The Lion in Winter is a 1968 historical drama centred on Henry II of England and his attempt to establish a line of succession during a family gathering at Christmas 1183. His efforts unleash both political and personal turmoil among his estranged wife Eleanor of Aquitaine , their three surviving sons, the French king, and the king's half-sister Alais, who is Henry's mistress. The film stars Peter O'Toole and Katharine Hepburn , was directed by Anthony Harvey , written by James Goldman , and produced by Joseph E. Levine , Jane C. Nusbaum, and Martin Poll . Actors John Castle , Anthony Hopkins (in his first major film role), Jane Merrow , Timothy Dalton (in his film debut) and Nigel Terry appear in support.
88-506: Anthony Harvey (3 June 1930 – 23 November 2017) was an English filmmaker who began his career as a teenage actor, was a film editor in the 1950s, and moved into directing in the mid-1960s. Harvey had fifteen film credits as an editor, and he directed thirteen films, the second of which, The Lion in Winter (1968), earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Director . Harvey's career
176-429: A "mob orator"), Dominic Cummings and Nigel Farage in interviews, claiming that their "task is to fire up the people with nostalgia [and] with anger". He further opined in interviews: "What really scares me about nostalgia is that it's become a political weapon. Politicians are creating a nostalgia for an England that never existed, and selling it, really, as something we could return to", adding that, with "the demise of
264-400: A 91% approval and an average rating of 8.2/10. The critical consensus reads, "Sharper and wittier than your average period piece, The Lion in Winter is a tale of palace intrigue bolstered by fantastic performances from Peter O'Toole, Katharine Hepburn, and Anthony Hopkins in his big-screen debut." The Academy Film Archive preserved The Lion in Winter in 2000. Though the background and
352-601: A book editor with Hodder & Stoughton who collaborated with him behind the scenes. They had a son, Nicholas, who writes as Nick Harkaway . Le Carré lived in St Buryan , Cornwall, for more than 40 years; he owned a mile of cliff near Land's End . The house, Tregiffian Cottage, was put up for sale in 2023 for £3 million. Le Carré also owned a house in Gainsborough Gardens in Hampstead in north London. Le Carré
440-409: A curtain. Henry and Philip meet to discuss terms, with all three princes in hiding. Philip reveals that he had been caballing with John and Geoffrey, then with Richard separately, and that he and Richard may once have been lovers. Philip casts their romantic liaison as always having been a scheme. Richard emerges and decries this, but Philip, saying he had always loathed Richard's sight and touch, turns
528-569: A director was a monochrome short subject, the intense one-hour race relations drama Dutchman (1966), which depicts a fateful encounter between a black man and a white woman on the New York subway . Although it did not receive a wide release, it was nominated for the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival . Actor Peter O'Toole was impressed by Harvey's work on Dutchman and brought it to
616-521: A fall at his home. His wife Valerie died on 27 February 2021, two months after her husband, at age 82. In 2023, biographer Adam Sisman in The Secret Life of John le Carré identified 11 women with whom le Carré had affairs during his second marriage. Le Carré's son Timothy died on 31 May 2022 at the age of 59, shortly after he finished editing A Private Spy , a collection of his father's letters. In 2010, le Carré donated his literary archive to
704-419: A feature film). The story concerns an elderly New York woman who witnesses a murder committed by a top hit-man ( Nick Nolte ), whom she then blackmails into killing some of her friends. After a ten-year interval, Harvey returned to direct the romantic comedy television movie This Can't Be Love (1994). This was to be both Harvey's last film and the last of his four collaborations with Katharine Hepburn, and it
792-603: A journalist, le Carré wrote The Unbearable Peace (1991), a nonfiction account of Brigadier Jean-Louis Jeanmaire (1911–1992), the Swiss Army officer, who spied for the Soviet Union from 1962 until 1975. Credited under his pen name, le Carré appears as an extra in the 2011 film version of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy , among the guests at the Christmas party in several flashback scenes. He also appears, in uncredited cameo roles, as
880-463: A le Carré story, although he brought the character back in The Secret Pilgrim and A Legacy of Spies . A Perfect Spy (1986), which chronicles the boyhood moral education of Magnus Pym and how it leads to his becoming a spy, is the author's most autobiographical espionage novel, reflecting the boy's very close relationship with his con man father. Biographer LynnDianne Beene describes
968-406: A memorial funeral service but did not attend, a plot point repeated in A Perfect Spy . Cornwell's schooling began at St Andrew's Preparatory School , near Pangbourne , Berkshire, and continued at Sherborne School . He grew unhappy with the typically harsh English public school regime of the time and disliked his disciplinarian housemaster. He left Sherborne early to study foreign languages at
