rate cast: rized all 661 pages of The Seven Pillars of Wis- green socks for luck—of which he lately has had , , , dom—Lawrences own account of his desert plenty. He dresses like a construction worker, Jose Ferrer, and Arthur Ken- campaigns—on which the Robert Bolt script is chews on a thumb and wears a smug expression nedy. Yet O'Toole dominates the film. He is on based. Reading was only the beginning. For that is somehow reminiscent of a grown-up camera for 218 minutes, and he spins off—now weeks he talked with men and women who had Peck's Bad Boy. Until quite recently, few people with arrogance, now with resignation—a record known Lawrence, both in the desert and, later, had ever heard of him. 648 lines. It is the longest speaking part in the in England, where he had returned to seek Yet as this issue went to press, the odds were history of mix, ies. anonymity in the Royal Air Force. better than two to one that members of the O'Toole came perilously close to missing the Yet in one sense, says O'Toole, the talks only Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences part entirely. "At first, when I acquired the rights complicated matters: "It was impossible to find would nominate O'Toole for an Oscar as the best for Lawrence," says , the squat, any two men who could agree on Lawrence." male of 1962. For weeks the movie-industry hawk-nosed, immensely gifted producer, "I In January, 1961—four months before shoot- grapevine has granted him an excellent chance of wanted Brando as my lead. He is a big name, and ing was scheduled to start—O'Toole began the winning. If this happens he would become, at 29, this is an expensive production." third and most demanding phase of his educa- the youngest and most unlikely unknown ever to Brando rejected the offer. He was already tion. He arrived in Jordan, determined to learn capture filmdom's top award. signed for Mutiny on the Bounty. If Spiegel the Arabic tongue, familiarize himself with The possibility sparks some natural questions, wanted to wait until he was through with that, Bedouin dress and master the of riding a for the august academy—whatever its faults—is then perhaps they could talk. Spiegel next turned camel. He had trouble almost immediately. seldom prone to flighty behavior. And answers to (Saturday Night and Sunday "After a few rides," recalls photographer Mark at first seem elusive. O'Toole's new eminence can Morning), a moody young British actor who, Kauffman, who camped out with the Lawrence hardly sprout from the breadth of his film ex- incredibly, also declined the part. Finally David entourage, "Peter developed a nasty cyst on his perience, which consists of a mere three pictures. Lean, director of Lawrence, suggested O'Toole. backside. It was bleeding and obviously painful, Nor can it stem entirely from his physical appear- Spiegel was skeptical. True, the young Irish- but he refused to complain." ance: A plastic surgeon straightened his nose a man had drawn rave reviews at the Shakespeare "I wasn't trying to be heroic," O'Toole ex- while back ; an oculist prescribed glasses after an Theater in Stratford-on-Avon for his perform- plained later. "I just knew that if I told someone, eye operation. His scruffy, rough-hewn looks are ances in , The Taming of I would have to go to the hospital. And that handsome enough but somehow fail to fit the the Shrew and . But Lawrence would have meant four more weeks in the God- Adonis mold. demanded an actor with skill—and perseverance. forsaken desert." O'Toole is colorful in a contradictory way. And Spiegel had heard of O'Toole's reputation In the beginning the Bedouin seemed hardly Off camera he fosters an engaging if not al- as a braggart and a drinker. hospitable. "I was scared stiff," O'Toole recalls; together true picture of himself as a brash, ir- "Sam was against me from the start," O'Toole "they wore guns and daggers aal sat for hours responsible sort—a latter-day . On says, wincing. "He believed those stories. We without saying a word. I was sure they were camera he changes pitch, seldom sulks, squeezes didn't get along at all. It hardly helped matters planning some untimely end for me. Finally I every shade of meaning from his lines in a furi- when a fifth of whiskey tumbled from my pocket realized that the Bedouin never speak unless ous, cast-iron desire to excel. "I'm the hardest- during our first meeting." they have something important to say. It was working bloody actor I know," he says, and there Egged on by Lean, however, Spiegel arranged wonderful, like being in a warm bath. For the is little doubt he believes it. for a screen test. When he saw the results he first time in my life I didn't have to push a Striking evidence of this is O'Toole's perform- decided he had found his man. conversation." ance in Lawrence of Arabia, the $13 million saga Surprisingly, O'Toole hedged at the contract In May, 1961, filming began at Jebel Tubeiq, of adventure in the desert which opened last offer. He insisted on a clause that allowed him a barren, uninhabited speck in the Jordanian December in , New York and Holly- to bring Sian, his wife, to the desert once a month desert 150 miles from the nearest oasis. Merely wood—just in time to qualify it, and him, for at the producer's expense. Spiegel, who had gaining access to Jordan presented problems for consideration in this year's Oscar balloting. refused such privileges to other members of several Jewish members of the unit. Spiegel— O'Toole is cast as T. E. Lawrence, the brash, the cast, was furious. At length he gave in. "I aware that Jordanian immigration officials often enigmatic British army lieutenant who swaggered would have taken this role for nothing," O'Toole barred Jews from entering—had to enlist the aid into the Jordanian desert in 1916, molded feuding admitted later. "And I would have done it with- of Anthony Nutting, a former British Foreign Arab tribes into a cohesive unit and turned them out the clause. But I couldn't tell Spiegel that." Office spokesman and close friend of Jordan's against the Turks—thus helping the Allies speed Hardly had he signed the contract when he King Hussein. And reportedly, letters had to be the end of World War I. began the arduous task of burrowing into Law- written explaining that the Jews were really O'Toole's performance is momentous. For rence's life, seeking clues to his mysterious Protestants. three hours and forty-two minutes a clattering motivation. He made visits to Lawrence's birth- These efforts hardly seemed worth the trouble. entourage of 2,000 camels and 15,000 men sprawls place in Wales and to Dorsetshire, England, The temperature at Jebel Tubeiq hissed above across the wide screen—galloping hell-bent for where Lawrence was killed in 1935 in a motor- 125 degrees during the day, and the nights grew 26 "If I wasn't sure I could deliver the bloody goods, I'd get off ."

