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 story 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?” 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.’”