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#17330847739461056-517: A murder at a boys' public school . Although Call for the Dead evolves into an espionage story, Smiley's motives are more personal than political. Le Carré's third novel, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1963), became an international best-seller and remains one of his best-known works; following its publication, he left MI6 to become a full-time writer. Although le Carré had intended The Spy Who Came in from
1144-603: A museum usher in the 2016 movie, Our Kind of Traitor , and in the 2016 BBC TV production, The Night Manager , as a restaurant diner. In 2017, le Carré expressed concerns over the future of liberal democracy , saying: "I think of all things that were happening across Europe in the 1930s, in Spain, in Japan, obviously in Germany. To me, these are absolutely comparable signs of the rise of fascism and it's contagious, it's infectious. Fascism
1232-581: A nation in the process of re-assembling itself from the shards of its past, now Oriental, now Western, now secular, now religious, but always anxiously moralizing about itself, criticizing itself with Maoist ferocity, a nation crackling with debate, rediscovering its past while it fought for its future." He declared: "No nation on earth was more deserving of peace—or more condemned to fight for it." In 1954, Cornwell married Alison Ann Veronica Sharp. They had three sons: Simon, Stephen and Timothy; they divorced in 1971. In 1972, Cornwell married Valerie Jane Eustace,
1320-483: A number of real-life tennis stars of the period including Pancho Gonzalez , Guillermo Vilas , John McEnroe and Ilie Nastase . Harvey's next film was a Western drama, Eagle's Wing (1980) starring Martin Sheen , Harvey Keitel and Sam Waterston . The following year Harvey reunited with Liv Ullmann for the romantic drama Richard's Things (which also featured British actress Amanda Redman ) and in 1981 he directed
1408-504: A proven warrior. Henry invites Philip II of France , son and successor of Louis VII , Eleanor's first husband, to settle some business. Louis had made a treaty with Henry pledging Philip's half-sister Alais , currently Henry's mistress, in troth to Henry's future heir; Philip demands either a wedding or the return of her dowry , the strategically important county of Vexin near Paris. Henry agrees to give Alais to Richard to wed and make him heir-apparent in return for Eleanor surrendering
1496-606: A relatively new director, has done excellent work with a generally strong cast, literate adaptation by the author, and superb production values assembled by Martin H. Poll, who produced for Joseph E. Levine presentation under the Embassy banner." Roger Ebert gave the film 4 stars out of 4, writing in 1968, "One of the joys which movies provide too rarely is the opportunity to see a literate script handled intelligently. 'The Lion in Winter' triumphs at that difficult task; not since ' A Man for All Seasons ' have we had such capable handling of
1584-718: A sad kind." In January 2003, two months prior to the invasion, The Times published le Carré's essay "The United States Has Gone Mad" criticising the buildup to the Iraq War and President George W. Bush 's response to the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks , calling it "worse than McCarthyism , worse than the Bay of Pigs and in the long term potentially more disastrous than the Vietnam War " and "beyond anything Osama bin Laden could have hoped for in his nastiest dreams". Le Carré participated in
1672-510: A sequence of British films in the 1950s and early 1960s, developing fruitful working relationships with several major directors of the period including Anthony Asquith , Roy and John Boulting, Bryan Forbes , Martin Ritt , and UK-based American director Stanley Kubrick . Harvey's first film as editor was the Anthony Asquith short On Such A Night (1956), followed by his first feature assignment,
1760-481: A story about ideas. But 'The Lion in Winter' also functions at an emotional level, and is the better film, I think." Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times declared, "Top honors for the most literate movie of the year, and for the finest and most imaginative and fascinating evocation of an historical time and place, can be awarded this very day to 'The Lion in Winter.'" Pauline Kael of The New Yorker
1848-603: A success, getting a bad review in The New York Times and losing $ 150,000. Producer Martin Poll optioned Goldman's novel Waldorf for the movies. They discussed Lion in Winter , which Poll had read and loved. He hired Goldman to write a screenplay. Poll was meant to make a film with Joseph Levine and Peter O'Toole , The Ski Bum (which would be written by James Goldman's brother William). That project fell through and Poll suggested they do Lion in Winter instead. O'Toole, who
