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Post by petrolino on Nov 18, 2017 14:24:55 GMT
Donald Pleasence
"He was a funny looking guy but it's important to remember that a generation of young, successful British actors looked up to Donald Pleasence."
- Terence Bayliss, 'Sixties Britain : Swinging & Sighing'
"John Carpenter is my favorite director, because we get on very well and we both have an over developed sense of humor."
- Donald Pleasence, Hypnotic Eye
"Wonderful man! I loved Donald Pleasence a great deal. We were going to start the movie in a week or two, and he came to Los Angeles and I met him for lunch. He said, “I don’t know why I’m in this movie, and I don’t know who my character is.’ I was terrified. I hadn’t dealt with such an established movie actor, and I was a big fan of his work. He said, ‘The only reason I’m doing this movie is because I have alimony to pay, and my daughter in England is in a rock ‘n’ roll group and she said the music that you did for Assault On Precinct 13 is cool.’ But it turned out great. There were two times in my life that inspired me the most. The first was when I was a kid, probably the most emotionally influential time, when you’re naïve and innocent. I went to movie theaters and fell in love with genre films in the 1950s, when there was a big wave of monster movies. My passion came from the young guy who was watching The Fly back in 1958. Then, going to USC I began to watch movies in a different way and was exposed to different kinds of movies, foreign films. We had directors like Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, Howard Hawks and John Ford come down and lecture us. It was unbelievable!"
- John Carpenter recalls the filming of 'Halloween' (1978), Deadline
"That was my first big Hollywood picture, and it struck particularly close to home for me because I had been in the RAF and spent some time in a POW camp in Germany. I had a wonderful part and was delighted. Steve McQueen was a bit difficult during the filming, flying in three separate screenwriters to make sure his character was to his liking. Coming from a theater background, I had a lot of qualms with the way this big-budget movie was being made, but I kept my mouth shut and was ultimately very happy with the experience."
- Donald Pleasence recalls the filming of 'The Great Escape' (1963), Fangoria
'60s Britain : Angry Young Men
"When audiences saw Peter O’Toole in the title role of Lawrence of Arabia in 1962, the dividing line between the art-house British import and the cross-Atlantic movie star cracked forever. David Lean was the right director to effect the shift. Though his early movies had been collaborations with Noël Coward and warmly received adaptations of Dickens novels, though his lifelong subject was what it means to be English, Lean was the first British filmmaker to make an international blockbuster, the multi-Oscared 1957 war picture The Bridge on the River Kwai, which had both a British star (Alec Guinness) and an American one (William Holden). From that point on, Lean was in the business of making expensive roadshow movies. Lawrence of Arabia ran four hours with an intermission (the first two and a half are stunning, until the picture sinks into incoherence). And its protagonist was an enigmatic war hero with pale blue eyes and golden hair and a charismatic swashbuckler presence who looked gorgeous – and strangely angelic – in flowing white and gold robes that reflected the Sahara sand and the metallic sun as he led the disenfranchised Arabs to victory against their Turkish oppressors. The movie audience on both sides of the pond had never encountered anything quite like Peter O’Toole. He had all the established English credentials, including a staggering vocal instrument – the equivalent of anyone’s in his peer group except perhaps for Richard Burton’s – and the ability to make contemplation dramatic. But he was also as sexy as anyone who had ever come out of Hollywood. And his T.E. Lawrence, with his attraction-repulsion engagement with violence and his unacknowledged but implicitly gay sexuality (which Lean and the screenwriters Robert Bolt and Michael Wilson keep hinting at, mostly through indirect means), was as Freudian a specimen as the characters created a decade earlier by the Method movie stars – Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift and James Dean. Their psychological specialty was the child inside the unformed man whereas O’Toole’s Lawrence dabbled in masochism, but like them he wasn’t afraid of exposing the feminine within a classically masculine specimen. It wasn’t O’Toole’s first movie (it was his fourth, not counting a trio of British TV movies), and it made him a huge star. He led the way for the British invasion in the movies that came around the same time as it did in pop music. Albert Finney played the title role in Tom Jones the next year, Julie Christie co-starred in Doctor Zhivago (for Lean) the year after, and the 1966 Academy Award nominees included Michael Caine and Vanessa Redgrave for the roles that had made them stars in Alfie and Blow-Up."
- Steve Vineberg, Critics At Large
Alan Bates
Richard Burton
Michael Caine
Sean Connery
Tom Courtenay
Albert Finney
Richard Harris
David Hemmings
Malcolm McDowell
Peter O'Toole
Oliver Reed
Robert Shaw
Terence Stamp
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Post by kijii on Nov 18, 2017 15:02:41 GMT
I have seen him in the TV series The Barchester Chronicles
Sons and Lovers (1960)
Tony Richardson's Look Back in Anger (1959)...one of the first Angry Young Men movies.
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Post by petrolino on Nov 18, 2017 15:10:43 GMT
I have seen him in the TV series The Barchester ChroniclesSons and Lovers (1960)Tony Richardson's Look Back in Anger (1959)...one of the first Angry Young Men movies. Donald Pleasence later acted alongside playwright John Osborne in Peter Collinson's heist thriller 'Tomorrow Never Comes' (1978). |
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Post by petrolino on Nov 18, 2017 15:13:48 GMT
Thanks for another great post, petrolino. So many wonderful things in it, and so many great pictures. I chose this one in particular, because I love the film - and because I think Christie and Courtney look wonderful together in this frame.
