Becoming Roy Bean was an all-consuming project. Walter worked late into the night making the old fellow come alive. Weeks of preparation went into his performance. I have literally become that man and...
Period (1981-83), when Michael was Labour Party leader, had been devastating: Some things helped me—the Byron Society—Byron helped me to recover from that. He never gave in. Just after the election, I...
Devotion that drove other actors out of the tent. Although Brennan’s political convictions were decidedly conservative, he remained outside the political arena, which perhaps accounts for why he playe...
Be versatile, cunning, and ruthless in his pursuit—in other words, have all the attributes of a good spy.—Erika Ostrovsky, Eye of Dawn: The Rise and Fall of Mata Hari (1978)
William Brennan did not live to see his son, now a remarkable transformative actor, win his first Academy Award, for Come and Get It, the first time the award for supporting actor was given. Edward Ar...
Talk of Vanessa reminded Michael of the terrible 1963 accident. Vanessa and Jason (in the backseat) had escaped harm. We were saved by the Health Service, Michael believed. Taken to the Hereford hospi...
Michael’s career as a government minister made him a target of the tabloids. The Daily Mail ran a series of articles claiming that during a hospital stay Michael had received special treatment. But Mi...
Michael often spoke of his father and their book discussions. Isaac Foot would visit London nearly every fortnight, Michael recalled, and they would see each other. Michael rarely spoke of anyone else...
May 3: Responding to reports that she is not an orphan and that her mother is alive, Marilyn issues a statement through Erskine Johnson in the Los Angeles Daily News: My mother spent many years at the...
May 28: Shooting begins on There’s No Business Like Show Business. Marilyn’s director, Walter Lang, does not seem to know how to handle her. Donald O’Connor, Marilyn’s love interest in the film, recal...
June 28: Marilyn, in pain, is hospitalized for gallbladder surgery.
June 26: David Conover photographs Norma Jeane for Yank magazine.
January 26: Kazan asks Miller to escort Marilyn to a party that Charles Feldman is hosting in honor of Miller. Miller and Marilyn spend time together visiting bookshops and going on a picnic. He watch...
January 25: Marilyn is filmed singing My Heart Belongs to Daddy. It is a production number in which she is surrounded by a group of adoring men, who ferry her across the stage in a routine reminiscent...
January 24: Marilyn agrees to do Something’s Got to Give, providing that the script changes are acceptable to her. Advice columnist Ann Landers writes Marilyn a note: Just read where you are back in H...
I followed Michael upstairs to the living room, where Emma had prepared drinks. I know we have some other matters [Michael’s lovers] to talk to you about at some stage, he said, almost chuckling.
He is the spy in William Golding’s novel The Paper Men, caught by his subject in the act of rifling through his subject’s garbage.
February 20: Orphanage report on Norma Jeane: Sometimes she seems anxious and then she begins to stutter. Norma Jean [sic] is also prone to coughing fits and frequent colds . . . if she’s not treated...
February 13: On its cover Se Og Hor (Denmark) features a shot of Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen) and Marilyn (dressed in a fur stole and low-cut dress) smiling over a large manuscript.
February 13: Marilyn and Yves Montand appear on the cover of Paris Match