The Lion in Winter

Pop Culture 101 - THE LION IN WINTER The movie was based on James Goldman's play, which starred Robert Preston, Rosemary Harris and Christopher Walken when it opened on Broadway in March 1966. The play was a flop at the time, but has since become a popular staple for theaters ranging from Broadway to small-town community troupes. A recent New York revival starred Laurence Fishburne and Stockard Channing. The story was remade for television in 2003 with Patrick Stewart as Henry and Glenn Close as Eleanor. This was the second time O'Toole played Henry II on screen. His earlier performance of the role was in Becket (1964). Between 1923 and 2003, the king has been a character in six other films. In addition to Hepburn and Close, Eleanor of Aquitaine has been portrayed on screen by Martita Hunt in The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men (1952), Pamela Brown in Becket (1964) and Jane Lapotaire in the British TV series The Devil's Crown (1978), opposite Brian Cox as Henry. King Richard the Lionhearted (played here as a prince by Anthony Hopkins) has appeared in dozens of movies and has been played on screen by Wallace Beery, Sean Connery, Richard Harris, George Sanders, Patrick Stewart and Peter Ustinov, among many others. His brother John (played here by Nigel Terry), who also later became king, has also figured in a number of movies, particularly stories about Robin Hood. He has been played by Ian Holm, Claude Rains, Richard Lewis and others. Director Anthony Harvey handled another historical royal subject in The Abdication (1974), with Liv Ullmann as Sweden's Queen Kristina, a role made famous by Greta Garbo in 1933. Writer James Goldman later wrote screenplays about other real-life royalty: the last czar of Russia in Nicholas and Alexandra (1971) and Nicholas' daughter in Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna (1986), a made-for-TV movie. He also returned to the Middle Ages for Robin and Marian (1976), with Sean Connery as Robin Hood and Audrey Hepburn as Maid Marian, late in their lives. Goldman also adapted his own play again for the 2003 TV version of The Lion in Winter. Nigel Terry, who played the future King John in this film, did not make another picture for 13 years until he played another legendary English king, Arthur, in John Boorman's Excalibur (1981). He also played King Louis of France in The Hunchback (1997), a TV movie version of Victor Hugo's novel Notre Dame de Paris. by Rob Nixon

THE LION IN WINTER - Trivia and Other Fun Stuff The movie was not marketed like most general release films; it opened on a reserved-seat basis with audiences paying top dollar for tickets, as if it were a prestigious live theater production. Hepburn had a longstanding policy of never appearing at the Academy Awards presentation, even when she was nominated, and a great reluctance (at that time) to appear on television. But for the award show to be telecast in Spring 1968, she taped a segment from London dressed in her Eleanor of Aquitaine costume. She spoke about the first ten years of the Oscars¿ in one of four segments covering the four-decade history of the awards. Years before this picture and after seeing O'Toole perform on stage, Hepburn urged producer Sam Spiegel to cast the relative unknown in the lead in Lawrence of Arabia (1962), although Spiegel wanted Albert Finney. Peter O'Toole named his daughter Kate, after Hepburn. Harvey directed his good friend Katharine Hepburn twice more: Grace Quigley (1984) and the TV movie This Can't Be Love (1994). He directed O'Toole again in the TV movie Svengali (1983). Jane Merrow (Princess Alais) appeared in his TV movie The Patricia Neal Story (1981) and John Castle (Geoffrey) was in his Eagle's Wing (1979). Anthony Harvey started his film career as an actor at the age of 14, appearing with Claude Rains and Vivien Leigh in Caesar and Cleopatra (1945). He later became an editor and cut the Stanley Kubrick pictures Lolita (1962) and Dr. Strangelove (1964). Award-winning cinematographer Douglas Slocombe started in motion pictures in Great Britain in 1940 and lensed most of the famous Ealing Studios comedies of the 1950s. He went on to photograph Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and the Indiana Jones series. This was the feature film debut for both Nigel Terry and Timothy Dalton. It has often been credited as Anthony Hopkins' film debut, but he actually appeared first in Lindsay Anderson's The White Bus (1967). Screenwriter James Goldman was the brother of William Goldman, Academy Award-winning author of the screenplays for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) and All the President's Men (1976). John Barry has composed music for more than 100 films and TV shows, including a dozen James Bond movies. In addition to his award for The Lion in Winter, he has won Oscars¿ for his scores for Born Free (1966), Out of Africa (1985) and Dances with Wolves (1990). Hepburn claimed she was descended from Eleanor, tracing her lineage back to children from the queen's marriages to both