Customer Reviews

Hellraisers: The Life and Inebriated Times of Richard Burton, Richard Harris, Peter O'Toole, and Oliver Reed

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1 star:		(4)

 

 

This is a very good introduction to the lives of the four greatest Hellraisers in the British Cinema. Burton, O'Toole', Harris, and Reed weren't just great talents, but great drinkers. Of the four, Harris was the one who eventually became addicted to drugs, while Reed was the most dangerous. It's a good read, because when you finish and realize how boring the current film stars are, you want to go out and grab some DVDs of this Fearsome Foursome.

Over the years, the British acting community has included a number of very talented individuals who also happened to be hellacious pubcrawlers. At the top of the heap were Richard Burton, Peter O'Toole, Richard Harris and Oliver Reed. Author Robert Sellers traces the life and crimes of those gifted yet flawed men in this warts-and-all biography published in 2008.

Burton, Harris, O'Toole and Reed were blood brothers almost from birth. Most had childhoods marked by poverty, less than stellar parents and family histories of alcoholism. Those childhood scars shaped each man, producing a Jekyll-and-Hyde man-child. Throughout the book, reminiscences by family, friends and colleagues describe wonderful, sensitive, gentle, incredibly talented men who turned into blotto drunks noted for wrecking pubs, punching out whomever they chose, treating women like floor mats and so on. The Brits apparently enjoyed such hellraising since none of the four ever did serious jail time for their misdeeds but usually received a slap on the wrist.

HELLRAISERS is the kind of book where you don't know whether to laugh or cry. Some of the stunts those gents pulled were silly, stupid, childish and occasionally rather funny. Others would have gotten 'Joe Average' sent away for hard time if he had done the things Oliver Reed, for example, did. Ultimately you end up just shaking your head. Such great potential, such a great waste. And, ironically, what all four men were seemingly aiming for - to create an exciting life filled with memories - was scuttled by their very own actions. Time and again, the comment is made that so-and-so can't remember meeting someone or trashing a particular pub or what he did in the 1970s(!), etc. Some memorable life.

In the end, I found HELLRAISERS a fascinating read. At times, I admit wondering about the accuracy of some of the events. After all, who can verify that Reed knocked down 126 pints in 24 hours!?! In any case, by the end of the roller-coaster ride, I certainly had gotten an education on the dark side of all four actors. I hope they enjoyed the lives they led. They certainly paid a heavy price for it. Recommended.

Robert Sellers' "Hellraisers: The Blah-Blah-Blah" is one of the worst pieces of pathography to come down the pike in a while. Normally, one has to go to the check-out aisle in the grocery store to find this brand of tripe.

The author couldn't be bothered to include interview notes or book references in this 4 - in - 1 hatchet job. You'd expect, at the least, a list of the television, screen, and stage work performances of each subject. It's not there. Who knows if what he writes is true, false, or somewhere in between? Yes, I know what you're thinking: You read the title of the book, you saw that chapter titles, the clever ones, like "The Plastered Fifties", "The Soused Sixties", and "The Sozzled Seventies" (all clearly the result of a great deal of contemplative effort about his subjects; my god, to come up with chapter titles like that, he must have truly and deeply immersed himself not only in the lives of those he writes about but the times in which they lived -- not), you knew what the book was about. You've no one but yourself to blame.

Perhaps. And perhaps I hoped this was a serious biography about four very complex, often troubled people who all rose from the same generation to become legends of stage and screen and were, in large measure, undone by their success. None of them tried in any way to hide or cover up their exploits; in fact, just the opposite, and Butcher Boy Sellers seems to have simply copied down and regurgitated each and every tall story, any story, as long as he accomplished his goal: to put all four into the worst light possible, to make them look bad. They didn't need Mr. Sellers' help with this, as they left legacies that people will still be talking about for a very long time. It would be a great deal of serious work by a well-informed and talented writer to do justice to their lives and the times in which they lived and worked. There is no justice in this book. This isn't biography; this is the stuff of the tabloid journalism. And if that's your bag, well, you'll love this book.

