Shakespeare Probably Was An Alcoholic Too

What’s better than an old British man? How about a drunk old British man? And what’s even better still? Four drunk old British men. That seems to be the motivation behind Robert Sellers’ four part biography “Hellraisers: The Life and Inebriated Times of Richard Burton, Richard Harris, Peter O’Toole and Oliver Reed.”

Now, I knew Peter O’Toole had a history as a drunk. Even if I didn’t, I’ve seen “Lawrence of Arabia,” and frankly, no one could be that attractive in his youth, and turn into what he is today without what you call some “hard living.” The others, however, I had no idea. In fact, I knew very little of their histories in general. Burton was just that classical actor married at one time to Elizabeth Taylor. Oliver Reed was the dude who died during the filmmaking of “Gladiator.” I remember reading an article about how they had to finish using a body double and then pasting his face in with CGI. Richard Harris, of course, I knew as the original Dumbledore in the first two Harry Potter movies. It seems there are so few parts for older British actors in the American film industry. You’re either a villain, or a wizard. Or in Alan Rickman’s case, both.

The biography cycles through the four actors, each starting from rather grim beginnings, and meandering down a steady river of liquor, drugs and women on their way to success. I swear, these men were in a competition to see who could die first. Richard Burton consumed so much alcohol that he started having severe back problems. You might wonder how such an injury could possibly be caused by drinking, other than by accidentally falling out a window while inebriated. Apparently, if you imbibe as much booze as Burton did, the alcohol can start crystallizing on your spine, causing crippling pain. What I want to know is how did his liver not fail first? He eventually died from a brain hemorrhage at the moderately young age of 58, but considering he also started smoking at age eight, how did he even make it that long? I suppose it is a mystery of the ages.

What fascinated me most about the whole book was how obnoxious these four fellows were at times, and how year after year, directors continued to cast them in their films or hire them for their plays. Even when the producers had to hire entire entourages to keep them, not just sober, but working at all. They were all notorious for performing in entire movies while intoxicated, on occasion not even being able to recall the filmmaking process. Sellers tells an anecdote about Peter O’Toole and a young Michael Caine. At the time, Caine was cast as O’Toole’s understudy for a play. Every night, Peter O’Toole would go out to the bar, and remain there up until minutes before he was needed to go on. Each night, Caine would sit in anticipation, thinking this was finally the night O’Toole would arrive too late, and he could replace him. It never happened. O’Toole always came back just in time, one time even shouting to the crew “Not to let that boy onstage,” as he stumbled into his costume.

If “Hellraisers” suffers from any flaw, it is that of repetition. One can only take so many witty tales of debauched buffoonery. Over and over, Sellers dissects each bender, each on-set blowup, and the frequent accidents or hospital trips that followed. The stories are often painful to read, simply because you can’t help but sympathize with the actors or family members suffering at the hands of Burton, O’Toole, Harris or Reed’s drunken antics. Even as Burton‘s first wife, Sybil Williams, would rush to his side in times of emergency, she‘d be faced with not one, but often two mistresses also waiting to take care of her husband. Sellers goes into great detail about Burton’s constant shuffling of his women to ensure they never came in contact with each other.

Throughout it all, not one of the pack ever seemed particularly apologetic about their misbehaving. While they often showed remorse for hurting the ones they loved, they rarely acted sorry for the deeds themselves. There were attempts later in life to curb their bad habits, but never the flat out denial of a problem that you see in so many drunken young stars today. In a way, I suppose that is refreshing.