Henry and the king of France. Although some elements of history were changed for dramatic purposes and the dialogue was obviously contemporized, the story of The Lion in Winter was mostly faithful to historical fact, and some of the speeches make reference to true incidents in the lives of the real-life characters depicted here. For instance, Eleanor did lead troops in the Crusades dressed as an Amazon; she was rumored to have had an affair with Henry's father before marrying the future English king after her annulment from the King of France, and she really was imprisoned for 15 years for leading a rebellion against her husband. She did outlive him, however, and because of her beauty, sophistication, political keenness and power (unusual for a woman in her day), she has become regarded as one of the most important and influential women in history. As for the battling sons of the story, Eleanor got her way (and a restoration to power) when Richard succeeded Henry after his death. When Richard was captured and held hostage on his way back to England from the Crusades, his brother John reigned in his place (a central fact in the Robin Hood legend). Eleanor used her considerable pull to have Richard released. After Richard's death, John ascended the throne but was so unpopular a ruler he was forced in 1215 to sign the Magna Carta, a series of concessions granted to his rebellious barons that established for the first time a very significant constitutional principle, namely that the power of the king could be limited by a written grant. Famous Quotes from THE LION IN WINTER ELEANOR (Katharine Hepburn): In a world where carpenters get resurrected, everything is possible. HENRY (Peter O'Toole): Now see here, boy! PHILIP (Timothy Dalton): I am a king. I am no man's "boy"! HENRY: A king? Because you put your ass on purple cushions? JOHN (Nigel Terry): Poor John. Who says poor John? Don't everybody sob at once! My God, if I went up in flames there's not a living soul who'd pee on me to put the fire out! RICHARD (Anthony Hopkins): Let's strike a flint and see. ELEANOR: I made Louis take me on Crusade. I dressed my maids as Amazons and rode bare-breasted halfway to Damascus. Louis had a seizure and I damn near died of windburn. But the troops were dazzled. HENRY: Oh God, but I do love being king! ELEANOR: Henry's bed is Henry's province, he may people it with sheep if he wishes. Which upon occasion he has done. HENRY: I'm villifying you for God's sake -pay attention! ELEANOR: I could peel you like a pear and God himself would call it justice! ELEANOR: What would you have me do? Give out? Give up? Give in? HENRY: Give me a little peace. ELEANOR: A little? Why so modest? How about eternal peace? Now there's a thought. HENRY: The day those stout hearts band together is the day that pigs get wings. ELEANOR: There'll be pork in the treetops come morning. JOHN: A knife! He's got a knife! ELEANOR: Of course he has a knife, he always has a knife, we all have knives! It's 1183 and we're all barbarians! ELEANOR: Henry? HENRY: Hmmm? ELEANOR: I have a confession. HENRY: Yes? ELEANOR: I don't much like our children. ELEANOR: What family doesn't have its ups and downs? Compiled by Rob Nixon

The Big Idea Behind THE LION IN WINTER James Goldman's stage play about the lives and intrigues of the Plantagenets opened on Broadway in March 1966 with Robert Preston as King Henry II and Rosemary Harris (most recently seen as Aunt May in Spider-Man, 2002) as his estranged wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine. Although Harris' performance made her a star and brought her a Tony Award, the production received mixed reviews and closed in less than three months at a substantial loss. But with the recent success of A Man for All Seasons (1966), an epic film about historical England adapted from a much more successful play, film producers were looking for similar material that could offer a combination of prestige and box-office performance. Producer Martin Poll thought The Lion in Winter was a natural and approached Peter O'Toole, who had played the same character to much success (and an Academy Award nomination) in Becket (1964). The film version of The Lion in Winter provided Katharine Hepburn with some much-needed focus and a new lease on her long acting career. After Spencer Tracy's death in 1967, many people believed Hepburn would retire from acting. When she received the screenplay (adapted by first-time screenwriter James Goldman from his own play) and learned Peter O'Toole (who she had championed early in his career) would play Henry, she jumped at the chance to return to work. "What was fascinating about the play was its modernness," Hepburn said, "This wasn't about pomp and circumstance but about a family, a wife trying to protect her dignity and a mother protecting her children." Hepburn became more excited about the project after seeing a film made by the director O'Toole was favoring. Anthony Harvey's only other directorial effort, Dutchman (1966), was as far removed from Henry and Eleanor as could be