He does what minor critics do: Sellers goes to the battlefield *after* the battle and bayonets the wounded. Or, in this case, he bayonets one wounded and three casualties (Mr. O'Toole is still with us as of this writing; one hopes he's beyond caring about this kind of "writing".). The reader won't be surprised to learn that Mr. Sellers went to drama school, had ambitions to be a stand-up comedian, and ended-up writing about film and actors rather than, say, making films or acting. One imagines he might be a happier person had a refused to give up on his dreams.

If you want to learn about Richard Burton's life, his career as an actor, his love-hate relationship with booze, his talent as a writer, try "Richard Burton -- A Life" by Melvyn Bragg.Richard Burton: A Life Bragg was given access to some of the many journals and diaries Burton kept, and, along with a three dimensional portrait of Burton and those in his life, Bragg gives you an insight into the man that Sellers will never simply be able to capture, certainly not by this maligning third-rate prose about those who (again, with the exception of O'Toole) are dead and can no longer even defend themselves.

]ust consider for a moment someone who presumably sets out to write serious biography, in this case four inter-related biographies, and resorts, in his own work, to including curse words as a part of the book, not the quotes of others but his own robust and bracing prose. I've nothing against curse words. One of my favorite books is called "The F Word" The F-Word , but Sellers tries so hard to sound like "one of the guys" that it smacks of a desperate attempt to gain credit with the reader by propping up his tabloid prose with curse words. It suggests to me a ferocious lack of self-esteem, both as a writer and a person. His profiles come off like some teenage scrawl written by a Hemingway Wannabe. In fact, Mr. Sellers has done to Burton, O'Toole, Reed, and Harris what Kenneth Lynn did to Ernest Hemingway, but that's another review for another time. Like Lynn, Mr. Sellers clearly did not like his subjects.

Please, if you're thinking about buying this book, let me repeat: This is a vicious hatchet job by mean-spirited hack. It's really that simple. Do yourself a favor and watch some of their movies, from "Camelot" (Harris) to "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf?" (Burton) to "The Ruling Class" (O'Toole) to "The Curse of the Werewolf" and "Women in Love" (Reed). There's also "Becket" (Burton and O'Toole) and "Gladiator" (Harris and Reed). And that's just for starters.

Anything but this sad mix of innuendo, character assassination, pathography, and tabloid nastiness. Mr. Sellers, my guess is that, when the time comes, these four gentlemen will be waiting for you at the gates of Hell. If you're lucky, you'll spend Eternity serving them drinks as they look back on their remarkable lives.

This is all my opinion, clearly and without a doubt. If you want truly salacious tales, try "The Twelve Caesars" by Seutonious. The Twelve Caesars He writes well about rumor and innuendo and excess, since such writing, if done properly, is an art.

If I can save you the time and money involved in enduring "Hellraisers", then my time here will have been well spent. Should you read it, though, I urge you to think about yourself or someone you love, and how you'd feel if a biography was written soley from the point of view of a problem or issue: perhaps the issues is eating too much, drinking, drugs, gambling, infidelity, depression, anxiety, etc. If someone wrote about you in such a one-dimensional fashion, do you think it would honestly convey your life, or that of a loved one, as it truly is or was?

Although this is aquick and semi-interesting read for fans of the inebriated stars in the title, the author has basically cobbled together information that anyone can find on the internet. Seriously. Google Ann Turkel, for instance (second wife of Richard Harris). What's in the book is taken almost word for word from her web site. Ditto Oliver Reed, etc.

I got a copy of Hellraisers after listening to an interview with Robert Sellers on NPR. It sounded like an entertaining book and since I knew few details about Richard Burton, Richard Harris, Peter O'Toole and Oliver Reed (other than they were Olympian drinkers), I thought the book would be fun to read.

