Burton Richard - Hellraisers: the life and inebriated times of Richard Burton, Richard Harris, Peter OToole and Oliver Reed

Contents

About the Book

Hellraisers is the story of four of the greatest boozers who ever walked or staggered off a film set and into a pub: Richard Burton, Richard Harris, Peter OToole and Oliver Reed. Its a tale of drunken binges, parties, orgies, broken marriages, riots and wanton sexual conquests. Robert Sellers traces the intertwining lives and careers of these four actors in a celebratory catalogue of their miscreant deeds, told with humour and affection and not an ounce of moralising. Enjoy it. They bloody well did.

About the Author

Robert Sellers is a former stand-up comedian and the author of biographies of Sting, Tom Cruise, two appreciations of the work of Sean Connery and the definitive book on The Pythons: Always Look on the Bright Side of Life. Robert is a regular contributor to Empire, Total Film, The Independent, SFX and Cinema Retro and has contributed to a number of television documentaries, including Channel 4s The 100 Best Family Films.

Also by Robert Sellers

Sting: A Biography

The Films of Sean Connery

Sigourney Weaver

Tom Cruise: A Biography

Harrison Ford: A Biography

Sean Connery: A Celebration

Always Look on the Bright Side of Life:

The Inside Story of HandMade Films

Cult TV: The Golden Age of ITC

The Battle for Bond: The Genesis of Cinemas Greatest Hero

HELLRAISERS

The Life and Inebriated Times of Richard Burton, Richard Harris, Peter OToole and Oliver Reed

ROBERT SELLERS

To the hellraisers of the world, who have swapped vodka shots for cocoa, whores for a nice cuddly pair of slippers and a night in the cells for a book at bedtime

Credits

Spitting Image Sketch: Spitting Image

Section 1. Richard Burton

Burton holding a skull Getty Images; Smoking a cigarette Popperfoto; Arms folded Corbis; Wearing tweed Movie Store; Burton and OToole Rex Features (From Becket, DIR: Peter Glenville, PROD: Hal B. Wallis); Burton and Taylor Popperfoto; The Night of the Iguana (DIR: John Huston, PROD: Ray Stark) Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images; Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (DIR: Mike Nichols, PROD: Ernest Lehman) Pictorial Press; Where Eagles Dare (DIR: Brian G. Hutton, PROD: Elliott Kastner) Pictorial Press; Burton, Taylor and OToole (From Under Milk Wood, DIR: Andrew Sinclair, PROD: Hugo French & Jules Buck) Rex Features; In later life Corbis; With a glass of wine Rex Features

Section 2. Oliver Reed

Reed wearing a striped shirt Popperfoto; Playing a werewolf (From Curse of the Werewolf, DIR: Terence Fisher, PROD: Anthony Hinds) Rex Features; Wearing denim Mirrorpix; Sporting a moustache Mirrorpix; At Broome Hall Getty Images; The Three Musketeers (DIR: Richard Lester, PROD: Alex Salkind) Movie Store; 1970s sex symbol Rex Features; With a pint of beer Rex Features; Balancing on the bar Mirrorpix; Night clubbing Rex Features; Wearing a Scottish rugby shirt Mirrorpix; Gladiator (DIR: Ridley Scott, PROD: David Franzoni, Branko Lustig & Douglas Wick) Movie Store

Section 3. Richard Harris

Harris and a bottle mountain Getty Images; This Sporting Life (DIR: Lindsay Anderson, PROD: Karel Reisz) Movie Store; With beer bottle in scene from This Sporting Life Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images; Hands framing face (From The Bible, DIR: John Huston, PROD: Luigi Luraschi) Movie Store; Drinking at the bar Mirrorpix; On the floor Rex Features; King Arthur (From Camelot, DIR: Joshua Logan, PROD: Jack L. Warner) Movie Store; Smoking a cigarette Wire Image/Getty Images; The Wild Geese (DIR: Andrew V. McLaglen, PROD: Euan Lloyd) Pictorial Press; Wearing a rugby shirt Corbis; Harris and Ann Turkel Rex Features; Wearing a beanie Rex Features; Gladiator (DIR: Ridley Scott, PROD: David Franzoni, Branko Lustig & Douglas Wick) Rex Features