imagined -a harsh, contemporary urban drama of racism based on the play by Amiri Baraka. But Hepburn found the film "absolutely riveting. It grabbed you by the throat. Exactly the approach that our material needed. Not that glossy old MGM stuff, but cold people living in cold castles." Hepburn was also fascinated by Harvey's background as an editor, a profession she admired greatly. The two hit it off instantly and became great friends for the rest of her life. Even with Hepburn, O'Toole and Harvey on board, producer Martin Poll still had a hard time getting financial backing and guaranteed distribution. Finally, he arranged a deal with independent producer Joseph Levine. While negotiations dragged on with potential backers and distributors, Hepburn agreed to make the film version of Jean Giraudoux's play The Madwoman of Chaillot (1969). When the financing finally came through, everyone had to rush into overdrive to get The Lion in Winter ready to shoot in time to release Hepburn for the other picture. She undertook research and read everything she could find on Eleanor of Aquitaine, adding many extra touches to the script. She and her assistant also went to France and toured Fontevrault, where Eleanor, Henry II and their son Richard are buried. O'Toole took charge of the casting, catching many stage productions and calling friends for suggestions. A number of actors were tested with O'Toole present and often supervising their tests, which terrified many of the young hopefuls. He and Harvey decided against well-known film performers for the roles of the princes and Alais and chose relative unknowns from the British stage. Anthony Hopkins was appearing at London's National Theatre when he was cast as Richard and needed the permission of Sir Laurence Olivier to leave and appear in the film. Olivier was reluctant but finally agreed Hopkins could shoot the film during the day if he flew back from location for his evening stage performances in As You Like It and Much Ado About Nothing. by Rob Nixon

Behind the Camera on THE LION IN WINTER The company rehearsed for two weeks in London's Haymarket Theatre. Exteriors were shot in Ireland, Wales and France and interiors in Dublin's Ardmore Studios. On the first day of rehearsal, Hepburn slammed her thumb in a heavy iron door at the theater, crushing the nail and causing a deep cut down the length of her hand. But she refused to go to the hospital and insisted on continuing with rehearsal. She also refused stitches, saying the wound would take too long to heal before shooting began. Although Hepburn and O'Toole had met years earlier and she was a great admirer of his work, she had no intention of putting up with the rather bad behavior he often exhibited on his productions. "You're known to be late," she told him on the first day of work. "I intend for you to be on time. I hear you stay out at night. You'd better be rested in the morning if you're going to work with me!" Hepburn also bested O'Toole as the top dog on the set. Known to be something of a tyrant on most of his shoots, O'Toole meekly obliged when she told him "Peter, stop towering over me. Come and sit down and try to look respectable." O'Toole readily admitted in her presence that she reduced him "to a shadow of my former gay-dog self." "She is terrifying. It is sheer masochism working with her. She has been sent by some dark fate to nag and torment me." Her reply: "Don't be so silly. We are going to get on very well. You are Irish and you make me laugh. In any case, I am on to you and you to me." In spite of her stern warnings, Hepburn enjoyed O'Toole and his work tremendously. She said his vigor and energy helped restore her own vitality at a time when she really needed it. Hepburn threw herself into the role of the "tough as nails" Eleanor with great relish and interest. "Both she and Henry were probably big-time operators who played for whole countries," she said. "I like big-time operators." To the company's amazement, Hepburn swam twice a day in the frigid winter sea in Ireland, early in the morning and during her lunch break. When O'Toole asked her why she did it, she explained, "It's the shock -so horrible that it makes you feel great afterwards." Cinematographer Douglas Slocombe worked out a rich lighting pattern that was meant to give the film the look of illuminated manuscripts from the historical period. Harvey and Art Director Peter Murton decided to make the setting as true as possible to the times. Therefore, although the principal characters were royalty, they lived in drafty, dirty castles rather than the sanitized, glamorized view of medieval life most movies have taken. For the greatest authenticity, the actors wore their costumes as long as possible before shooting a scene so that they looked soiled and frayed. Although costume designer Margaret Furse preferred dark clothes, Hepburn talked her into brighter colors for Eleanor, who she reasoned had been to the Middle East and would have owned many vividly colored articles. Production shut down for a time when Anthony Harvey fell ill with hepatitis and the flu. by Rob Nixon

