18 мая в театре Old Vic состоялся вечер памяти Питера O'Тула.
Всё, что известно об этом мероприятии, что Бенедикт присутствовал там, рассказал о своей первой встречи с О'Тулом.



Ashes of Peter O’Toole kept safe in Aras as Cumberbatch and Spacey pay tribute

статья в Irish Post
The ashes of acting legend Peter O’Toole currently reside with the President of Ireland in Áras an Uachtaráin ready to be scattered near his daughter’s home in Co Galway later this year.
Kate O’Toole revealed the plans for her late father’s remains at a special memorial concert hosted at the Old Vic in London over the weekend.
Still Loitering – A Celebration of the life and work of Peter Seamus O’Toole brought acting finery from across the globe to O’Toole’s favourite London theatre venue on Sunday, May 18 – among them Kevin Spacey, Stephen Fry, Sinead Cusack and Benedict Cumberbatch.
President Higgins and wife Sabina, both long-term friends of the actor, were special guests for the occasion.
Actors Stephen Rea and Omar Shariff were among the 350 guests who attended the rambunctious showcase of words and acting which brought together friends, family and fans of the man whom ‘everybody loved’.
Princess Diana’s brother Earl Spencer was also in the crowd for the celebratory collaboration.
Under the hilarious direction of MC Barry Cryer, those closest to O’Toole bade a final farewell to the Galway-born actor, who rose to fame following his role in Lawrence of Arabia in 1962 and enjoyed a consistently successful career until his passing in December 2013.
Sinéad Cusack read A Valediction Forbidding Mourning by John Dune, which she described as a ‘fitting love poem’ on a day celebrating the man ‘everybody loved’.
“All I was was an adoring fan who sat at Peter’s feet gazing awestruck at the legend,” she added. Elsewhere Old Vic Artistic Director Kevin Spacey gave a series of expletive-ridden anecdotes from his years spent ‘learning’ from the industry stalwart, who remained a regular at the Old Vic right up until his death, with a tendency to tell Spacey ‘exactly what he thought’ of each and every performance.
Sharing his unshakable affection for the Irish actor, Spacey added: “As long as this theatre is standing his spirit is alive and well, in this very building.”
With the likes of Fergus Slattery, Trevor Eve and Albert Finney also on the bill, the tributes came thick, fast and emotionally, but the laughter never stopped.
But it was daughter Kate who gave the audience the most up to date account of O’Toole’s journey, sharing the news that his body lay in state in a north London morgue alongside that of London criminal Ronnie Biggs, ahead of his funeral last December.
“That would have tickled him,” she added, before revealing that his ashes are currently residing with his ’very good friend ‘President Higgins, until the family buries them later this year.
“They will be buried near my place in Galway overlooking the sea and the islands where his roots were,” she explained. “The west of Ireland was the most important place in the world to him.”
The occasion was also used to launch the Peter O’Toole prize, an annual prize which will be given to two young actors from the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, including a professional contract at Bristol Old Vic Theatre, where O’Toole launched his own career.
It was revealed by Stephen Fry, who claimed the prize ‘expressed’ Peter’s passion for young people and ‘keeping the art of the theatre alive’.
The showcase closed with a series of musical numbers, including The Galway Girl by Mundy and Sharon Shannon and a choir-led version of The Parting Glass, which brought a poignant end to a rousing afternoon.

