What do Rudolf Nureyev, Ian McKellen, Norman St John Stevas, and David Hockney have in common? According to the Sunday Telegraph Magazine article of 6 November 1977 What Makes Men Attractive?: in the case of these four men, they are unobtainable!
Portrait Nobby Clark
Gladys McKellen (step-mother), Ian McKellen (having just received C.B.E.) and Jean Jones (sister) outside Buckingham Palace, October 1979 Westminster Press Limited
Uncle Freddie (Richard Gale) and Max (Ian McKellen BENT (1979)
Max (Ian McKellen) and Horst (Tom Bell) BENT (1979)
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Frieda and D. H. Lawrence journeying to New Mexico
My hair was dyed auburn, like Lawrence’s own. My moustache and beard were augmented by some false hair around the chin. PRIEST OF LOVE
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Janet Suzman (Frieda Lawrence) and Ian McKellen (D H Lawrence) PRIEST OF LOVE
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Lawrence (Ian McKellen) off to bed
This scene showed me candlelit moving round the marital bed — in shadow I displayed the first erection ever seen in a mainstream movie. This was achieved with a dildo and a great deal of sticking-plaster. PRIEST OF LOVE
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L to R: Marizio Meru, Penelope Keith, Janet Suzman, Stanley Seger, Christopher Miles, Ian McKellen, Andrew Donnally, Ava Gardner, Jorge Riveras
The steam-train had been brought out of retirement and, for this publicity shot, re-named PRIEST OF LOVE
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My room with a view. I had been looking forward to filming in Florence — we were housed a little outside the old city! PRIEST OF LOVE
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Lawrence sailing near Lake Guarda in northern Italy
Two game extras enlivened the scene - signing autographs is the director’s sister Sarah Miles, accompanied by my lover the non-speaking Sean Mathias PRIEST OF LOVE
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Riding with amanuensis Brett (Penelope Keith) on a painting expedition.
Lawrence was a considerable amateur painter — Priest of Love opened with the banning of a London exhibition of his oils, on the grounds of obscenity.
Acting on horseback is not easy — the animal is so resolutely itself, unabashed by the camera’s attention, whilst the rider has to be in control, yet relaxed enough to remain in character. I had learnt to ride safely when I was initially cast as Ned Kelly for Tony Richardson’s film about the Australian outlaw. Mick Jagger eventually played the part.
The Lawrences’ bed-time disturbed by a Mexican earthquake
Such effects take a long time to set up and this one was so complicated it could only be filmed once by the three cameras shooting simultaneously. Janet and I were to sit up in bed and on cue react to the quake’s rumble as cracks appeared in the wall. Under the bed stage-hands shook its frame as plaster and debris fell from the mock ceiling. At last this one-off shot was ready for action — everything went according to plan until the last moment when I had to leap from the bed to safety. As I pulled back the bedclothes they revealed my lighter, the gold packet of 20 Benson and Hedges cigarettes and my half-finished crossword in the previous morning’s copy of the London Times newspaper! PRIEST OF LOVE
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Lawrence (Ian McKellen) trying to write as his wife (Janet Suzman) distracts him
Janet, married to my university friend, Trevor Nunn, worked with him at the Royal Shakespeare Company with distinction. She adopted the appropriate German accent but none of the padding needed to match Frieda’s ample figure. PRIEST OF LOVE
The splendid panama hat was typical of the care of our costume designer, Anthony Powell. Before each shot he checked my clothes, particularly around my face when in close-up. He taught me that the brim of a hat should always be parallel with the ground, if it was to look good from all angles. The temptation is to push hats back off the forehead, which may reveal the face nicely but looks sloppy from the side. PRIEST OF LOVE
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Ian McKellen (D H Lawrence) orating on the steps of the temple at Monte Alba, just outside Oaxaca, Mexico PRIEST OF LOVE
In front of a copy of Michelangelos David at the Uffizi, Firenze. (The real ones inside.) PRIEST OF LOVE