Peter O'Toole returned to one of his most acclaimed roles, England's King Henry II, in 1968 for The Lion in Winter, a film that still stands as one of his greatest triumphs. When he won an Oscar® nomination for his performance, he became the only actor to be nominated twice for playing the same character in two completely different films (Al Pacino has two nominations for playing Michael Corleone in the Godfather films, but the second was for a sequel by the same writers and director). Four years earlier, O'Toole had been similarly honored for his interpretation of Henry II in Becket (1964), an adaptation of Jean Anouilh's play. As famous as The Lion in Winter has become from its film version and frequent revivals of the play, it was originally a Broadway flop. James Goldman's fanciful treatment of the lives and intrigues of the Plantagenets and the plotting to choose a successor to Henry II opened in March 1966 with Robert Preston as the king and Rosemary Harris (most recently seen as Aunt May in Spider-Man, 2002) as his estranged wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine. Although Harris' performance made her a star and brought her a Tony Award, the production received mixed reviews and closed in less than three months at a substantial loss. It was hardly the first flop in Broadway history. But unlike other stage failures, it had a life after that initial production. With the recent success of A Man for All Seasons (1966), an epic film about historical England adapted from a much more successful play, producers were looking for similar material that could offer a combination of prestige and box-office performance. The Lion in Winter seemed made for the movies. Not only did the arrival of Henry and his family members for a Christmas court at Chinon offer opportunities for pageantry on a grand scale, but the film featured several juicy roles and the kind of literate, witty, quite catty dialogue rarely seen since All About Eve (1950) almost 20 years earlier. So Martin Poll, a pioneer in bringing film production to New York City, picked up the rights and secured financing from Joseph E. Levine's Avco-Embassy Pictures, an independent distributor best known for importing foreign classics and low-budget exploitation films (like Hercules (1957) starring Steve Reeves) to the U.S. O'Toole and Katharine Hepburn were naturals for the leads: O'Toole for his previous success playing the young Henry II in Becket; Hepburn because she was descended from Eleanor, tracing her lineage back to children from the monarch's marriages to both Henry and the king of France. In addition, Hepburn had played a role in boosting O'Toole's career when she urged producer Sam Spiegel to cast him in Lawrence of Arabia (1962). But for all her respect for him as an actor, she was not about to put up with his by-then legendary drunken shenanigans. According to Barbara Leaming's biography of Katharine Hepburn (Crown Publishers, Inc.), when the film company arrived in Ireland for three weeks of rehearsals for the film, the actress laid down the law: "You're known to be late! I intend for you to be on time. I hear you stay out at night. You'd better be rested in the morning if you're going to work with me!" Hepburn and O'Toole set the pace for the film's younger players, one of the strongest collections of film beginners to appear together. Making their film debuts were Nigel Terry, who would go on to play King Arthur in John Boorman's Excalibur (1981), and future James Bond Timothy Dalton. Richard, Henry and Eleanor's warrior son who turns out to be a closeted homosexual, was the first major film role for Anthony Hopkins, who would go on to win stardom and an Oscar® as the infamous Hannibal Lecter. Surprisingly, The Lion in Winter opened to mixed reviews. While many critics applauded its re-creation of the middle ages, the witty dialogue and the star's impressive performances, some others thought the picture had reduced major historical events to the level of soap opera. When it won the New York Film Critics Award for Best Picture, four critics quit the group in protest. The picture's success at the box office soon wiped out the memory of any dissension. It would go on to win seven Oscar® nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director (Anthony Harvey), Best Actor and Best Actress. On Oscar® night, it captured the awards for its score, screenplay and, in a surprise tie with Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl, Hepburn's performance. Today The Lion in Winter enjoys a continued popularity in revival screenings, television airings and video rentals. The stage version has been performed successfully around the globe, most recently in a Broadway revival starring Laurence Fishburne and Stockard Channing. Plans were recently announced for a new television version, set to air in 2003, starring Patrick Stewart and Glenn Close. Producer: Martin Poll Director: Anthony Harvey Screenplay: James Goldman, based on his Play Cinematography: Douglas Slocombe Art Direction: Peter Murton, Peter James Music: John Barry Principal Cast: Peter O'Toole (Henry II), Katharine Hepburn (Eleanor of Aquitaine), Jane Merrow (Princess Alais), John Castle (Prince Geoffrey), Timothy Dalton (King Philip), Anthony Hopkins (Prince Richard the Lion-hearted), Nigel Terry (Prince John), Nigel Stock (William Marshall). C-135m. Letterboxed. Closed captioning. by Frank Miller

