14 - 20 June 2001
Issue No.538
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 14 - 20 June 2001 Issue No.538 |
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Bigger than life, bigger than death!
He saw himself in every man, and every man saw himself in him. He embraced life completely and made it an art. He embraced art completely and made it his life. He was Omar Mokhtar in Al- Mokhtar, he was Abu Taye in Lawrence of Arabia , he was Eufemio in Viva Zapata, Gauguin in Lust for Life. He was Quasimodo, Chief Crazy Horse, Attila the Hun, Barrabas, Onassis, and on, and on. But above all _ He was Zorba the Greek. How can Zorba be dead? Impossible! Zorba lives on as long as hearts beat and music thrills and imagination soars. His arduous passion and earthy sensuality flamed our very souls, and left us breathless, with hearts throbbing, souls stirring _ Zorba can never die and this is no "Requiem for a Heavyweight". This is no elegy or dirge.
This is a celebration of the life and legacy of one Anthony Rudolfo Oxaca Quinn, actor extraordinaire. Born in Chihuahua, Mexico, in 1915, to an Irish father and an Aztec mother, a romantic and a revolutionary, in the midst of the Mexican revolution. Eventually the family moved to East Los Angeles where many Mexicans fled to escape the horrors of their civil war. His father was killed in a car accident, leaving young Anthony at age nine to care for mother, grandmother, and sister. No job was too menial or too hard. For the next 12 years he was capable of every job that came his way _ carpenter, butcher, taxi-driver. He unloaded trucks, shined shoes, and warmed race-cars. He was a welterweight boxer, a dancer, a preacher and an apprentice architect to Frank Lloyd Wright. "You name it _ I did it! But at all times I was dreaming of being an artist". He wanted to paint. "I would hang around Selznick Studios where my father once worked as a cameraman, and draw pictures of stars like Douglas Fairbanks and Rudolf Valentino". Throughout it all he charmed women, and women consumed him!
Bothered by a speech stammer he enrolled in an acting class, and from that moment on, he never looked back! He was not to pick up a paintbrush for decades! He signed with Paramount but was relegated to playing ethnic villains. Marriage to Katherine de Mille, a year later, daughter of Paramount's powerhouse Cecil B de Mille, did little to help his career, and for years could not escape his fate as a gangster or Indian chief. Ten years and fifty films later a frustrated Quinn returned to the theatre on Broadway where he had worked briefly. For the next three years he enjoyed great success as Stanley Kowalski replacing the maestro himself, Marlon Brando in Tennessee William's masterpiece, A Streetcar Named Desire. Again Hollywood beckoned, this time he was to play Brando's brother in Elia Kazan's memorable Viva Zapata. His blazing performance won him his first Oscar in 1953 and meatier roles followed. Still weary of Hollywood he left for Europe and triumphed in Fellini's classic La Strada. Hollywood again took notice and he returned to play the French Impressionist painter, Paul Gauguin in Vincente Minelli's Lust for Life. His vivid portrayal of the vigorous, virulent and vital French South Seas lover, indulgent in his love for personal freedom and Tahitian women, earned him his second Oscar in l956. The following year he won another Oscar nomination for George Cukor's Wild is the Wind. He was on a roll, portraying every strong, amorous, virile, passionate Don Juan that came his way. By the early sixties his youthful physique had filled out. His face grew crags and crinkles and his thick black hair thinned and grayed. He was ideal for the lead in Requiem for a Heavyweight and the unforgettable Bedouin chief Abu Taye' in David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia, both in 1962. By now he had made over 200 films. They were all in preparation for the role of his life, which he was born to play. He was the very embodiment of the character created by Nikos Kazantsakis on paper. Many critics believe his portrayal was more real than the character in bookform. He took it off the pages of the novel, gave it blood and sinew, heart and soul.
Author, sculptor, painter and actor extraordinaire
He mastered the art of being, giving the character a third dimension on the screen _ a life of its own. With his simple wisdom vibrating with life's melodies, he was born to be Zorba the Greek. The role won him his fourth Oscar nomination, but the gods cannot always grant our wishes. 1964 was the year of My Fair Lady which easily swept the Oscars, though Zorba managed to garner three of the golden statuettes. Director Michael Cocayanis lost to George Cukor. Zorba lost to the professor _ Henry Higgins (Rex Harrison). Lila Kedrova won for the fragile Mrs. Hortense, Zorba's lover, once the property of Simone Signoret. After one day on the set Signoret walked out, lamenting, "She is too old, and my husband (Yves Montand) is young. I do not wish him to see me this way". Understandably, she regretted the decision after Zorba's resounding success.
Role portrayal requires a deep and thorough knowledge of the character's emotions, attitudes and motivations. Quinn, through his masterful use of his body and voice in portraying the ancient wisdom and the primitive simplicity of the Greek, revealed his own complex inner self. He took the character and made it his own. Audiences around the world succumbed from Naples to Nepal, from Madagascar to Montreal. This was our Zorba. He had reached the top of the mountain. On his 85th birthday, April 2000, he went back to Chihuahua, the place of his birth, to unveil a 10-metre statue the natives constructed in his honour. Over a million Mexicans came to cheer their hero. Many of them were heard crying "Zorba! Zorba!", thinking that Zorba was a Mexican. And he was _ all things to all men. He was their hero, and he had come home.
Through it all, "Tony Quinn", as he liked to be called was a seriously devoted family man. Married since he was 21, until his death at 86, albeit to 3 wives, (he spent 30 years with each of the first two). He was a doting father to 13 children, the oldest 59, and the youngest 4. He was loving, caring, and generous. He followed their every activity with interest. In 1981, he became father, grandfather and great grandfather in one month. In a public life that spanned 6 decades, the press covered him extensively, concentrating on amorous scandals and liaisons. Our fascination is with the man himself and his countless accomplishments. This prolific character actor was simultaneously a prolific painter, sculptor, exhibiting in major galleries around the world, achieving great critical acclaim.
He authored two books, "The Original Sin" and "One Man Tango". He was an avid collector and owned several priceless originals like Matisse and Picasso. He dreamed of playing Picasso and Tolstoy. He dreamed of greatness! "Michelangelo, Gauguin, Picasso, that is greatness. Since it never happened, it is good that I can play them." He can also live them, and we are the richer for it. Despite his limitless talent, he was tormented by doubts in himself. "Before every film, every canvas, every sculpture, I ask myself, can I still do it _ am I good enough?" A resounding yes, is the inevitable reply, answers the world. Death is not the end of life, not in the case of great artists and great art. As long as the works of great men and women continue to penetrate us from generation to generation, they live on in each heart that remembers. On the next visit to the seashore, Zorba's fans can raise a cup to the Greek sage, or better still close their eyes and sway to the bouzouki strains of the music of Theodorakis, and once again attempt to dance the 'sirtaki' in honour of one Zorba the Greek _ aka Anthony Quinn.
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