THE LION IN WINTER - Trivia and Other Fun Stuff

The movie was not marketed like most general release films; it opened on a reserved-seat basis with audiences paying top dollar for tickets, as if it were a prestigious live theater production.

Hepburn had a longstanding policy of never appearing at the Academy Awards presentation, even when she was nominated, and a great reluctance (at that time) to appear on television. But for the award show to be telecast in Spring 1968, she taped a segment from London dressed in her Eleanor of Aquitaine costume. She spoke about the first ten years of the Oscars¿ in one of four segments covering the four-decade history of the awards.

Years before this picture and after seeing O'Toole perform on stage, Hepburn urged producer Sam Spiegel to cast the relative unknown in the lead in Lawrence of Arabia (1962), although Spiegel wanted Albert Finney.

Peter O'Toole named his daughter Kate, after Hepburn.

Harvey directed his good friend Katharine Hepburn twice more: Grace Quigley (1984) and the TV movie This Can't Be Love (1994). He directed O'Toole again in the TV movie Svengali (1983). Jane Merrow (Princess Alais) appeared in his TV movie The Patricia Neal Story (1981) and John Castle (Geoffrey) was in his Eagle's Wing (1979).

Anthony Harvey started his film career as an actor at the age of 14, appearing with Claude Rains and Vivien Leigh in Caesar and Cleopatra (1945). He later became an editor and cut the Stanley Kubrick pictures Lolita (1962) and Dr. Strangelove (1964).

Award-winning cinematographer Douglas Slocombe started in motion pictures in Great Britain in 1940 and lensed most of the famous Ealing Studios comedies of the 1950s. He went on to photograph Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and the Indiana Jones series.

This was the feature film debut for both Nigel Terry and Timothy Dalton. It has often been credited as Anthony Hopkins' film debut, but he actually appeared first in Lindsay Anderson's The White Bus (1967).

Screenwriter James Goldman was the brother of William Goldman, Academy Award-winning author of the screenplays for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) and All the President's Men (1976).

John Barry has composed music for more than 100 films and TV shows, including a dozen James Bond movies. In addition to his award for The Lion in Winter, he has won Oscars¿ for his scores for Born Free (1966), Out of Africa (1985) and Dances with Wolves (1990).

Hepburn claimed she was descended from Eleanor, tracing her lineage back to children from the queen's marriages to both Henry and the king of France.

Although some elements of history were changed for dramatic purposes and the dialogue was obviously contemporized, the story of The Lion in Winter was mostly faithful to historical fact, and some of the speeches make reference to true incidents in the lives of the real-life characters depicted here. For instance, Eleanor did lead troops in the Crusades dressed as an Amazon; she was rumored to have had an affair with Henry's father before marrying the future English king after her annulment from the King of France, and she really was imprisoned for 15 years for leading a rebellion against her husband. She did outlive him, however, and because of her beauty, sophistication, political keenness and power (unusual for a woman in her day), she has become regarded as one of the most important and influential women in history.

As for the battling sons of the story, Eleanor got her way (and a restoration to power) when Richard succeeded Henry after his death. When Richard was captured and held hostage on his way back to England from the Crusades, his brother John reigned in his place (a central fact in the Robin Hood legend). Eleanor used her considerable pull to have Richard released. After Richard's death, John ascended the throne but was so unpopular a ruler he was forced in 1215 to sign the Magna Carta, a series of concessions granted to his rebellious barons that established for the first time a very significant constitutional principle, namely that the power of the king could be limited by a written grant.

Famous Quotes from THE LION IN WINTER

ELEANOR (Katharine Hepburn): In a world where carpenters get resurrected, everything is possible.

HENRY (Peter O'Toole): Now see here, boy!
PHILIP (Timothy Dalton): I am a king. I am no man's "boy"!
HENRY: A king? Because you put your ass on purple cushions?

JOHN (Nigel Terry): Poor John. Who says poor John? Don't everybody sob at once! My God, if I went up in flames there's not a living soul who'd pee on me to put the fire out!
RICHARD (Anthony Hopkins): Let's strike a flint and see.

ELEANOR: I made Louis take me on Crusade. I dressed my maids as Amazons and rode bare-breasted halfway to Damascus. Louis had a seizure and I damn near died of windburn. But the troops were dazzled.

HENRY: Oh God, but I do love being king!

ELEANOR: Henry's bed is Henry's province, he may people it with sheep if he wishes. Which upon occasion he has done.

HENRY: I'm villifying you for God's sake -pay attention!

ELEANOR: I could peel you like a pear and God himself would call it justice!

ELEANOR: What would you have me do? Give out? Give up? Give in?
HENRY: Give me a little peace.
ELEANOR: A little? Why so modest? How about eternal peace? Now there's a thought.

HENRY: The day those stout hearts band together is the day that pigs get wings.
ELEANOR: There'll be pork in the treetops come morning.

JOHN: A knife! He's got a knife!
ELEANOR: Of course he has a knife, he always has a knife, we all have knives! It's 1183 and we're all barbarians!

ELEANOR: Henry?
HENRY: Hmmm?
ELEANOR: I have a confession.
HENRY: Yes?
ELEANOR: I don't much like our children.

ELEANOR: What family doesn't have its ups and downs?

Compiled by Rob Nixon