O'toole Oscar Winner?
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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 Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, Claude Rains, dom—Lawrences own account of his desert plenty. He dresses like a construction worker, Jose Ferrer, Anthony Quinn 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 Sam Spiegel, the squat, any two men who could agree on Lawrence." male actor 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 art 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 Albert Finney (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 Merchant of Venice, The Taming of I would have to go to the hospital. And that handsome enough but somehow fail to fit the the Shrew and Troilus and Cressida. 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 Errol Flynn. 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 London, 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 the stage." 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.