Pop Culture 101 - THE LION IN WINTER

The movie was based on James Goldman's play, which starred Robert Preston, Rosemary Harris and Christopher Walken when it opened on Broadway in March 1966. The play was a flop at the time, but has since become a popular staple for theaters ranging from Broadway to small-town community troupes. A recent New York revival starred Laurence Fishburne and Stockard Channing.

The story was remade for television in 2003 with Patrick Stewart as Henry and Glenn Close as Eleanor.

This was the second time O'Toole played Henry II on screen. His earlier performance of the role was in Becket (1964). Between 1923 and 2003, the king has been a character in six other films.

In addition to Hepburn and Close, Eleanor of Aquitaine has been portrayed on screen by Martita Hunt in The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men (1952), Pamela Brown in Becket (1964) and Jane Lapotaire in the British TV series The Devil's Crown (1978), opposite Brian Cox as Henry.

King Richard the Lionhearted (played here as a prince by Anthony Hopkins) has appeared in dozens of movies and has been played on screen by Wallace Beery, Sean Connery, Richard Harris, George Sanders, Patrick Stewart and Peter Ustinov, among many others. His brother John (played here by Nigel Terry), who also later became king, has also figured in a number of movies, particularly stories about Robin Hood. He has been played by Ian Holm, Claude Rains, Richard Lewis and others.

Director Anthony Harvey handled another historical royal subject in The Abdication (1974), with Liv Ullmann as Sweden's Queen Kristina, a role made famous by Greta Garbo in 1933.

Writer James Goldman later wrote screenplays about other real-life royalty: the last czar of Russia in Nicholas and Alexandra (1971) and Nicholas' daughter in Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna (1986), a made-for-TV movie. He also returned to the Middle Ages for Robin and Marian (1976), with Sean Connery as Robin Hood and Audrey Hepburn as Maid Marian, late in their lives. Goldman also adapted his own play again for the 2003 TV version of The Lion in Winter.

Nigel Terry, who played the future King John in this film, did not make another picture for 13 years until he played another legendary English king, Arthur, in John Boorman's Excalibur (1981). He also played King Louis of France in The Hunchback (1997), a TV movie version of Victor Hugo's novel Notre Dame de Paris.

by Rob Nixon