In truth, the book is fun and fast reading. The purpose of Hellraisers is to record the legendary destructive habits and attitudes of its four subjects. Mr. Sellers writes in a tabloid style warranted by the subject - the pursuit of a good time. I found the many similarities between Burton, Harris, O'Toole and Reed to be interesting. The were, for the most part, for working class families, held authority in contempt, did terrible in school, were athletes when young and all found as a perfect escape. All four exuded a feeling of danger. Today, actors would not be able to get away with what this quartet did. Of course, as time went they all found making films more difficult because of their inebriated states. There are many other actors mentioned in Mr. Sellers' book that, in their way, followed the same examples as the main subjects. Actors such as Stanley Baker, Peter Finch and Trevor Howard may not have had the same star appeal as Burton, O'Toole, Harris and Reed but they followed in the same footsteps.

Hellraisers is entertaining, funny and sad at the same time. The exploits of Burton, O'Toole, Harris and Reed are amusing but their seeking self-destruction makes us wonder why. Countless other Hollywood boozers of an earlier generation come to mind, like John Barrymore and Humphrey Bogart, and put the Hellraiser quartet into more of a tradition than an exception. Today there is less toleration for spoiled actor antics so Burton, O'Toole, Harris and Reed can be seen as the last of their kind. This book will appeal to those who

Bottom line, Hellraisers is not well written literature and pulls the masks off many actors that may be better off left on. Most of the time, the book is entertaining and sometimes offers interesting facts. If you are interested in Burton, O'Toole, Harris, Reed, and their times this book will interest you.

With the serious reading I have to do for my lesson plans, this is a welcomed respite. These very talented actors were unapologetic about their on/off screen misbehaviors. I shall refrain from recapping some of the gross-out antics in this gossipy, fast paced, hilarious read.

Most of us realize that the major film and theatre awards (and even, the nominations!) are not based on excellence, but "rationed" so that one performer does not win often. We know that Meryl Streep and Jack Nicolson deserve more Oscars than their competitors, but the awards are a war zone and the power brokers negotiate to maintain a semblance of peace. In a evidently vengeful reaction, the Hollywood entertainment community persistently denied these "hellraisers" a major award. I thought it was outrageous that Richard Burton and Peter O'Toole were patently ignored for their fabulous work in Becket. How Burton never received a Tony for his Hamlet performances defies common sense. Lesson: we acknowledge your talent; however, if you can't control yourself, no prizes.

Short of committing murder, they knew that they were the "cat's meow" to sell a project. They continually showed their backsides to the establishment, family, associates, and their doctors by completing their offensive "bucket lists" before they left our presence. Wherever they are in the afterlife, I silently chuckle at my imagination of them running havoc in heaven (or hell) over an exasperated Almighty (or the devil).

I've been a Russell Crowe fan since 2000 and when I read just a few of the stories of debauchery in this book I thought, 'These guys make Russell look like a choir boy ! '
Also mentioned in the book was a comment that Elizabeth Taylor could drink them all under the table !...Oh my....

I do have to wonder had there been the internet and the instant media coverage during their heyday like we have now.... would these 4 have been more INfamous than famous ?
Would their acting careers have been adversely affected after they got raked over the coals with every bad behavior exposed like celebrities are subjected to today ?
Who knows.
At any rate, this is a highly entertaining book and I recommend it for some fun reading.

Here's a collection that lets us vicariously enjoy the most outrageous and salacious adventures of the best party animal actors that ever lived? Personally, I don't think my own constitution could have matched or survived any one of these incidents or activities of mass alcohol consumption, barroom destruction, or insatiable sexual conquest. But there were some memoroable times that I tried ... God knows I tried.

"Hellraisers: The Life and Inebriated Times of Richard Burton, Richard Harris, Peter O'Toole and Oliver Reed" is a fascinating read. While it is full of gossipy details--not all that different from a tabloid mag-- it does give depth to this talented,self-destructive quartet of actors. All came from working-class backgrounds, had difficult families, but managed to have the talent to rise above their upbringings. Their paths of self-destruction are heartbreaking.