Larger than life actor Peter O’Toole remembered at Old Vic

статья в The Irish Times

The ashes of Peter O’Toole, the larger than life Irish actor who died in December, will make a final journey to the West of Ireland this year. For now, however, they are in the safe hands of an old friend, President Michael D Higgins, in Áras an Uachtaráin.
Several hundred actors including Kevin Spacey, Stephen Fry, Stephen Rea, Sinead Cusack and Jeremy Irons gathered in the Old Vic theatre in London yesterday for Still Loitering, a celebration of O’Toole’s life and work.
There, too, was Omar Sharif, the Egyptian actor who played Sherif Ali of the Harith in David Lean’s 1962 film, Lawrence of Arabia, the film that has defined both men in the more than 50 years that have elapsed since.
However, the guest of honour was Mr Higgins, a friend of Mr O’Toole since 1969, who travelled from Dublin with his wife, Sabina – though his custody of the late actor’s ashes was unknown until it was revealed by O’Toole’s daughter, Kate.
“I brought my father’s ashes home to Ireland where they are currently in safe deposit with the President, who is minding them for me until I get a chance to return home to fulfil his wishes,” she said.
O’Toole, who had a house in Clifden for 30 years, will “be buried near my place in Galway overlooking the sea and the islands where his roots were. The west of Ireland was the most important place in the world to him.”
Everything about O’Toole was theatrical, larger than life; never ordinary. In death, he lay “in repose” in a north London funeral home. Next to him lay bank robber Ronnie Biggs. “He would have been tickled pink,” laughed his daughter.
Everywhere there were stories. Through the laughter, and there was much of it, there were tears, too. Albert Finney broke down, remembering that they joined the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London together in 1953. Trevor Eve, too, had a catch in his throat.
Preparing for the role of TE Lawrence, her father had read Lawrence’s Seven Pillars of Wisdom, where Lawrence had written that “the dreamers of the day are dangerous men because they may act out their dreams with open eyes”.
“My father took those words to heart when he was studying for the role. But I am sure that he understood long before he read them,” said his daughter, “The world has lost a great actor, no doubt. But I am not concerned about that – I have simply lost a great dad.”
Apologising in advance to Sr Agnes Curley, a friend of O’Toole’s, film star Benedict Cumberbatch went on to tell a story about his first meeting with O’Toole, which ended with colourful expletives from the departed actor.
In his speech, Mr Higgins said he had come to honour “the life and work and Peter Seamus O’Toole”, a man of “immense charm, grace, intelligence and eloquence”, whose friendship he missed every day since his passing.
Turning to Hollywood actor Kevin Spacey, the artistic director of the Old Vic for the last decade, Mr Higgins said: “In Clifden, where Peter lived, the first thing a speaker might do is thank the parish priest for the use of the hall, so thank you”.
“We all know that time spent in Peter’s company could never be described as monotonous. He transformed the most routine or mundane experience into exciting drama,” said Mr Higgins.
O’Toole was “so self-consciously Irish”, though it “may have hurt”, Mr Higgins told the audience, when he was rejected in the early days of his career by the Abbey Theatre’s drama school “on the grounds that he could not speak Irish”.
In time, however, he performed Beckett, O’Casey and Shaw, before playing the role of Jim Larkin in RTÉ’s Strumpet City, the story of the 1913 Lockout. “In terms of his identity and his convictions it was very rewarding for Peter.”
The Old Vic was an appropriate place to bid farewell to O’Toole, the stage where he took his final curtain in the lead role of Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell – a performance that is today still spoken of in hushed tones by actors.
However, the memory will live on in the Peter O’Toole Prize, which will pay the wages of new actors in the Bristol Old Vic – the place O’Toole went to in search of a break when it was denied to him by the Abbey.
Following Mr Higgins’s election to the presidency, O’Toole – a passionate lover of rugby – had written a note of congratulations to him, “impishly suggesting that we could both get good seats at the Six Nations test matches”.
“I miss him,” said Mr Higgins. “To have had his friendship was a great gift. I imagine Peter’s soul walking the Sky Road in Clifden, on guard against the return of the rabbits [who damaged his garden]”, still coaching cricket and still shouting at the television.”

A MEMORIAL FOR PETER O'TOOLE



Кевин Спейси, сестра Агнесса, Бенедикт; Бенедикт и Альберт Финни.