The Critics' Corner on THE LION IN WINTER When The Lion in Winter was voted Best Picture by the New York Film Critics Circle, Life magazine critic Richard Schickel hit the roof and accused fellow members of being "deadwood" for picking the historical drama over John Cassavetes Faces (1968). Schickel and three others resigned in protest but re-joined the following year. Winner of the Worst Film of the Year Award presented annually by the Harvard Lampoon. "The most literate movie of the year." -Charles Champlin, Los Angeles Times, 1968 "Miss Hepburn certainly crowns her career as Eleanor, triumphant in her creation of a complete and womanly queen, a vulture mother who sees her sons too clearly, an aging beauty who can look her image in the eye, a sophisticate whose shrewdness is matched only by her humor." -Judith Crist, New York, 1968 "This film is most importantly a great duet, superbly rendered." -John Russell Taylor, London Times, 1968. "This is Mr. O'Toole's second portrayal of Henry II on film. The contrast between the limp, ineffectual king in Becket and the bold dynamism of the crowned head in The Lion in Winter emphasizes the range of Mr. O'Toole's talents." -John Allen, Christian Science Monitor, 1968. "There is a fusion, a merging of identities that makes this perhaps the finest characterization of [Hepburn's] career." -Saturday Review, 1968. "An intense, fierce, personal drama put across by outstanding performances." -Variety, October 23, 1968. "Outdoorsy and fun, full of the kind of plotting and action people used to go to just plain movies for." -Renata Adler, New York Times, October 31, 1968. "Henry and Eleanor are reduced to a TV-sized version of the sovereigns next door, their epic struggle shrunk to sitcom squabbles." -Time, 1968. "Imitation wit and imitation poetry at the 12th-century court of the Plantagenets...it was brought to the screen as if were poetic drama of a very high order, and the point of view is too limited and anachronistic to justify all this howling and sobbing and carrying on....Goldman's dialogue can't bear the weight of the film's aspirations to grandeur, and, as Eleanor of Aquitaine, Katharine Hepburn does a gallant-ravaged-great-lady number. She draws upon our feelings for her, not for the character she's playing, and the self-exploitation is hard to take." - Pauline Kael, 5001 Nights at the Movies. Awards & Honors The Lion in Winter won Academy Awards® for Best Actress (Katharine Hepburn), Best Original Music (John Barry) and Best Adapted Screenplay (James Goldman). Nominations for Best Picture, Actor (Peter O'Toole), Director (Anthony Harvey) and Costume Design (Margaret Furse). It also won British Academy Awards for Hepburn and John Barry (music) in addition to nominations for screenplay, cinematography, costumes, soundtrack and supporting actor (Anthony Hopkins). Other awards include: - Golden Globes for Best Motion Picture Drama, Actor in a Drama (O'Toole). Nominations for Best Actress, Supporting Actress (Jane Merrow), Director, Screenplay, Original Score. - New York Film Critics Best Film Award. - Writers Guilds of America and Britain awards to James Goldman. - Directors Guild of America Award to Anthony Harvey and Assistant Director Kip Gowans. - British Society of Cinematographers Award to Douglas Slocombe. - David Di Donatello Award (Italy's main film award) for Best Foreign Production. Hepburn's Oscar® for this film made her the first performer to have won three times in a Best Actor or Actress category (Walter Brennan won three times as Best Supporting Actor). Her win for On Golden Pond (1981) gave her the all-time record of four. Having won the year before for Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967), Hepburn became the third performer to win in consecutive years (including Spencer Tracy and Luise Rainer). Since then Tom Hanks has joined the list of consecutive winners. Hepburn tied for Best Actress with Barbra Streisand for Funny Girl (1968), the only time that has ever happened in this category. There has been one tie in the Best Actor category between Wallace Beery in The Champ (1931) and Fredric March in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931). Oddly enough, there were then only three nominees in the acting categories that year, making Alfred Lunt (in The Guardsman, 1931) the sole "loser." O'Toole's nomination in this role made him the only actor to be nominated twice for playing the same character in two completely different films (Al Pacino has two nominations for playing Michael Corleone in the Godfather movies, but the second was for a sequel by the same writers and director). Compiled by Rob Nixon