Richard Burton was the Welsh lion--he imbued his characters with passion. Indeed,he lived his life with passion,carrying on an affair with Elizabeth Taylor during the production of Cleopatra,and marrying/divorcing her twice. He died prematurely at the age of 58. Richard Harris enjoyed his heyday in the '60s,yet he made a magical comeback as Albus Dumbledore in Harry Potter Years 1-5 (Widescreen Edition). Oliver Reed made it big in Ken Russell's art films--including the infamous homoerotic nude wrestling scene with Alan Bates in Women in Love His comeback was brief and tragic in Gladiator (Widescreen Edition) Ken Russell called his death a sad,tragic waste and ridiculous. Peter O'Toole-the true survivor--hit it big as the luminous,desert sex god in Lawrence of Arabia (Collector's Edition, 2 discs) - DVD A mutual friend of O'Toole and his then-future wife Sian Philips warned Philips with "He's a genius,but he's not normal." O'Toole's decline is the most tragic. Age has not treated him kindly. Being a Womanizer and alcoholic took its toll. He's gone from thoughtful movies like Becket opposite Becket,about the freedom of conscience,and Church vs. State, to the sappy awfulness that is Thomas Kinkade's Christmas Cottage He has gone from a living legend to the walking dead.

"Hellraisers" provides fascinating,intertwining glimpses of these '60s luminaries. As Austin Powers would say,the '60s were groovy,man. What a long,strange trip it was....

Okay, so on page 76 Alan Jay Lerner is credited as the lyricist of the magnificent musical CAMELOT. Which he, indeed, was. Then we get to pages 122 and 132 and suddenly we're informed that Alan Jay Lerner was the composer of CAMELOT. Which he, indeed, was not. No mention is made whatsoever within the pages of this scrambled eggs of a book of the actual composer, one Frederick Loewe. (Lerner and Loewe also did MY FAIR LADY.) My point is this: why the mistake? Was this book's author - Robert Sellers - "pissed" whilst writing this quadruple bio? And if he was, what of the editor or the proof-reader or any of several others who must have read this book in its proof state? (Was it 100 % proof?) Does no one give a rat's butt for the great composer Frederick Loewe???

The much larger issue I'm aiming at is this: if Sellers can get this known-by-most-everyone-in-the-know easily-researched fact about the duo behind the great musicals above mentioned, how can we, as readers, put any faith in the rest of this book's accuracy? Especially since 80 % or more of it is one drunken anecdote after another? Many of the actual sources for the recountings of these myriad drunken escapades are also lacking. No footnotes. Also, on one page Sellers tells us that O'Toole NEVER watched himself in his own movies - and on the very next page we are told of O'Toole's negative reaction when watching a latter film of his on screen. Well, what was it? What is Truth? Especially the truth that comes out of drunken memories? Drink is a means to escape or enhance Reality - so stories that come from the realm of the besotted must be taken with several grains of salt. Tall-tales are born in bars.

The book is subtitled "The Life and Inebriated Times of..." and then it lists the four great actors covered within its pages. The subtitle more accurately should have simply read : "The Inebriated Times of..." for the book is much, much more concerned with telling of the outrageous escapades of the four men than it is in pinpointing what actually made them great actors - or discussing their greatest roles to any substantial degree at all. The offspring and siblings of the men pop up out of practically nowhere giving the reader no true sense of the families of the four men - and this also just gives one the sense that Sellers (a former stand-up comedian) is anxious to get on with the tabloid stuff...like a comedian keepings its audience laughing with one hoot of a joke after another; herein one lurid tale after another.

Having said all of the above, I did enjoy reading the book...if only for the fact that it made me want to elbow-bend as soon as possible. If you like to imbibe, this book will most assuredly make you thirsty. But for all one gains, one loses. Yes, the lives herein told were racey and wild and filled with fun and fight - but these are cautionary lives as well. (Especially, I think, in the life of Richard Burton. 58 when he died!) Sellers remains neutral through it all - and that is admirable - he doesn't judge. But in telling the tales of four top-talents and their tipsy times we learn that, yes, drinking can be devilish damn good fun - but also it is a deadly thing - to memory, relationships, health, career...It is, in truth, a deal with the Devil to become a true Hellraiser.

So, in conclusion, while I admit having rather enjoyed reading the book, I must also say that I've....well, let's put it this way....I've drunk in better bars.