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#17330847739461936-442: A two-picture deal he had struck with Warner Brothers Pictures , but problems arose as soon as filming started. Gould's behaviour became bizarre and unpredictable (he was rumoured to be using drugs heavily), co-star Kim Darby reportedly became so afraid of Gould that she hired bodyguards to protect her from him, Gould repeatedly clashed with Harvey over his direction, and Gould later claimed that large sums of money were embezzled from
2024-580: Is also notable for his recurring work with a number of leading actors and directors including Terry-Thomas , Peter Sellers , Katharine Hepburn , Peter O'Toole , Richard Attenborough , Liv Ullmann , Sam Waterston , Nick Nolte , the Boulting Brothers , Anthony Asquith , Bryan Forbes and Stanley Kubrick . He died in November 2017 at the age of 87. Harvey was born in London in 1930. His father died when he
2112-501: Is an overweight, bespectacled bureaucrat who uses cunning and manipulation to achieve his ends, as an accurate depiction of a spy. Le Carré's "writing entered intelligence services themselves. He popularized the term 'mole'...and other language that has become intelligence vernacular on both sides of the Atlantic — 'honeytrap', 'scalphunter', 'lamplighter' to name a few." However, in his first tweet as MI6's chief, Richard Moore revealed
2200-400: Is indicated in parentheses. A Glimpse of Tiger began production in 1971, before being abandoned. The Lion in Winter (1968 film) Based on Goldman's play The Lion in Winter , the film was a commercial and critical success, winning three Academy Awards (including Hepburn's win for Best Actress , making her the first three-time winner in the category). A television remake of
2288-520: Is moving "backwards into her dark, delusional past", with Britain following a short way behind. Le Carré later said that he believed the novel's plotline, involving the U.S. and British intelligence services colluding to subvert the European Union , to be "horribly possible". Le Carré was an outspoken advocate of European integration and sharply criticised Brexit . Le Carré criticised Brexit advocates such as Boris Johnson (whom he referred to as
2376-678: Is up and running in Poland and Hungary. There's an encouragement about". He later wrote that the end of the Cold War had left the West without a coherent ideology, in contrast to the "notion of individual freedom , of inclusiveness, of tolerance – all of that we called anti-communism " prevailing during that time. Le Carré opposed both U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin , arguing that their desire to seek or maintain their countries' superpower status caused an impulse "for oligarchy ,
2464-720: Is without doubt the greatest catastrophe and the greatest idiocy that Britain has perpetrated since the invasion of Suez ", le Carré said of Brexit . "Nobody is to blame but the Brits themselves – not the Irish, not the Europeans." "The idea, to me, that at the moment we should imagine we can substitute access to the biggest trade union in the world with access to the American market is terrifying", he said. Speaking to The Guardian in 2019, he commented: "I've always believed, though ironically it's not
2552-485: The Cold War (1945–91) and portray British Intelligence agents as unheroic political functionaries, aware of the moral ambiguity of their work and engaged more in psychological than physical drama. While "[espionage] was the genre that earned him fame...he used it as a platform to explore larger ethical problems and the human condition". The insight he demonstrated led "many fellow authors and critics [to regard] him as one of
2640-670: The Duchy of Aquitaine . She wishes to keep to John, buying with her gift her freedom. When the arrangement is revealed at the wedding, Richard, who coveted the Aquitaine himself, refuses to go through with the marriage – just as Henry anticipated. Perceiving treachery in Henry's ploy, John is manipulated by his middle brother, Geoffrey II, Duke of Brittany , to plot with Philip to make war on Henry in return for being named John's chancellor. Richard then plots with Philip while John and Geoffrey hide behind
2728-868: The University of Bern from 1948 to 1949. In 1950, he was called up for National Service and served in the Intelligence Corps of the British Army garrisoned in Allied-occupied Austria , working as a German language interrogator of people who had crossed the Iron Curtain to the West. In 1952, he returned to England to study at Lincoln College, Oxford , where he worked covertly for the Security Service, MI5 , spying on far-left groups for information about possible Soviet agents . During his studies, he
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2816-464: The American sequences of The Patricia Neal Story , a tele-movie starring Glenda Jackson which detailed the real-life struggles faced by Oscar-winning actress Patricia Neal, who at the height of her career had a devastating stroke which left her unable to speak, and the efforts of her then-husband Roald Dahl (played by Dirk Bogarde ) and their friends and family to help her recover. Harvey directed another American tele-movie, Svengali (1983) which
