Peter O’Toole’s own battle with booze had for a long time been won. ‘I drank
because I enjoyed it, not to solve a problem or because I needed a crutch. It
was easy to give up.’ He ‘missed, though, the simple pleasure of boozing and
still frequented pubs, careful to order nothing stronger than lemonade. ‘I like
being around men with jars in their hands. Sober people, they’re not for me
Such abstinence reminded him of the example he would have loved to have
followed himself, that of the old comedian Max Miller who was told by his
doctor to cut all his activities by half. Miller duly sat on his yacht for six months
doing nothing. Then he returned.to six months of working the clubs, eating
and drinking heavily and honking like mad. ‘What a perfect division,’ thought
O’Toole.
Smoking was now the only act of defiance left to the actor. His prefer
ence was for Gauloise cigarettes that he chain-smoked in a long, black holder
equipped with a filter as a concession to health. ‘I give up smoking from
time to time,’ he said, "but, as a kid, I always had what Dylan Thomas called
a “conscious woodbine” hanging out of my gob.’ Such was his devotion
the habit that a friend once complained, ‘Peter, you smell like a French train"
****
John Boorman won’t forget his experience of working with Marvin
either on Point Blank, shot in LA. He and some friends went to dinner with
Marvin at a sea front restaurant. When it was time to leave Boorman could
see that Marvin was in no fit state to drive home and told him so. ‘Fuck
you,’ said Marvin as he missed with a punch at the directors head. Boorman
grabbed the keys to Marvin’s own Chrysler station wagon and got in. Like
a wild animal Marvin prowled around the vehicle, bashing it occasionally,
until finally climbing onto the bonnet and up onto the roof rack. Everyone
pleaded for him to come down but he refused. Carefully Boorman drove
along the harbour front hoping some of the sea air might sober Marvin
up. It didn’t, he just snarled and refused to budge. The streets looked pretty
deserted so Boorman decided to take a chance and drive down the Pacific
Coast Highway towards Malibu. just minutes later he saw flashing
lights in his rear view mirror. He pulled over. The patrolman walked
purposefully to the car, looked up, looked at Boorman and said, ‘Do you
know you have Lee Marvin on your roof ?’
To give you some idea of the terror Marvin could inflict on a produc-
tion, this is what Joshua Logan said about him after directing the star in
Paint Your Wagon in 1969. ‘Not since Attila the Hun swept across Europe
has there been a man like Lee Marvin.’
On the wrestling scene in Women in Love:
It was all a question of ego, each
was afraid his manhood would be outdone by the other’s. But in the event
Ollie cheated: before every take he disappeared behind a screen and gave
nature a helping hand. In a way they made history.’
On the morning of the shoot Reed had knocked up the landlord of his
local pub and got him to sell him two bottles of vodka which he then
took to Bates’s caravan where the actor sat looking deathly pale. ‘Drink
some of this,’ said Reed and they polished ofif a bottle each. The scene
took three days to complete, during which time the continuity girl, sitting
on a low stool, had a bird’s eye view of Reed’s cock. Giving it a towel
down between takes, ‘Trying to get a semi on so that it would look more
purposeful and stop all my girlfriends saying “why bother” and deserting
me,’ Reed noticed the continuity girl watching him with mounting interest.
She broke out in embarrassment when Reed returned her gaze and went
even redder when he suggested she go fetch a ruler to measure it." Just
for continuity, of course,’ he joked.
It’s difficult today to appreciate just what impact that scene had on audi
ences. Now of course it’s terribly tame, quaint even. Russell described how
a friend of his went to see the film again at a revival screening a few years
ago in a small town. He was the only person in the auditorium save for
two old dears in front of him. W'hen Reed and Bates stripped off and
started throwing each other round the room one of the pensioners said
to the other, ‘Nice carpet.’
labelled ‘Britain’s Brando’. In America too critics favourably compared him
to the method eccentric. Awards followed — an Oscar nomination and best
actor at the Cannes Film Festival. Harris attended the ceremony, pissed as
a newt, and when he heard his name called out as winner bounced onto
the stage. But when actress Jeanne Moreau handed him his award, inthe
shape of a plain box, Harris barked, ‘What’s this?’ Momentarily stunned
Jeanne composed herself. ‘Cufflinks,’ she said. ‘That’s what the best actor
gets.’ Harris clearly thought, fuck that, so he grabbed the biggest trophy
he could see, said thank you and darted off stage. Two gendarmes
attempted to retrieve the statue but Harris barged them asunder and
escaped into the night. The festival committee demanded the return of
the statue, which was inscribed for best animation film, and Harris finally
relented. The cufflinks were duly mailed to him. He kept them for years
but the incident still pissed'him oif. ‘Who gives cufflinks to an Olympic
medallist,-’ he moaned.
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