Hi spiderwort. Al Pacino says Julie Christie is, for him, one of the great actresses in all of cinema. She seems a defining presence in 1960s British cinema. Hope you have a nice weekend! |
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Post by petrolino on Nov 18, 2017 15:20:30 GMT
Hi spiderwort. Al Pacino says Julie Christie is, for him, one of the great actresses in all of cinema. She seems a defining presence in 1960s British cinema. Hope you have a nice weekend! Hi, petrolino. I'd say Pacino may be right, certainly about her being a defining presence in cinema - British or otherwise - in the sixties. I don't know if she's still living there, but for awhile she was living in Ojai, Ca., and a friend of mine took a yoga class with her. I imagine that was quite interesting. They do love their yoga in California lol. {Thanks!} |
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Post by teleadm on Nov 18, 2017 18:44:47 GMT
I wish I could remember this Donald Pleasence quote correctly, so I recreate it as well as I can remember it. A reporter asked him why he was in so many movies, and Donald answered: I have five daughters to support. I thought Donald and James Garner made a great couple in The Great Escape 1963:  |
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Post by manfromplanetx on Nov 18, 2017 20:21:07 GMT
Great stuff thanks petrolino !... An outstanding theatrical actor Pleasance first appeared in Harold Pinter's The Caretaker in London 1960 . Playing Davies an itinerant and a tramp who is loud, confident, arrogant, and full of himself, a demanding characterization which Pleasance brilliantly interprets to perfection. Pinter's play moved to NYC in 1961 starring Pleasance who won acclaim for his performances , also starring Allan Bates and Robert Shaw who all appeared together (great pic of the four above) in the excellent 1963 film directed by Clive Donner. Pinter and Pleasance (Davies)  |
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Post by petrolino on Nov 19, 2017 2:20:35 GMT
I wish I could remember this Donald Pleasence quote correctly, so I recreate it as well as I can remember it. A reporter asked him why he was in so many movies, and Donald answered: I have five daughters to support. One of his daughters, Angela, became an actress. Her godfather was Donald's dear friend and fellow cricket enthusiast Peter Vaughan. |
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Post by petrolino on Nov 19, 2017 2:28:30 GMT
Great stuff thanks petrolino !... An outstanding theatrical actor Pleasance first appeared in Harold Pinter's The Caretaker in London 1960 . Playing Davies an itinerant and a tramp who is loud, confident, arrogant, and full of himself, a demanding characterization which Pleasance brilliantly interprets to perfection. Pinter's play moved to NYC in 1961 starring Pleasance who won acclaim for his performances , also starring Allan Bates and Robert Shaw who all appeared together (great pic of the four above) in the excellent 1963 film directed by Clive Donner. Pinter and Pleasance (Davies) Hi planet. Harold Pinter's my favourite English playwright. Not seen that picture before, thanks! Even in his later years, Pinter was keen to give unusual actors a chance, notably domestic budget superstar Danny Dyer. Malcolm McDowell, who starred in Pinter's 'The Collection' (1976) alongside screen legend Laurence Olivier, his good friend Alan Bates and 'O Lucky Man!' (1973) co-star Helen Mirren, recalled Pleasence as an agreeable drinker who was known to seek out the nearest pub during location shoots. On the other hand, he recalled Oliver Reed as a clever, witty man who became an obnoxious, crushing bore and a bully when drunk. On the set of 'Royal Flash' (1975), Reed tried to bully McDowell and Bates, but neither man was having it. |
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Post by london777 on Nov 19, 2017 20:23:21 GMT
The girls in the typing pool (remember them?) at one of my jobs noted my slight physical resemblance to the great man and their nickname for me spread through the company: "Donald Unpleasance". (No doubt two of our regular posters would co-sign).
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Post by Primemovermithrax Pejorative on Nov 19, 2017 20:42:55 GMT
Pleasence is in the special club of actors who have wrestled a bear or someone in a bear suit. Leslie Nielsen being another exclusive member of this fraternity.
He predicted the plot of Jurassic Park in the 1974 film the Mutations.
He always had good death scenes--when eaten by amoebas or plant monsters.
I think my favorite role of his is in the Great Escape.
His daughter Angela appears with him in From Beyond the Grave which is most amusing since there is no question when you see her that she is his daughter and she is very creepy in the role.
I think the most surprising role I have seen DP do was Dr. Crippen since he has a bedroom scene with Samantha Eggar (who looked very good in the 1960s--her face changed a lot by the time of the Brood).
In Raw Meat he is an eccentric cop.
Encountered one of his grandchildren online in a DP fan group and she only knew him from Halloween!
That was the only movie of his she had seen. She was amazed that people were remembering him from all sorts of things since she only knew him as granddad.
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Post by petrolino on Nov 24, 2017 2:50:11 GMT
The girls in the typing pool (remember them?) at one of my jobs noted my slight physical resemblance to the great man and their nickname for me spread through the company: "Donald Unpleasance". (No doubt two of our regular posters would co-sign). Their instincts must have been off, london. |
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Post by teleadm on Nov 24, 2017 17:10:40 GMT
 I forgot Bloefield, the first time (??) anyone seen his face, strangly in the next Bond movie he looked more like Telly Savalas... |
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Post by petrolino on Nov 25, 2017 2:54:08 GMT
I forgot Bloefield, the first time (??) anyone seen his face, strangly in the next Bond movie he looked more like Telly Savalas... And renowned 'Rocky Horror' orator Charles Gray ...  |
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Post by Lebowskidoo 🦞 on Apr 22, 2019 19:00:18 GMT
Here we have a nice painting of Donald Pleasence...  ...and this is from his guest starring role on The Love Boat, who knew?   |
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