2904-652: The Cold (1963), became an international best-seller, was adapted as an award-winning film , and remains one of his best-known works. This success allowed him to leave MI6 to become a full-time author. His other novels that have been adapted for film or television include The Looking Glass War (1965), Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1974), Smiley's People (1979), The Little Drummer Girl (1983), The Russia House (1989), The Night Manager (1993), The Tailor of Panama (1996), The Constant Gardener (2001), A Most Wanted Man (2008) and Our Kind of Traitor (2010). Philip Roth said that A Perfect Spy (1986)
2992-474: The Cold as an indictment of espionage as morally compromised, audiences widely viewed its protagonist, Alec Leamas, as a tragic hero . In response, le Carré's next book, The Looking Glass War , was a satire about an increasingly deadly espionage mission which ultimately proves pointless. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy , The Honourable Schoolboy and Smiley's People (the Karla trilogy) brought Smiley back as
3080-525: The Dead (1961). Cornwell identified Lord Clanmorris as one of two models for George Smiley , the spymaster of the Circus , the other being Vivian H. H. Green . As a schoolboy, Cornwell first met the latter when Green was the Chaplain and Assistant Master at Sherborne School (1942–51). The friendship continued after Green's move to Lincoln College, where he tutored Cornwell. In 1960, Cornwell transferred to MI6 ,
3168-651: The Ealing war comedy Private's Progress (also 1956), starring Richard Attenborough and Terry-Thomas . His subsequent work as an editor included Roy Boulting's comedies Brothers in Law (1957) and Happy Is the Bride (1958), the drama Tread Softly Stranger (1958) directed by Gordon Parry , the political comedy Carlton-Browne of the F.O. (aka The Man in the Cocked Hat , 1959), and I'm All Right Jack (also 1959). Harvey edited
3256-660: The English barons, who revolted and forced him to accept and add his seal to Magna Carta . John is also known for being the villain in the Robin Hood legends. Lastly, William Marshal , who during the film is harried about by Henry II, outlived the English main characters and eventually ruled England as regent for the young Henry III . John le Carr%C3%A9 David John Moore Cornwell (19 October 1931 – 12 December 2020), better known by his pen name John le Carré ( / l ə ˈ k ær eɪ / lə- KARR -ay ),
3344-622: The London protests against the Iraq War . He said the war resulted from the "politicisation of intelligence to fit the political intentions" of governments and "How Bush and his junta succeeded in deflecting America's anger from bin Laden to Saddam Hussein is one of the great public relations conjuring tricks of history". He was critical of Tony Blair 's role in taking Britain into the Iraq War, saying: "I can't understand that Blair has an afterlife at all. It seems to me that any politician who takes his country to war under false pretences has committed
3432-508: The acclaimed made-for-TV adaptation of Tennessee Williams ' The Glass Menagerie (1973) which also featured Sam Waterston and Michael Moriarty . His next film was the lavish historical drama The Abdication (1974) starring Liv Ullmann , about the abdication of Queen Christina of Sweden, which co-starred Peter Finch and featured a score by Nino Rota . It was followed by a more modern period piece, The Disappearance of Aimee , starring Faye Dunaway and Bette Davis , which explored
3520-441: The agency's "complicated relationship with the author: He urged would-be Smileys not to apply to the service." Le Carré records a number of incidents from his period as a diplomat in his autobiographical work, The Pigeon Tunnel: Stories from My Life (2016), which include escorting six visiting German parliamentarians to a London brothel and translating at a meeting between a senior German politician and Harold Macmillan . As
3608-485: The attention of the film's producer Joseph E. Levine . O'Toole advocated that Harvey should direct the screen adaptation of James Goldman 's play The Lion In Winter (1968). Harvey gained the respect and consent of the film's other star, Katharine Hepburn , leading to her third Oscar and a lifelong friendship. "Much as I absolutely worshipped her work, I sometimes thought she rather overdid it," Harvey recalled. "So I said, 'Kate when you're simple, you're devastating.' She
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3696-625: The blue and asked if they could work together. After Lolita , he worked with Kubrick again on Dr. Strangelove (1964). This was followed by the spy thriller The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965), directed by Martin Ritt from the John le Carré novel. In a 2014 conversation with broadcaster Walker Vreeland, Harvey recalled his working relationship with Kubrick: Harvey's last two credits as an editor were his own directorial debut Dutchman (1966) and The Whisperers (1967), his last collaboration with Bryan Forbes. Harvey's first feature film as
3784-451: The central figure in a sprawling espionage saga depicting his efforts first to root out a mole in the Circus and then to entrap his Soviet rival and counterpart, code-named 'Karla'. The trilogy was originally meant to be a long-running series that would find Smiley dispatching agents after Karla all around the world. Smiley's People marked the last time Smiley featured as the central character in
