Public Places: My Life in the Theater, with Peter O'Toole and Beyond

by Siân Phillips

Siân Phillips and Peter O'Toole were one of the theater¿s most fabulous couples--a marriage perhaps rivaled only by that of Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor in terms of glamour, power, and public fascination. In her exceptional memoir, Phillips reveals in thoughtful detail their tumultuous life together. She describes the mad and impulsive times with the infamous hellraiser alongside the tempestuous, insecure, and often lonely periods in their marriage. When O¿Toole's career took off with Lawrence of Arabia , Siân found life increasingly difficult in her parallel roles as wife, mother, and actress, and watched as her own career became progressively sidelined. Against all expectations, though, their union endured for twenty years. When it ended, incredibly, even to herself, Siân plunged straight into another marriage, to a much younger man. Ultimately she emerges alone--triumphant and unrepentant--and the story she recounts here ranks alongside the very best in show business.

Genres: Biography

456 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2001

About the author

Dame Jane Elizabeth Ailwên Phillips, known professionally as Siân Phillips, is a Welsh actress. She has performed the title roles in Henrik Ibsen's Hedda Gabler and George Bernard Shaw's Saint Joan and is also particularly known for her performance as Livia in the 1976 BBC television series I, Claudius.

Reviews

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

As the title indicates, Phillips recounts her life in theater (and radio, TV, and films) from the late 1950s to the early 1990s. She and O'Toole separated around 1976 and divorced in 1979. The earlier part of the book, where O'Toole (as she almost always calls him) figures prominently, was more focused and interesting: a four. The latter part, during which she is married (almost without knowing why) to the younger actor, Robin Sachs, feels too much like a recitation of dates, places, and people, without a cohesive theme: a two. Maybe that's how Phillips was feeling at the time, but it doesn't make for compelling reading. And when, on the final page, she proclaimed that she was (at about age 60) "happy ... at home and unafraid of what the future might bring," I couldn't really figure out what had brought her to this point other than, perhaps, time dimming her anxiety and worries.

But, oh, the rapture of her life with O'Toole, even if he comes across as a charming, controlling, chauvinistic ass. One can see that when their life was good, it was astonishingly good. But it was also obvious it could not last without Phillips' continued sublimation and even subjugation of her own needs and desires.

Splitting the difference with a 3-star rating.

[Jae Jaggart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Movie geek that I am, I saw Lawrence Of Arabia (the 1962 film) on the teev when I was still in primary school and walked around in a Lawrence daze for days. Gradually I caught up on various Peter O’Toole films and like a handful of brilliant actors that seemed to thrive in the sixties, he had a complete disregard for authority, a bloody-minded insistence on total personal freedom, and a self-destructive streak ten miles wide. Sian Phillips, a powerful actress in her own right, was married to him. This is her autobiography and a documentation of a fascinating period in filmmaking generally. It includes sharp observations not only of O’Toole, but of the major players in the theatre and cinema of the fifties, sixties and seventies. This was one very tough, very intelligent woman and I can only think that for all the bad times, there were an equal amount of fascinating and unique ones, many of them documented here with humor and wit.

[Surreysmum · Rating 4 out of 5]

Phillips writes an enjoyable, anecdote-filled autobiography. It may have been more than a little galling for her, but she has clearly taken the advice that her primary readership will be people interested in a behind the scenes look of the life of her ex-husband Peter O'Toole, and she has structured the book accordingly, opening with an out-of-sequence account of the crucial period in that marriage, when O'Toole was seriously ill, and giving the lion's share of the pages and anecdotes to the 20-odd years of that marriage rather than her own life before and after.

My heart aches for the picture she paints of the results of O'Toole's negligence and verbal abuse upon her own self-esteem. However, Phillips appears also to have been blessed by many strong friendships and fairly solid family relationships - expectedly fractious at times with mother and eldest daughter, but in the end not disastrous. Writing this with a few decades of experience behind her, she seems to have arrived at both self-knowledge and perspective.

And she tells very good stories! John Gielgud features in a number of them, as well as Tennessee (Tom!) Williams, Edith Evans, Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor - and her three cats. There were a number of hair-raising trips with O'Toole, one involving a trip by helicopter to the top of Angel Falls through and over very unfriendly and unforgiving terrain, and a visit, against all advice, with an isolated indigenous people in South America. Phillips appears to have taken great joy in making living spaces and gardens, and she remembers with remarkable vividness the details of her various homes and their renovations and decorations.

The photos, too, are good, one featuring her mounted atop a camel during the filming of "Lawrence" looking entirely queenly.

With O'Toole's fairly recent death, there will be a lot of biographical material published, and no doubt much of it will be "dude" celebration of the drinking days. Good to have a different, and authoritative, perspective.

[Siân Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

This second part of Ms Phillips' autobiography was something of an emotional rollercoaster. The highs and lows of 20 years of marriage to Peter O'Toole seemed to be a mix of romantic fairytale and gothic horror. I hesitate to say too much about it, since Phillips herself is at pains to stress that they had very happy times as well as difficult ones. From my viewpoint, I wanted to shout at her to get away from this appalling situation and shine like the star she is. In the first book, Private Faces, we meet a bold warrior of a woman. A woman unafraid to subvert the rigid mores of the 1950s, Siân leads an almost charmed life. It probably did seem so when she met her handsome, soon-to-be filmstar, Peter O'Toole. However, the gilt comes off when life changes. Becoming a wife and mother at the beginning of the swinging sixties was surely challenging enough, but dealing with someone whose behaviour could swing from charming to monstrous in an instant, must have been very trying indeed. Moving on from this phase of life to the next, life takes a more stable turn and the book ends on a positive note. Ultimately, this is a life story full of hope and love, but there are dragons to be slain and monsters to fend off before the end.

[Marion · Rating 4 out of 5]

She certainly had to put up with a lot

[Evelyn]

review coming

[Willowwind]

I ordered this because it was mentioned on the Marzipan group list and after reading the first few pages on Amazon it sounded really interesting.

[Kym · Rating 5 out of 5]

loved this amazing book! My new mantra in life is "What would Sian do?"