O'Toole came home for good and checked into O'Toole snared a small part in the movie Kid- O'TOOLE a rest home in Surrey. As Lawrence he had napped and finally signed on as a lieutenant of suffered burns on his feet, temporary loss of the guards in Jules Buck's production of The Day bitterly cold. Scorpions and horned snakes use of two fingers from a camel bite, a sprained They Robbed the Bank of England. lurked in the sand. Food was airlifted from neck, an injured leg, a dislocated spine and Buck, a portly, balding man who is now Britain. Water, at three dollars per gallon, was several minor concussions. O'Toole's business partner, recalls that he wanted hauled across the steaming wastes in giant tank He got little rest. Producers flooded him with Peter to play the role of an Irishman. "But Peter trucks. "Physical discomfort," director Lean had scripts. Warner Brothers dangled the role of said no. He was going to be that lieutenant or said, "is the price of authenticity." Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady; Richard Brooks nothing at all. He didn't want to be known as By this time O'Toole could speak a passable suggested he do Lord Jim. It was a strange twist `Peter O'Toole—stage Irishman.— Arabic, ride a camel at 30 miles per hour and of fate for a young man who, only months before, On the basis of that performance he received don native robes with confidence. And now the had not even been able to pay his rent. For prior five movie-contract offers. Again he proved Bedouin were calling him "El-Aurens," the same to Lawrence the acting career of Peter O'Toole choosy. Turning down an estimated $100,000 in name they had once given Lawrence. Yet few was hardly a study in profit-making. fees, he decided to spend a season at Stratford. people expected him to plunge into the role with Mustered out of the in 1954 after "I needed the experience," he says now. But it the stamina he showed. "Ordinarily," muses a two-year stint on a submarine, he had come was also likely that the prospect of becoming, at Sian, "he hates physical exercise, but there he was to London with less than five dollars in his 26, the youngest leading man in the famous showing great endurance. It was almost as if he pockets. Unshaven, wearing sneakers and a theater's history tugged at his ego. And it was had somehow assimilated Lawrence's masochistic splotched green corduroy suit, he burst into the from Stratford that he moved to Lawrence. pleasure in driving himself to exhaustion." venerable Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and To his friends, the Peter O'Toole who re- "Peter broke his back for only one reason," demanded an immediate audition. Somewhat turned from the desert is not the man they used says one member of the cast. "That was David taken aback, examiners gave him oral and written to know. "No one," O'Toole retorts, "could Lean. Somehow word got around that Lean tests and later concluded that his performance spend months steeping himself in Arab philoso- didn't think Peter was tough enough. One time merited a scholarship. phy, customs and history without changing. I Lean made him run up and down a sand dune Graduated from R.A.D.A. two years later, would never do it again, but I would not have 25 times just to see if he could do it without blink- he spurned a possible film contract and journeyed missed it either. It was an adventure, a campaign." ing his eyes. Peter was determined to prove he instead to Bristol to join repertory If he has quieted down and become more could do it, and he did. That is the mark of a company. The pay was low, $22.40 a week, and respectable, as his friends charge, O'Toole is great director, getting a performance like that." for the first year of his stay he had to mail back nevertheless doing his best to maintain the old If the role was physically demanding, it was more than half of that to a landlord he had front. Even today with a relatively—for him— also dangerous. One afternoon, for a scene re- neglected to pay in London. bottomless bank account, he dresses slovenly, enacting a Lawrence raid on Turkish cavalry, "Finding enough to eat in Bristol," he says, spends money whimsically and tends to over- O'Toole led his "raiding party" of 50 Bedouin "was a constant challenge. I had to frequent little dramatize stories about himself and his family. in a camel charge against 400 other . The cafés looking for waitresses I could charm. The He never tires, for example, of telling how his latter, who belonged to a different tribe, resented girls felt sorry for me and usually let me have father, an Irish bookie, evaded the law; how he the Bedouin and resisted more fiercely than spaghetti and tomato sauce when the headman himself ended up in jail after badgering a police- necessary. Knocked off his mount, O'Toole fell wasn't looking. But