3872-426: The conflict is internal, rather than external and visible. The recurring character George Smiley, who plays a central role in five novels and appears as a supporting character in four more, was written as an "antidote" to James Bond , a character le Carré called "an international gangster " rather than a spy and who he felt should be excluded from the canon of espionage literature. In contrast, he intended Smiley, who
3960-414: The deep familial rapport that developed among the cast, and considered the production among the best experiences of his career. However, "when you have success so early, everything after that is under great scrutiny. You wonder what the hell to do next", he once said. Harvey turned down the chance to direct both Love Story (1970) and Cabaret (1972). "I let them go out of total indecision," he said. "It
4048-789: The dismissal of the truth, the contempt, actually, for the electorate and for the democratic system ". Le Carré compared Trump's tendency to dismiss the media as " fake news " to the Nazi book burnings , and wrote that the United States is "heading straight down the road to institutional racism and neo-fascism ". In le Carré's 2019 novel Agent Running in the Field , one of the novel's characters refers to Trump as "Putin's shithouse cleaner" who "does everything for little Vladi that little Vladi can't do for himself". The novel's narrator describes Boris Johnson as "a pig-ignorant foreign secretary". He says Russia
4136-485: The domestic North American market during its initial year of release. It was the 14th most popular movie at the U.S. box office in 1969. Renata Adler of The New York Times wrote that the film was "for the most part, outdoorsy and fun, full of the kind of plotting and action people used to go to just plain movies for." Variety called it "an intense, fierce, personal drama put across by outstanding performance of Peter O'Toole and Katharine Hepburn. Anthony Harvey,
4224-410: The end of her life. "A real English gentleman and a brilliant director, one of the best I've ever worked with", she told Ronald Bergan in 2001. In 2014 Harvey told Walker Vreeland that he decided to stop making films after the producers interfered in the making of This Can't Be Love : Harvey moved to Long Island in the 1990s and he died there on 23 November 2017, aged 87. The director of each film
4312-402: The eventual destinies of the characters are generally accurate, The Lion in Winter is fictional: while there was a Christmas court at Caen in 1182, there was none at Chinon in 1183. In reality, Henry had many mistresses and many illegitimate children; the " Rosamund " mentioned in the film was his mistress until she died. The Revolt of 1173–1174 provides the historical background leading to
4400-465: The fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, le Carré's writing shifted to the portrayal of the new multilateral world. His first completely post-Cold War novel, The Night Manager (1993), deals with drug and arms smuggling in the world of Latin American drug lords , secretive Caribbean banking entities and corrupt Western officials. His final novel, Silverview , was published posthumously in 2021. Most of le Carré's books are spy stories set during
4488-594: The film was released in 2003. It is 1183 in the medieval Angevin Empire . Fifty-year-old Henry II of England seeks to establish a line of succession and summons his family for Christmas at his castle in Chinon , Touraine . He wants his youngest son, John, to inherit his throne, while his estranged wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine , reprieved from imprisonment in England by Henry for the holiday, favours their eldest surviving son, Richard,
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#17330847739464576-668: The film. After the seeing the completed film, Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman offered Timothy Dalton the role of James Bond for the first time, as a replacement for Sean Connery in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) . Dalton declined because he felt he was too young, although he would later be cast in the role in The Living Daylights (1987) and Licence to Kill ( 1989). The film premiered on 30 October 1968 (29 December 1968 London premiere). The film earned an estimated $ 6.4 million in distributor rentals in
4664-456: The finest English-language novelists of the twentieth century." His writing explores "human frailty—moral ambiguity, intrigue, nuance, doubt, and cowardice". The fallibility of Western democracy – and of its secret services – is a recurring theme, as are suggestions of a possible east–west moral equivalence. Characters experience little of the violence typically encountered in action thrillers and have very little recourse to gadgets. Much of
4752-495: The foreign-intelligence service, and worked under the cover of Second Secretary at the British Embassy in Bonn . He was later transferred to Hamburg as a political consul . There, he wrote the detective story A Murder of Quality (1962) and The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1963), as "John le Carré"—a pseudonym required because Foreign Office staff were forbidden to publish under their own names. The meaning of