статья в Trey Speegle
How do you untangle a life? I’m in London for Peter O’Toole‘s Memorial celebration. How do I tell you about why I’m here, somewhat briefly. The simple answer is Kate O’Toole invited me. So, we’ll start there. My good friend Kate, who’s father was the famous Peter, has been untangling her father’s life and tying up loose ends since his death last December at age 81. She has been working on this production like crazy and I wanted to come and support her and see her Dad off. I had met him a dozen years ago and we all had fun time in LA in 2007 when he was up for his 8th Oscar and lost again (they gave him an honorary one a few years before.) Anyway, I’m staying in his house with her and a few friends and yesterday was the big day that Kate and legions have been working on non-stop.
It started with the arrival of Michael D. Higgins, the President of Ireland, who was an old friend of Peter’s, as well as Kate’s. The lineup of guests and speakers were impressive, including Earl Spencer (Diana’s brother) Jeremy Irons (his wife, Sinead Cusack is in Other Desert Cities with Martha Plimpton, who is also there) but even moreso in action, were the speakers. Benedict Cumberbatch – who was at college with Peter’s young son, Lorcan O'Toole. He said that Lorcan had brought Benedict (I think it's "Benny" to meet his Dad. In sight of all but out of earshot, everyone could see them talking and sudden Peter said "CUNT!" really loudly. Afterward, everyone asked if Peter O'Toole had just called him a cunt and he said, "No, but if he had, I would put it on my gravestone." Nice opener.
In between, we got President Michael D. Higgins in a wonderful, personal tribute, and an overcome 79 year-old Albert Finney, who began by choking back the tears to say that he and Peter were at school together at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in ’53, which he asked to the ceiling “was just a week ago, right?” The theatre where the event was being held, The Old Vic, was where Peter worshipped and was worshipped through 5 decades. Kevin Spacey, the former artistic director there was in rare form (the President joked that he hoped that Francis Underwood, Spacey’s character on House of Cards, had no aspirations to his post, to which Kevin replied later in his remarks that the President had no worries, as Underwood was eying Vatican City and saw no reason there shouldn’t be a Francis the second. He had wonderful stories to tell about the Old Vic and interactions with P’OT over the years. I’ll tell you the best one:
When it was being announced that Kevin Spacey would become the new Artistic Director of the Old Vic in 2003, Kevin asked Peter if he would come to a morning press conference at the theatre, to which Peter replied, “Fuck off!!” So, he tried again by asking if he would possibly come to an evening performance to kick-off the announcement, to which he got, “There’s rugby this afternoon, if my team wins I’ll come, otherwise, Fuck off!” So, the morning came and went and Spacey got no word and the at the beginning of the performance that night the stage manager came to him to say, “Mr. O’Toole is here.” So, Peter came onstage and they had a nice interaction and they went off stage together. So, they are standing together in the wings, as Elton John and Courtney Love are now singing, “The Bitch Is Back”. Courtney has persuaded Elton to let her wear his 70s duck outfit. So, Kevin is watching Peter’s expression run the gamut from A to Z and back again as Courtney decides to, without mentioning to anyone prior, that she would do a strip tease out of her duck costume as they are singing. Peter after watching her for half a minute exclaimed, “SHE’S A GOOD DUCK!”
There were SO many other great stories that this could become a 10,000 word New Yorker piece, so I’ll not go on and on but one does start with actor John Standing, reciting Noel Coward‘s “I Went To A Marvelous Party”, and later contained John’s imitation of Peter saying in Ireland, just up the road from a convent, “Have you ever fucked a nun before?” It finished by one nun, Sister Agnes Curly, all 4’10″ of her, refuting the story in front of an adoring crowd. If she were a stand-up, you would say that “she killed”.
It was a wonderful tribute with actual sword fights, bawdy humor, and tons of appreciation for a great man that we all loved. It wasn’t one of those show-off, one upsmanship affairs, which are tedious and annoying. Memorials are truly for the living because the dead don’t care, of course, but this one hit all the right notes and painted a picture of a life well-lived in every way possible. Omar Sharif was there (just barely) and several others could not attend because of work commitments like Dame Judi Dench and the great Derek Jacobi (who was in I, Claudius with Kate’s Mom, Sian Philips, as well as Laertes to Peter’s Hamlet at the Old Vic in '63) I was honored myself to be invited at all, let alone to be seated front row center. It WAS a memorial – but it was also one HELL of a show. Kate’s reprise of the eulogy she gave at the funeral put a deeply personal note on the symphony:
To prepare for the role of TE Lawrence, Dad had read Lawrence’s “Seven Pillars of Wisdom”, where Lawrence had written that “…the dreamers of the day are dangerous men because they may act out their dreams with open eyes. This I did.” “My father took those words to heart when he was studying for the role. But I am sure he understood them long before he ever read them. The world has lost a great actor, no doubt, but I’m not concerned about that – I have simply lost a great dad.” She went on to say, “I brought my father’s ashes home to Ireland where they are currently in safe deposit with the President, who is minding them for me until I get a chance to return home to fulfil his wishes. He’ll be buried near my place in Galway overlooking the sea and the islands where his roots lie. The west of Ireland was the most important place in the world to him.”
It was beautiful, moving and perfect. And as Ireland’s President, Michael D. Higgins said in his speech, “O’Toole was destined to be a star, and when he was a boy he had written in his notebook:
"‘I will not be a common man. I will stir the smooth sands of monotony.’”
Afterward, there was a great party for 100 or so at Peter’s member’s only club, The Garrick. Without too much explanation, suffice to say, if the Queen had a pub/ club, it would be The Garrick. (Although, she would be the only female member as it doesn’t allow women in as members, only as guests.) Look at the joint. The greatest actors of their time have belonged for nearly 200 years, and many of their portraits now hang in the rooms we were in, including Lawrence Olivier andNoel Coward. We all ate, drank and chatted away 3+ hours in no time. And toward the end, when there were less than 50 of us left, we were treated to a song that Sister Agnes wrote and performed just for us. Watch it. And watch out – here comes The Singing Nun, 2014. (The audio is a bit bad at the beginning, but it gets better. Stay until the end bi if you think she's just a name-dropping nun.)
I’ll end this with a video commentary Peter made for TCM just two years ago when they did a tribute to his career and he put his feet in cement at The Chinese Theater. There were no clips of movies at the memorial or really much film talk at all, but if you haven’t seem some of his most remarkable performances in Lawrence of Arabia, The Lion In Winter or Goodbye, Mister Chips, or you want to revisit them, here is Peter Seamus O’Toole in his own words, with a very fitting ending. He’s gone, but we’ve got him on film, thank God. And, no matter how it was said, everyone that day was saying the same thing, essentially; “Wow. Wasn’t he GREAT and weren’t we damned LUCKY to have known him?” To me, that’s the best that any of us could ever hope for.





Говорят, что на где-то на фото есть Бенедикт.

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