[QUOTE=OtakuLoki]
Sampiro, since you bring him up, is there any truth, do you know, to the rumors that Patton was convinced he was the reincarnation of Hannibal? I’ve encountered the claim/accusation in many places, but none that I’d call authoritative.
[/QUOTE]
No idea. 
Sorry.
I do know that when he was a boy (according to biographers according to his conversations) when an animal on the family’s estate would die or at slaughtering time he would take a picnic lunch and eat while in smelling distance/sight of its decomposing corpse. He did this to accustom himself and his stomach to the smell of a battlefield.
His children went to see the George C. Scott movie (which made the bones of both Coppola and his assistant George Lucas) in order to gain information for the lawsuit they’d filed against the author/the director/the studio/the catering service/everyone associated with the project. After seeing the movie they dropped the lawsuit: they loved it and thought it handled him very fairly. They said GCS hit bullseyes throughout and only his voice was totally off (Patton had a much higher squeakier voice) but as Patton hated his voice and would have given millions to sound like GCS they thought this change was for the better.
Speaking of GCS- during his affair with Ava Gardner while they were playing Abraham and Sarah in The Bible they got into a fight so bad that he damaged her retina and required surgery. She hid the (smallish) scar with makeup and veils. According to one (admittedly very gossipy) biography of her, she had to call Frank Sinatra to keep him from having the everloving crap beaten out of Scott- and she did it mainly so the picture would stay on schedule.
The role of Hagar (the “surrogate mother” in the Abe/Sarah relationship for those not into genesis) was played by Zoe Sallis, who in real life was the longterm concubine of the film’s director, John Huston. In a weird “art imitating life imitating art” thing, Sallis and Huston had a son, Danny (most recently seen as Sam Adams in the John Adams miniseries) early in their relationship while Huston was still married to Ricki Soma (Anjelica Huston’s mother). The Hustons did not divorce, remained married until Ricki’s death, frequently lived and traveled together (sometimes separated but usually on good terms), and Ricki accepted Danny very much as a member of the family.
It was the least she could do really: John always included the son she had from an extramarital fling in all family activities as well.
At one time the family lived in a castle in Ireland. Anjelica Huston discussed how odd it was not being able to get into a college due to missing credits from being homeschooled (back before that was as much a term). The admissions officer asked her favorite subjects and she told him “philosophy and French”. Asked how she learned them she told him “a private tutor”. Asked his name she told him, a bit hesitantly, “Jean Paul Sartre”. The admissions officer basically told her to get out of his office and come back when she was ready to be serious. (She, of course, was serious; Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir were frequent visitors to the family’s homes and had their own cottage at the Irish castle.)
In his last years John lived in a luxurious home on an island in Mexico, mainly because it was about the only place he could afford a luxurious home (he’d spent most of his money before he ever made it). He was hooked up to oxygen tanks and dying of smoking related causes and was asked to make a Yul Brynner style commercial on the dangers of smoking to be aired after his death. He agreed.
In every take he went off book. I’m paraphrasing, but it would be exchanges like the following:
“Had I never smoked a cigarette I’d still be alive and making movies… well, alive anyway… probably… the movies depend on..”
CUT!
“Cigarettes kill. By the time you see this they’ll have killed me. Well, probably. I can’t know for certain till I die…”
CUT!
“Cigarettes kill. One way or the other. If you have to smoke, stick to cigars. There’s nothing like a Cuban right after…”
CUT!
Until it was scrapped.
Anjelica, telling this story on an interview, was asked if he was intentionally fecking with the director. She said “I seriously doubt it… that was just Dad.”