4840-440: The industrial drama The Angry Silence (1960), directed by Guy Green , and the Anthony Asquith comedy The Millionairess (also 1960), which starred Peter Sellers and Sophia Loren . Harvey worked with both Bryan Forbes and Stanley Kubrick, editing Forbes' drama The L-Shaped Room and Kubrick's adaptation of Nabokov's Lolita (both 1962). His collaboration with Stanley Kubrick began after Harvey called Kubrick up out of
4928-487: The knife deeper. Recognizing his sons' limitations and plottings against him, Henry dismisses all three as unsuitable heirs and endungeons them. He readies a train to travel to Rome to demand an annulment of his marriage to Eleanor by the Pope, intending then to wed and have new sons with Alais. She protests that he will never be able to release his treasonous offspring from prison as they will slay any new heir. Henry recognizes
5016-416: The mysterious 1926 temporary disappearance of American celebrity evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson . Players (1979) was a romantic drama set in the world of international tennis, in which a rising tennis star ( Dean Paul Martin ) falls for an older woman ( Ali MacGraw ) who is engaged to a wealthy man ( Maximilian Schell ) whom she does not love. The film is also notable for appearances (as themselves) by
5104-399: The novelist's own father, Ronnie Cornwell, as "an epic con man of little education, immense charm, extravagant tastes, but no social values". Le Carré reflected that "writing A Perfect Spy is probably what a very wise shrink would have advised". He also wrote a semi-autobiographical work, The Naïve and Sentimental Lover (1971), as the story of a man's midlife existential crisis. With
5192-565: The peril to his plan and confronts all three sons at once. Condemning them to death, he raises his sword over Richard but brings the blade down harmlessly upon Richard's mailed shoulder. Weeping, he lets the threesome escape. Realizing his hopes are lost, and that he has been checked by Eleanor, he is resigned and falls pitifully into her arms. In the morning, she leaves on her barge, waving while he bellows cheerful nonsenses, each realizing their love for one another. They will resume their jousting next year. The original stage production had not been
5280-551: The play's events. There was also a second rebellion, when Young Henry and Geoffrey revolted in 1183, resulting in Young Henry's death. While some historians have theorized that Richard was homosexual , it is not certain. Geoffrey died in 1186 in a jousting tournament held in Paris (with some speculation that Geoffrey was involved in plotting against Henry with Philip at the time). A third rebellion against Henry by Richard and Philip in 1189
5368-456: The production and that he was threatened by armed men. As a result of the turmoil, when Gould failed to appear on set after an ultimatum from the studio, Warner Bros. shut the production down after just four days of shooting; Gould was then blacklisted by Hollywood, and his career languished for two years until he re-emerged in Robert Altman 's The Long Goodbye (1973). Harvey's next feature
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#17330847739465456-551: The pseudonym is ambiguous: he sometimes said he had seen "le Carré" on a storefront, and later said he couldn't remember an origin. When translated, "le carré" means "the square". In 1964, le Carré's career as an intelligence officer came to an end as the result of the betrayal of British agents' covers to the KGB by Kim Philby , the infamous British double agent , one of the Cambridge Five . Le Carré depicted and analysed Philby as
5544-510: The real thing—delivering commercial near-poetry as if it were Shakespeare." In a mixed review for The Monthly Film Bulletin , David Wilson called Katharine Hepburn's performance "perhaps the crowning achievement of an extraordinary career" but described the film as a whole as being "essentially a piece of highly polished theatricality, and not much else if one looks beyond its insistently sophisticated surface gloss." Rotten Tomatoes collected 43 reviews through October 2021, amalgamating to
5632-503: The ultimate sin. I think that a war in which we refuse to accept the body count of those that we kill is also a war of which we should be ashamed." Le Carré was critical of Western governments' policies towards Iran. He said that Iran's actions are a response to being "encircled by nuclear powers" and by the way in which "we ousted Mosaddeq through the CIA and the Secret Service here across
5720-525: The upper-class traitor, codenamed "Gerald" by the KGB, the mole hunted by George Smiley in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1974). Le Carré's first two novels, Call for the Dead (1961) and A Murder of Quality (1962), are mystery fiction . Each features a retired spy, George Smiley , investigating a death; in the first book, the apparent suicide of a suspected communist, and in the second volume,
