Incidentally, the NYT recently ran an interesting profile (paid subscribers only, alas) of Richard Griffiths, the actor who played Uncle Monty. Both of his parents were deaf, and he had an “interesting” (i.e., unpleasant) childhood. It’s a good read, if any of you are subscribers.
Sevastopol ’s right on both counts – Viv MacKerrell had a film acting gig in 1967… but didn’t have another (in film, anyway) until '71, and then a final one in '74. (In the DVD supplement “Withnail & Us,” both Robinson and Grant refer, respectively, to MacKerrell’s never really doing anything and to not ever acting after leaving art school (as far as he knew).
And he did die of throat cancer, instead of drinking himself to death per se… although, FWIW, alcohol is also a risk factor in the cancers of the upper GI tract.
On TVGuide, it just lists westerns all day today. At 1:30, it’s “The Commancheros” or something like that. (Saturday.) (The 24th.)
-Kris
Sorry, wrong channel. I was looking at AMC.
-Kris
[hijack]
Just chiming in. I met Richard E. Grant (Withnail) Friday before last. And he was lovely. He signed my copy of Withnail & I. That is all.
[/hijack]
jjimm:
There’s a historical reason for all of this: homosexuality had only just been legalized, and the habit among gay men, at the time it was still punishable by imprisonment, was to use subtle signs to indicate to other gay people that you were gay, such as missayings and innuendo, or to drop polari words into conversation as a sign, though Monty doesn’t do this.
I am reading Richard E Grant’s With Nails , his film diaries. Discussing the character of Monty he says:
and
Bruce describes how, as a young beauty, he was ‘targeted’ by rovers of the same sex who spun sexual innuendo into the most ordinary conversation with the result that he was often tongue-tied and trapped and says he understands exactly what a woman must feel like when hit on by a lounge lizard.
Not to mention the obvious visual phallic references to eels and saveloys (including that shot in the bathroom with Peter Marwood holding one sausage rather provocatively in the tub with Withnail in the background), references to Peter’s attractiveness, and the Hamlet quotes (“No, nor women neither. Nor women neither.”)
“Why did you laugh when I said, ‘Man delights not me’?”
jackelope:
Incidentally, the NYT recently ran an interesting profile (paid subscribers only, alas) of Richard Griffiths, the actor who played Uncle Monty. Both of his parents were deaf, and he had an “interesting” (i.e., unpleasant) childhood. It’s a good read, if any of you are subscribers.
Richard E. Grant’s autobiographical film (which he wrote and directed), Wah-Wah , about his childhood in Swaziland, was released in the US this month.
Withnail’s oration of Hamlet’s soliloquy in the park was note-perfect, except for his confessional repeating the “No, nor women neither” line. The Hamlet theme not only links him to his gay uncle, but strongly suggests that his fate is not destined to be a happy one. This, too, is in keeping with real-life inspiration for Withnail, Bruce’s friend and late-'60’s housemate Vivian McKerrell [sp?], who for all his natural charm, intelligence, and wit, never found meaningful work as a thespian and drank himself to an early death in the '70’s.
Is there any reason to think Vivian was gay or crypto-gay?
Was Viv gay? I have no idea. I don’t know of any references to his sexuality by Bruce Robinson or anybody else.
