Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Actor who trained at RADA and performed at the National Theatre under Laurence Olivier.
On the island
Eight records
I heard this oh ten, twenty years ago and it had such a haunting effect on me, I don't know why, it was just the quality of voice. And the quality of music that haunted me, and I play it very often.
MyfanwyFavourite
I don't know very much about Welsh choral singing, but this is one of my favourites.
Consolation No. 3 in D-flat major
I heard it when I was a little... must have been about eight years of age. There was a piano teacher in the same street, and uh she used to play at night. And I can always remember that almost a Chekhovian summer evening and hearing this consolidation coming down the street, and I'd been out playing with the other kids. It stayed with me for years and years, and whenever I hear it it takes me back.
When I was a child my grandfather had a scratchy old wind up gramophone, and this was one of the songs, and uh whenever I hear it it takes me back to those days when I was about six seven as my lover.
Etude in D-sharp minor, Op. 8, No. 12
I played this some twenty years ago and it's been one of my favorites. I've started playing it again, but it's a terribly difficult piece, but I'm accomplishing something with it anyway.
my father used to sing it. My father looked a little like Bing Crosby. And he used to whistle this. And uh I've been a Crosbie fan ever since I was a little kid and I used to be taken off to the cinema to see the Road films, you know, Bob Hope and Crosby and uh I've always had a thing about Crosby.
National Opera Orchestra of Monte Carlo
I first heard this about 20 years ago, and I just like it very much.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:30Did you ever consider taking up the piano professionally?
Yes, I did for a while, uh for about ten years, I think. And then I discovered that I didn't have the technique or the talent really to play as a concert pianist.
Presenter asks
8:40How did you get your opportunity at the National Theatre? Who saw you where?
I auditioned for Lawrence Olivier at the end of 1965. Yes. He was then doing Othello, and my only audition piece, the only one I knew, was Othello. So I thought, well, I've got nothing to lose. He can't shoot me. He asked me what am I going to do? And as I told him, he said, You've got a nerve, haven't you? However, he seemed to like it, and he said, All right, come join us. So I stayed there for about on and off, seven years.
Presenter asks
9:32Did Laurence Olivier encourage you? Did he show you tricks and help you along?
Well, I think we all picked up his tricks. You know, such personality and such a powerful actor like that, it was very difficult to avoid, I mean, working with him, to avoid picking up some of his stuff. And I don't think there's anything wrong in that, you know. But he did encourage me. I mean, he gave me my first major part in Three Sisters I played Andre with John Claride.
The keepsakes
The book
F. Scott Fitzgerald
I've read it a few times and I I find it a haunting book.
The luxury
All I would want to take is a piano, but of course I can't take a piano there. I can take a piano. I'll tune it myself.
Presenter asks
15:27Tell me about your experience on the television project War and Peace.
Yes. That was um for the BBC in this country and in Yugoslavia with my friend Alan Toby. I played Pierre and Alan played Andrei. An interesting, um, a marvellous piece to do. Playing the part of Pierre, I think began to influence changes in my life because Pierre was a a seeker of wisdom and truth and I think I'd unconsciously been trying to find some answers for myself because I wasn't really at that time that happy as an actor. I was very insecure. and scared as lots of young actors are. But I think in a way it led me to question my own life, you know, and then I later went off to America uh in seventy four.
Presenter asks
16:09You have been rather a loner as a young actor, haven't you?
Yes, I'd been very much on my own well ever since I was a child, but I'm still a little bit like that. I mean I as I'm getting older I'm making more friends now. I'm I'm opening up and saying yes to things a bit more than I used to. I used to be a bit of a hermit. And I think, you know, it's a it's foolish because one needs the society of other people. I think it was more or less an affectation of just panic or fear.
Presenter asks
17:15Was going to America a considered project?
It was chance, really, and uh destiny or luck or whatever you want to call it. I'd always wanted to go to California. I'd always been a a movie fan. I was brought up as a child on the Warner Brothers movies of Humphrey Bogart and James Cagney. And that's you know, I simply wanted to make movies and television. I know a lot of English actors frown on that and say it's rather selling out, but uh that's what I did. I sold out, I suppose.
“That's all I wanted to be was gone to be in a so I more or less gave up. Yes. Or gave me up. Top or nothing. Top or nothing. That's been it all my life, yeah.”
“I heard this oh ten, twenty years ago and it had such a haunting effect on me, I don't know why, it was just the quality of voice. And the quality of music that haunted me, and I play it very often.”
“I auditioned for Lawrence Olivier at the end of 1965. Yes. He was then doing Othello, and my only audition piece, the only one I knew, was Othello. So I thought, well, I've got nothing to lose. He can't shoot me. He asked me what am I going to do? And as I told him, he said, You've got a nerve, haven't you?”
“I went off to California and uh I suddenly thought, Yes, life really is uh a great kick and uh better get on and enjoy it because, you know, this isn't the rehearsal, this is it. And I think you know, it's it's the peculiar irony of one's youth. You know, one is so intent on the destination and you forget to look at the journey itself.”
“I know a lot of English actors frown on that and say it's rather selling out, but uh that's what I did. I sold out, I suppose.”