Section 4. Peter OToole

Lawrence of Arabia (DIR: David Lean, PROD: Sam Spiegel) Popperfoto; OToole and Sin Phillips Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images; Lord Jim (DIR: Richard Brooks, PROD: Ren Dupont) Rex Features; Whats New Pussycat? (DIR: Clive Donner, PROD: Charles K. Feldman) Getty Images; How to Steal a Million (DIR: William Wyler, PROD: Fred Kohlmar) Pictorial Press; Wearing a bowler hat Corbis; The Night of the Generals (DIR: Anatole Litvak, PROD: Sam Spiegel) Rex Features; The Ruling Class (DIR: Peter Medak, PROD: Jules Buck) Corbis; My Favorite Year (DIR: Richard Benjamin, PROD: Michael Gruskoff) Rex Features; as Macbeth Mirrorpix; Caligula (DIR: Tinto Brass, PROD: Bob Guccione) Rex Features; OToole and Jeffrey Bernard Mirrorpix; 2002 Oscars Corbis

Select Bibliography

The following previous books on our hellraisers proved most useful:

Richard Burton by Fergus Cashin (W. H. Allen, 1982)

Burton: The Man Behind the Myth by Penny Junor (Sidgwick & Jackson, 1985)

Rich: The Life of Richard Burton by Melvyn Bragg (Hodder & Stoughton, 1988)

Richard Harris: Sex, Death and the Movies by Michael Feeney Callan (Robson Books, 2003)

Behaving Badly: The Life of Richard Harris by Cliff Goodwin (Virgin Books, 2005)

Peter OToole by Nicholas Wapshott (Hodder & Stoughton, 1983)

Loitering with Intent by Peter OToole (Macmillan, 1992)

Reed All About Me by Oliver Reed (W. H. Allen, 1979)

Evil Spirits: The Life of Oliver Reed by Cliff Goodwin (Virgin Books, 2000)

Other books proved helpful with miscellaneous stories:

The Street Where I Live by Alan Jay Lerner (Hodder & Stoughton, 1978)

A Divided Life by Bryan Forbes (Heinemann, 1992)

Whats it All About? by Michael Caine (Century, 1992)

Parcel Arrived Safely, Tied with String by Michael Crawford (Century, 1999)

The Diaries of Kenneth Tynan by John Lahr and Kenneth Tynan (Bloomsbury, 2001)

Trevor Howard: A Personal Biography by Terence Pettigrew (Peter Owen, 2001)

Public Places: The Autobiography by Sin Phillips (Hodder and Stoughton, 2001)

Bruce: The Autobiography by Bruce Forsyth (Sidgwick & Jackson, 2001)

Robert Mitchum: Baby, I Dont Care by Lee Server (Faber and Faber, 2002)

And Why Not?: Memoirs of a Film Lover by Barry Norman (Simon & Schuster, 2002)

Adventures of a Suburban Boy by John Boorman (Faber and Faber, 2003)

Close Up: An Actor Telling Tales by John Fraser (Oberon Books, 2004)

Blow-Up and Other Exaggerations by David Hemmings (Robson Books, 2004)

From the Eye of the Hurricane: My Story by Alex Higgins (Headline, 2007)

Id also like to thank the staff of the British Film Institute library for allowing me access to their vast collection of magazine and newspaper cuttings regarding our hellraisers.

Id like to thank the following who contributed to and agreed to be interviewed for this book:

Michael Anderson,

Vic Armstrong,

Ian Carmichael,

Ray Galton,

John Glen,

Piers Haggard,

Anthony Harvey,

James Hogg,

John Hough,

Waris Hussein,

Charles Jarrott,

Christopher Lee,

Mark Lester,

Richard Lester,