Biography Page 2

Biography

Page II

Following Bond, he went on to make a TV version of Hamlet, which has been an inspiration for fellow actors such as Richard Dreyfuss and James Earl Jones. At the time, he received letters of approval from Sir Laurence Olivier, Peter O'Toole and Richard Harris. Broadcast a few days before Shakespeare's 400th birthday and taped on location, at Denmark's Kronborg Castle in Elsinore, it is said to be the best version of Hamlet ever made and Robert Shaw's portrayal of Claudius is one of the most menacing on record. He would later be quoted as saying, "I hate the stage. The theatre is half-dead in New York anyway, and I have to do eight performances a week when I'm there. Man and beast shouldn't have to bear such a thing! So why do I keep doing plays? Because it's an extraordinary kind of discipline. I will always have a certain love for the theatre. But I'll never enjoy it. Here's the difference. Onstage, you have to dominate the audience, you don't have to think the way you do when you're in the movies. Stage acting is the art of domination. Movie acting is the art of seduction."

In 1964 he made "The Luck of Ginger Coffey" in Montreal, Canada and I believe that this was one of his best performances, so if you get the chance, do watch it. It was his personal favourite (he even named his dog, a beloved Labrador Coffey) and he really put a lot into the role of an Irish immigrant who comes to Canada from Dublin with his wife (played by Mary Ure) and daughter (Libby McClintock) in search of a pot of gold. After a few months, nothing has changed and his family begs him to return to Ireland. They move out when they realize the money he makes as a laundry truck driver doesn't make ends meet. When he takes a job as a reporter, his daughter comes back to live with him but when he is fired, he sinks deeper into alcoholism and depression.

With Mary Ure and their children

While making "The Luck of Ginger Coffey", sitting in a hotel room with Mary Ure in Montreal, Robert Shaw was quoted as saying, "In my case, I got started in acting through some verse plays I'd written, one of which, 'Off The Mainland', prompted the producer to say I sounded like a novelist-and that set me off as a writer. But as I got better stage roles, the film offers weren't equally challenging. Things I'd have been ashamed of-and the gap widened. It was the same with Mary." "Frankly, writing-as a story teller-is my real fulfillment. I'm usually bored after three months in a play, and films allow more time for research on detail. We both take films seriously too, as an art form. Does anybody doubt that is how?" He also made "Carol for another Christmas" in the same year, in which he played The Ghost of Christmas Future along with Henry Fonda, Sterling Hayden and Richard Harris.

He took the spotlight away from Henry Fonda as Colonel Hessler in one of the best war films he ever made, "Battle of the Bulge" in 1965. It wasn't The Dam Busters or Battle of Britain but it was entertaining, and his performance was stellar as the German Panzer Commander. He also wrote the most critically acclaimed novel of his career, "The Flag" in the same year and was known as two different people, the actor and the writer. Loosely based on events that happened in the 1920's, the novel was about an extraordinary event that occurred in East Thaxted in Essex. The vicar, the Reverend Conrad Noel achieved notoriety by flying the red flag in his ancient and beautiful parish church. The commotion he caused was incredible; fights in the church and questions were asked in Parliament.

One often wonders, had Robert Shaw lived to an old age, what paths his career would have lead. Perhaps another Anthony Hopkins in acting? Director, Producer, who knows? The man seemed to have very little limitations.

The first of at least two Academy Awards I believe he was due was for the 1966 film "A Man for All Seasons" in which he played King Henry VIII. Brilliantly. The plot is based on the true story of Sir Thomas More (Paul Scofield), the 16th-century Chancellor of England, who refuses to endorse or denounce the king's wish to divorce his aging wife so that he can marry his mistress Anne Boleyn (Vanessa Redgrave). It took many Oscars that year, 9 in total but his outstanding performance as Henry VIII has never and could never be equaled, and although he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor, he lost out to Walter Matthau in The Fortune Cookie. Tragic.