that was all. Just spaghetti man, or how his ability for consuming ale set a to the ground and suffered a minor concussion. and tomato sauce." record—two and one half pints in 40 seconds— Despite such rigors O'Toole retained his sense at the Dirty Duck Pub. Most of the stories are of humor. One morning after struggling through Mein Papa was his break no longer taken at face value. a difficult scene he lumbered over to ask photog- "You can believe anything you want about his rapher Kauffman for a cigarette. Despite this existence, O'Toole drinking," says Alec Guinness, "but Peter is a "You know, Mark," he gasped, "if someone kept busy on stage. In three and one half years real professional. He threw no tantrums and had just given that bloody Lawrence a cigarette, at Bristol he played 72 roles, ranging in depth hardly missed a single moment of rehearsal time. a bottle of whiskey and a woman 44 years ago, from to a comedy part in a Christmas I can't say a thing beastly about him." none of us would be in this bloody place today." pantomime. Finally in 1957 he got a chance to Since leaving Stratford, O'Toole has turned At the end of September, 1961, weakened by appear in the West End, London's equivalent of down 20 movie and stage roles. He is taking his dysentery, insect bites and loss of weight, Lean's Broadway. The role called for an old man to time to make sure of his choices. Curiously "Mobile Maniacs" returned to England for a sing Oh, Mein Papa and it was an unlikely enough, most of the roles he has accepted hardly rest. The film was half completed: There still vehicle for a young, ambitious, nonsinging Irish- threaten to increase his box-office stature. remained six months' shooting in Spain, three man. O'Toole accepted it anyway and rehearsed At this moment, for example, he is starring on months' work in Morocco and several weeks of without pay. But just as opening night loomed, the London stage in Bertolt Brecht's Baal, a interior filming at home. Yet even at this point an income-tax collector came calling. weird and far-out excursion in which O'Toole rumors of O'Toole's performance were sweeping "That chap was going to confiscate everything plays a guitar-strumming poet. He has signed for London, and critics started comparing him— I owned," O'Toole grins. "But all he could find $500,000 to play King Henry II in Paramount somewhat presumptuously—with Lawrence. was one guitar, two bongo drums, a moth-eaten Pictures's production of Jean Anouilh's Becket, There is some basis for that comparison. Both overcoat, five shaggy shirts and twelve pairs of and after that he talks of appearing in Lord Jim men have Irish blood; both are ambiguous in worn boxer shorts. He took one look at the col- and in a low-budget film production of Waiting manner. Both men went into the desert in their lection, and that was the last I heard of him." for Godot. Some of these roles are not what one 20's, and both gained acceptance by the Arabs in From that moment on, his luck seemed to might expect from a potential Oscar winner, but the same ceremony—when they doffed their change. In a drama called The Holiday, he met they do point to an O'Toole contention: "I'm Army uniforms and put on the robes and head- Sian Phillips, a young, doe-eyed Welsh actress not a leading man; just a character actor." bands of Arab leaders. But there comparison who played the part of his sister on stage. "She "Peter may think of himself this way," insists falters. Physically, Lawrence was a runty five knew I was straight from repertory theater," producer Spiegel. "but the fact is that he exudes feet four; O'Toole is six feet. Lawrence was a O'Toole explains, "so she presumed I would have lead. He combines sensitivity and virility as few scholar and an introvert. O'Toole, who aban- no money. After a while she began taking me to have ever done before. The early Barry- doned school at 13—"the other students were dinner." Several months after the play went on more had it; the early Brando had it. Peter has not as brilliant as I was"—is an extrovert. the road, Peter and Sian were married. it. If he avoids the pitfalls and does not succumb Lawrence loved the desert. O'Toole hated it. His next West End play, The Long and the to the adoration almost certainly in store for In December, 1961, the crew trekked to the Short and the Tall, put him over the top. London him, he could become one of the great actors." ancient Spanish cities of Seville and Almeria, critics, a normally frosty lot, applauded his inter- Says O'Toole himself, "I am a professional. then later moved on to Morocco. By August, pretation of an uncouth soldier and gave him If I wasn't sure I could deliver the bloody goods, 1962, the major portion of the film was in the can. their Actor of the Year award. Encouraged, I would get off the bloody stage." THE END 28