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

From Publishers Weekly
"After a roller-coaster life of much happiness and many troubles, a woman of a certain age makes a break for freedom," writes noted actor Phillips at the end of this honest, heartfelt and often witty memoir. Indeed, when the author takes a younger lover as an alternative to her marriage, readers will feel great relief. Phillips, a critically praised and popular performer, charts her professional, domestic and familial lives. Even though she has her own theater career, the bulk of the book chronicles her decades-long, volatile-but at times very satisfying-marriage to Peter O'Toole. As O'Toole becomes increasingly famous in the 1960s, his histrionics, caused mostly by excessive alcohol consumption, balloon out of control. By 1975, O'Toole's drinking has brought him close to death (a situation shockingly told in the book's opening chapters) and Phillips has to seriously examine her life. While there's plenty of theater lore and gossip here-much of it quite wonderful, such as Katharine Hepburn calling Liz Taylor and Richard Burton "those fat pigs"-this memoir is really a frightening, potently written "scenes from a marriage" and a story of how the author finds her own way. B&w photos. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
In Phillips' 20-year marriage to famous actor Peter O'Toole, his career took center stage. But now it's her turn to stand in the spotlight--on her own. More than just an autobiography, Phillips' book describes her adventures traveling the world and maintaining an acting career along with having two marriages (she was also married to English actor Robin Sachs) and two children. With a tremendous love of literature and an adventurous spirit, Phillips even led a domestic life in London that was spontaneous and exciting. Peter Sellers became a last-minute houseguest, requiring vegetarian meals, and Maggie Smith arrived to rehearse with O'Toole; but fellow cast member Marie Kean was still asleep in a gold-lame gown. The author explores her many roles: the passion and commitment as an actress, her love affair with O'Toole, her journeys through remote areas of the world (meeting Bedouin nomads in the Jordan desert and indigenous tribes in Venezuela), and juggling all that with motherhood. Through working in television, radio, and theatre for more than 40 years, and being surrounded by famous names and talents, Phillips remains down-to-earth, expressive, and insightful. As the book progresses, Phillips' writing becomes more intimate as she builds a life of her own, but work is still the constant; work may keep her in public places with public people but she clearly understands and admires private people. Michelle Kaske
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Review
"Much, much more than a celebrity memoir, [Public Places] unfolds like a cross between Wuthering Heights and The Female Eunuch."
--Jennifer O’Connell, The Sunday Business Post

"On stage, on screen, in life, and on the page--Siân Phillips commutes from 'down to earth' to utterly fascinating heights with the ease of a diva."
--Milos Forman

"An actress who writes is as astonishing as a writer who acts--but Siân Phillips does both, eloquently, with power, wit, and style. Public Places is a revelation--candid, historic, and
entertaining--and every bit as literate, elegant, and luminous as the woman herself. I wouldn't change a comma, or alter an exclamation point. The writer and the actress are works of perfection!"
--Rex Reed

"A wonderful read--intimate, funny, adventures abound."
--Olympia Dukakis



Review
"Much, much more than a celebrity memoir, [Public Places] unfolds like a cross between Wuthering Heights and The Female Eunuch."
--Jennifer O’Connell, The Sunday Business Post

"On stage, on screen, in life, and on the page--Siân Phillips commutes from 'down to earth' to utterly fascinating heights with the ease of a diva."
--Milos Forman

"An actress who writes is as astonishing as a writer who acts--but Siân Phillips does both, eloquently, with power, wit, and style. Public Places is a revelation--candid, historic, and
entertaining--and every bit as literate, elegant, and luminous as the woman herself. I wouldn't change a comma, or alter an exclamation point. The writer and the actress are works of perfection!"
--Rex Reed

"A wonderful read--intimate, funny, adventures abound."
--Olympia Dukakis



Review
"Much, much more than a celebrity memoir, [Public Places] unfolds like a cross between Wuthering Heights and The Female Eunuch."
--Jennifer O’Connell, The Sunday Business Post

"On stage, on screen, in life, and on the page--Siân Phillips commutes from 'down to earth' to utterly fascinating heights with the ease of a diva."
--Milos Forman

"An actress who writes is as astonishing as a writer who acts--but Siân Phillips does both, eloquently, with power, wit, and style. Public Places is a revelation--candid, historic, and
entertaining--and every bit as literate, elegant, and luminous as the woman herself. I wouldn't change a comma, or alter an exclamation point. The writer and the actress are works of perfection!"
--Rex Reed

"A wonderful read--intimate, funny, adventures abound."
--Olympia Dukakis



Book Description
“Magnificent” (The Sunday Times)—a fascinating portrait of one of the great love affairs of show business and a compelling account of a woman coming into her own

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.



About the Author
Siân Phillips is an acclaimed theater, film, and television actress. She is currently starring on Broadway in Israel Horowitz’s My Old Lady.



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A memoir gets mired in heavy detail and an endless procession of admittedly justifiable mood swings. The mood swings and the lamentable lack of focus can both be blamed on the huge presence of Peter O'Toole, to whom British actress Phillips was married for many years. Too many pages are occupied by his over-the-top lifestyle, while his long-suffering wife tends to disappear into the background setting. It�s not terribly shocking to learn that O'Toole was a "dangerous, disruptive human being" whose "only slight difficulty was drink"--well, maybe there were those other little problems like being a megalomaniacal control freak and a truly frightening driver, as well as having a tendency to simply take off and go missing. Nor will anyone be surprised that life with Peter was "intermittently ecstatic or unbelievably dreadful." Phillips sure was a sucker for the ecstasy and perhaps even sought out those swings, for she also writes of her acting career that "the highs were glorious and the lows difficult to look back on without shuddering." Among the highs she ably captures is the opening of O'Toole's Merchant of Venice, "a night to cherish for a lifetime. At the wild curtain calls I sat in my unbecoming dress, tears rolling down my face." The lows rarely have any twist of the knife, but when Phillips is candid, she conveys a gripping sense of her emotions. (During a thoroughly unexpected affair, she admits, "Behaving badly was making me happy.") Her own career is downplayed, though fully covered. Some of the incidentals are captivating, as when she describes Judi Dench's intelligence as an actor, but too often her rambling text offers only a laundry list of names without any meat attached:"Penelope Wilson was a wonderful colleague," and that's enough about her. A life as if seen from afar. (16 pp. b&w photos)


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