5808-528: The way and installed the Shah and trained his ghastly secret police force in all the black arts, the SAVAK ". Le Carré feuded with Salman Rushdie over The Satanic Verses , stating: "Nobody has a God-given right to insult a great religion and be published with impunity". In a 1998 interview with Douglas Davis, Le Carré described Israel as "the most extraordinary carnival of human variety that I have ever set eyes on,
5896-405: The way I've voted, that it's compassionate conservatism that in the end could, for example, integrate the private schooling system. If you do it from the left you will seem to be acting out of resentment; do it from the right and it looks like good social organisation." Le Carré also said: "I think my own ties to England were hugely loosened over the last few years. And it's a kind of liberation, if
5984-478: The working class we saw also the demise of an established social order, based on the stability of ancient class structures". On the other hand, he said that in the Labour Party "they have this Leninist element and they have this huge appetite to level society." On Brexit, le Carré did not mince his words, comparing it to the 1956 Suez crisis , which confirmed post-imperial Britain's loss of global power. "This
6072-469: The writer had researched his family roots in Inchinattin, near Rosscarbery , County Cork, and that he had applied for an Irish passport, to which he was entitled having completed the process of becoming an Irish citizen and having Irish ancestry through his maternal grandmother, Olive Wolfe. His neighbour and friend Philippe Sands recalled: He became an Irishman through his maternal grandmother. And it
6160-555: Was "looked after" by star Claude Rains . Harvey gained a scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art but, although he worked for a time in repertory theatre, realised that he was not likely to be successful as an actor and decided to move into film-making. Harvey was taken on as an assistant editor by the Boulting Brothers ( Roy Boulting and John Boulting ). He soon found himself in high demand, and went on to edit
6248-462: Was "the best English novel since the war". David John Moore Cornwell was born on 19 October 1931 in Poole , Dorset, England, son of Ronald Thomas Archibald (Ronnie) Cornwell (1905–1975), and Olive Moore Cornwell (née Glassey, 1906–1989). His older brother, Tony (1929–2017), was an advertising executive and county cricketer (for Dorset), who later lived in the United States. His younger half-sister
6336-619: Was 36, and had portrayed Henry II in 1964's Becket , plays him at age 50. In October 1967, the actors rehearsed at Haymarket Theatre in London. Production started in November 1967 and continued until May 1968. The film was shot at Ardmore Studios in Bray, County Wicklow , Ireland, and on location in Ireland, Wales ( Marloes Sands ), and France at Abbaye de Montmajour , Arles ; Château de Tarascon , Carcassonne ; and Saône-et-Loire . In an interview Peter O'Toole said that Katharine Hepburn, who
6424-543: Was a British author, best known for his espionage novels , many of which were successfully adapted for film or television. A "sophisticated, morally ambiguous writer", he is considered one of the greatest novelists of the postwar era. During the 1950s and 1960s, he worked for both the Security Service ( MI5 ) and the Secret Intelligence Service ( MI6 ). Near the end of his life, le Carré became an Irish citizen. Le Carré's third novel, The Spy Who Came in from
6512-829: Was a member of The Gridiron Club and a college dining society known as The Goblin Club . When his father was declared bankrupt in 1954, Cornwell left Oxford to teach at Millfield Preparatory School ; however, a year later, he returned to Oxford, and graduated in 1956 with a First-Class degree in Modern Languages with a German Literature concentration. He then taught French and German at Eton College for two years, becoming an MI5 officer in 1958. He ran agents, conducted interrogations, tapped telephone lines and effected break-ins. Encouraged by Lord Clanmorris (who wrote crime novels as "John Bingham"), and while being an active MI5 officer, Cornwell began writing his first novel, Call for
6600-466: Was a terrible mistake". Harvey's third directorial project was the ill-fated uncompleted film A Glimpse of Tiger (1970), an oddball romantic comedy about a pair of bohemian con-artists living in New York City. It was scripted (from his second novel) by writer Herman Raucher . The film rights to the project had been purchased by rising American star Elliott Gould , who was also producing, as part of
6688-605: Was adorable about it". The film was a critical and commercial success and was nominated for seven Academy Awards including Best Picture; Hepburn won the Academy Award for Best Actress (with Barbra Streisand , the only time this has been a joint award) and Harvey was nominated for a Best Director Oscar and won Best Director at the Golden Globes , as well as several other major awards. It was the screen debuts for actors Anthony Hopkins and Timothy Dalton . Harvey later fondly recalled
