Both an Actor AND a Movie Star!

Jeff Cohen

With the death of Peter O'Toole on Saturday, millions around the world had a moment in which they stopped, felt a little sorry, and moved on. And normally, that is the very reaction I have when a celebrity of some significance (to me--everybody picks and chooses) leaves this life.

Not this time.

I haven't seen the obituaries yet, but I'm sure many if not all will begin with O'Toole's role in LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, his first starring role and a landmark film (which I've always thought was something of a snorefest, but I'm seriously in the minority on that). Some will discuss his work in BECKET or LORD JIM, and they will speak of his eight Oscar nominations without a win--a record--and his honorary Academy Award, the supposed "consolation prize" given to such second-tier film personalities as Charles Chaplin, Groucho Marx and Alfred Hitchcock. 

That "second-tier" thing was meant to be read sarcastically, folks.

But for me, the serious, important Peter O'Toole is not the one I will very fondly remember. I am a big fan of THE LION IN WINTER and a great devotee to the little-seen THE STUNT MAN. From my point of view, however, those were excellent performances, but they did not endear me to the actor.

Not like MY FAVORITE YEAR.

In that 1982 comedy, made by Mel Brooks's Brooksfilms production house and based on Brooks's own experiences working on Your Show Of Shows in the 1950s, O'Toole played Alan Swann, an Errol Flynn-type swashbuckling action star now aging and reduced to appearing on a television sketch comedy show to make up a debt to the IRS. A young writer named Benjy Stone (Mark Linn-Baker) is assigned the task of making sure the alcoholic Swann shows up for each rehearsal sober, or it'll be his job.

(By the way, MY FAVORITE YEAR was written by Norman Steinberg and Dennis Palumbo. Dennis, a psychologist by profession, now writes mystery novels. So there's your crime fiction connection for this week's post.)

The performance was everything you don't expect a Peter O'Toole role to be. He did his own pratfalls. He kept up with some serious comedy performers line for line. He was charming even as he acted like a total jerk to nice characters. He exposes himself to Selma Diamond, and we chuckle because he is clearly doing so in a good-natured way.

Alan Swann is even good-humored enough to accompany his writer/guard to Brooklyn, where the ultimate Jewish mother (Lainie Kazan) hosts a dinner party that must not be missed. And he tutors the younger man in his romantic life (after hitting on the object of Benjy's affections himself). They drink together, room together, steal a policeman's horse together, and form a real bond.

When the nature of the show (live, in front of an audience) is revealed to him, Swann has a huge panic attack, noting that he has not performed in front of an audience in 28 years and never gets it right on the first take. Famously, Swann yells, "I'm not an actor--I'm a movie star!"

Yes, I'll miss Peter O'Toole, but I'll REALLY miss Alan Swann.

Of course, Swann appeared only in the one film, and I can see him on DVD or Blu-Ray whenever I feel like it. So I won't miss Alan Swann, because he has not died. But the man who played him, who had the nerve to parody himself and the talent to do so honestly, hilariously, and touchingly all at once, is gone and that's too bad.

Yes, I'm sure LAWRENCE OF ARABIA is a masterful epic that I simply don't appreciate sufficiently. I know for a fact that BECKET is an important film and that its cast was astoundingly good. I have no doubts that THE LION IN WINTER required a huge performance, and that one was delivered.

But there is an ending that was shot for MY FAVORITE YEAR that never got used. In it, Benjy Stone, now a middle aged man, visits the grave of Alan Swann and pours a drink into the well-manicured grass over it. And that's the way I feel today. 

Here's to you, Peter O'Toole. You had a wonderful career, and in the course of it, perhaps even incidentally from your point of view, you gave me Alan Swann. Thanks for him.

Comments

[Annette Naish]

Jeff, I agree with you. I was a fan of Peter O'Toole. He did some remarkable roles (keeping up with Ms Katherine Hepburn at a time when she seemed to be in her chewing scenery mode was an accomplishment). But, when he casually uses a fire hose to go over the side of a building, or talks fights with Benjy's step father, or swings down to the stage in that silly blue satin suit... I got the impression that Mr O'Toole lived his life exactly the way he chose. I hope so, because Alan Swann would have done just as he pleased and Mr O'Toole deserved nothing less.

[Janet McCord]

I couldn't agree more! My Favorite Year is such a wonderful, wonderful movie on so many levels and Peter O'Toole stole the show for sure! I've never been able to sit through the entire Lawrence of Arabia. I also loved Mr. O'Toole in High Spirits, another '80's movie (in which Liam Neeson actually speaks in an Irish accent) where he plays an owner of a run-down, failing castle/hotel in Ireland. His hilarious attempt to make the castle "haunted" to attract more visitors when the castle is actually haunted is so much fun. I've watched it every Halloween since it came out. RIP Peter O'Toole.

[Dennis Palumbo]

Thanks, Jeff, for your wonderful post about O'Toole and MY FAVORITE YEAR. Thanks too for citing me as the screenplay's co-author. But there's no doubt in my mind that it was O'Toole's performance that made that film what it was.

Dennis Palumbo