Susannah York found Shaw "both as an actor and a person challenging, creative, clever, funny, sexy and enormously alive." Leo McKern would say that he was "good to work with, supportive, serious, helpful. Very good company indeed-good wit, cynical (in the healthiest way), good fun, excellent intelligence."

More Than A Life

As Henry VIII in A Man for all Seasons with Vanessa Redgrave as Anne Boleyn 1966

His fourth novel, The Man in the Glass Booth, was made into a film starring Maximilian Schell in 1975. It is the story of Jewish man, Arthur Goldman, who is accused of being a Nazi war criminal and I will have to get my hands on a copy once again. I tried to absorb as much as I could when I was twelve but it was a bit beyond my comprehension at that age. I don't feel quite so bad though, as Shaw was once quoted as saying, "No one can understand my novels for Chrissake, except a few old vicars' wives and a few Jewish intellectuals, and they're hard to find." He stated that his standards were lower for acting than writing, the latter being "ridiculously high" according to him. "The kind of novels I write will never earn one hundredth of what I earn in one year as an actor. I'll never write a bestseller-I have too much arrogance." He was also quoted as saying that “I don’t think it helps that I’m a successful actor. I could write ‘War and Peace’ and nobody would notice. I had to write sort of short, sharp novels because of the pressures of acting. I didn’t have time to write long, to get into something. I would like to write a really important novel. In two or three years, I would like to write more, act less.” I would not like to see the film version of Glass Booth as Shaw had his name removed from the credits, he was so unhappy with this adaptation. He also made the epic "Custer of the West" in 1967 with his wife Mary Ure. It wasn't well received upon release but has since become a cult classic. Not quite "They Died with Their Boots On" but excellent performances by both and very entertaining. After Custer, he starred in another adaptation of a Harold Pinter play, "The Birthday Party", directed by William Friedkin who would later direct "The French Connection" and "The Exorcist." It is an unusual film, a dark, psychological comedy that really leaves the viewer wondering at the end. In another excellent performance, Shaw plays a boarder in a shabby seaside rooming house. He is repeatedly interrogated and humiliated by two characters played by Patrick Magee and Sidney Tafler. The next film he made was his best war film I believe, "Battle Of Britain" which is on par with "The Longest Day", "Tora, Tora, Tora" and "A Bridge Too Far" (why wasn't he in that last one too?). He shone as Squadron Leader Skipper amongst the likes of Sir Laurence Olivier, Michael Caine, Trevor Howard, Ralph Richardson and Michael Redgrave.

"The Royal Hunt of the Sun", his next movie, is said to be one of his best performances as the Spanish explorer Pizarro, based mainly on the conquest of Peru by Spain. It is an excellent performance and quite a shame that the footage is of such poor quality. Pizarro captures the Inca god-chief Atahualpa, promising him release in return for a horde of gold. The story is about the friendship that develops between the two men and the struggle Pizarro feels between that and his desire for conquest. It was about this time that Sir Laurence Olivier commissioned him to write a play for Britain’s National Theatre, Cato Street, about the spy conspiracy in London in 1830. Shaw wanted Olivier for the lead. It was produced at the Young Vic in London in November 1971 and starred Vanessa Redgrave and Bob Hoskins.

His last published novel, "A Card from Morocco" was also a big success and he went on to make "Figures in a Landscape" in 1970 with Malcolm McDowell as two escaped convicts in a Latin American country. It took him six days to rewrite the screenplay for it in Spain. He was quite proud of the film and said at the time, “Having written it myself, I know it’s the best part given me that year.” He then made "A Town Called Hell” with Telly Savalas...and let's just not go there, everyone is entitled to their mistakes and that was a big one. A really bad Spaghetti Western. I own that on VHS too and I’m not sure why but I watch it occasionally for a laugh. Whilst being interviewed for The Gantry, a musical that closed after one performance on Broadway in February 1970, Shaw was quoted as saying, “I want very much to avoid doing bad commercial pictures for lots of money. It’s difficult to avoid with eight kids and two wives. If you think the movies I’ve made are bad, you should have seen the ones I’ve turned down."

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