6776-473: Was also the only time that Hepburn ever worked on screen with the film's co-star Anthony Quinn . The plot concerns the romantic travails of a former glamour movie-star couple who had a brief, stormy marriage in the 1940s, who reunite decades later to find that their relationship is as difficult as ever. Harvey though remained in Hepburn's high regard, and was one of the few colleagues she remained in contact with near
6864-469: Was an adaptation of another James Goldman play, the offbeat comedy-drama They Might Be Giants (1971) starring George C. Scott and Joanne Woodward , in which Scott plays Justin Playfair, a wealthy but eccentric retiree who is convinced that he is Sherlock Holmes . It was not a success, according to Harvey because Universal significantly altered the film's last half-hour. Harvey reunited with Hepburn for
6952-412: Was based on the 1894 George du Maurier novel Trilby ; it starred Peter O'Toole as an ageing singer who discovers and nurtures a new talent ( Jodie Foster ) with whom he becomes romantically involved but whom he seeks to completely control. Harvey's last cinema film was another offbeat black comedy, Grace Quigley (1984), which reunited him with Katharine Hepburn (making her final top-billed role in
7040-428: Was continually in debt. The father–son relationship has been described as "difficult". The Guardian reported that Le Carré recalled that he had been "beaten up by his father and grew up mostly starved of affection after his mother abandoned him at the age of five". Rick Pym, a scheming con man and the father of A Perfect Spy protagonist Magnus Pym, was based on Ronnie. When his father died in 1975, Cornwell paid for
7128-793: Was finally successful, and a decisively defeated Henry retreated to Chinon in Anjou, where he died. Richard the Lionheart succeeded Henry II, but spent very little time in England (perhaps 6 months), after which he became a central Christian commander during the Third Crusade , leading the campaign after the departure of Philip. Richard won some considerable victories, but he did not succeed in retaking Jerusalem. John finally succeeded Richard in 1199 after Richard's death. During his unsuccessful reign he lost most of his father's holdings in Northern France and angered
7216-412: Was less positive, writing that the film miscalculated in attempting to elevate the melodramatic plot "with serious emotions, more or less authentic costumes and settings, pseudo-Stravinsky music, and historical pomp. And it just won't do to have actors carrying on as if this were a genuine, 'deep' historical play on the order of 'A Man for All Seasons' ... They're playing a camp historical play as if it were
7304-469: Was living; mother and son reunited at Ipswich railway station, at her written invitation, following Cornwell's initial letter of reconciliation. Cornwell's father- who escaped from his "orthodox but repressive upbringing" as son of "a respectable nonconformist bricklayer who became a house builder and mayor of Poole"- had been jailed for insurance fraud and was a known associate of the Kray twins . The family
7392-458: Was sixty years old, was at her best early in the morning while he favoured starting work in the afternoon. They came to a compromise and shot their scenes from 8:30 to 16:00 each day. The sculpted stone figures which appear during the main title sequence were discovered by the director along a driveway near a shooting location in France. They are portrayed as appearing on interior walls of the castle in
7480-431: Was so disillusioned by the 2016 Brexit vote to leave the European Union that he secured Irish citizenship. In a BBC documentary broadcast in 2021, le Carré's son Nicholas revealed that his father's disillusionment with modern Britain, and Brexit in particular, had driven him to embrace his Irish heritage and become an Irish citizen. At the time of his death, le Carré's friend, the novelist John Banville , confirmed that
7568-475: Was the actress Charlotte Cornwell (1949–2021), and his younger half-brother, Rupert Cornwell (1946–2017), was a former Washington bureau chief for The Independent . Cornwell had little early memory of his mother, who had left their family home when he was five years old. His maternal uncle was Liberal MP Alec Glassey . When Cornwell was 21 years old, Glassey gave him the address in Ipswich where his mother
7656-509: Was very, very moving, I have to say, to arrive at the place of the memorial to find an Irish flag and only an Irish flag. He had really in the last years, grown very disillusioned with what had happened to Britain and the United Kingdom. Le Carré died at Royal Cornwall Hospital , Truro , on 12 December 2020, aged 89. An inquest completed in June 2021 concluded that le Carré died after sustaining
7744-410: Was young and he was raised and took his name from his stepfather, actor and writer Morris Harvey . He began his screen career as an actor while a teenager and made his first film appearance playing Ptolemy, the younger brother of Cleopatra (played by Vivien Leigh , an acquaintance of his step-father) in the film version of George Bernard Shaw 's Caesar and Cleopatra (1945), where he recalled that he
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