December 10, 1962: "Lawrence of Arabia" Premieres

Peter O'Toole as T.E. Lawrence

December 10, 1962: Lawrence of Arabia premieres, directed by David Lean, and based on The Seven Pillars of Wisdom, a memoir published in 1926 by Colonel Thomas Edward Lawrence, a British Army officer who aided the Arab peoples in the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire during World War I.

The real Lawrence was born in 1888 in Wales, and grew up in Oxford, England, where he studied archaeology at Oxford University. He was working in Ottoman-controlled Syria when the war broke out, and was stationed at the Arab Bureau in Egypt. There, and across the Middle East, he aided leaders such as the man who would become King Faisal I of Iraq. Lawrence led the capture of Damascus, the capital of Syria, a few days before the Armistice in 1918.

The real Lawrence

He then worked in the Foreign Office, working with the British government to establish the nations breaking off from the Ottoman Empire. In 1922, he retreated from public life, serving in the Royal Air Force and writing his books. In 1935, he wrecked his motorcycle in Dorset, England, and died 6 days later, only 46 years old.

Lawrence had already sensationalized his own story, much as American frontiersman Davy Crockett had. The film version did so even more. Albert Finney was Lean's 1st choice, but was fired 2 days after filming began. Marlon Brando was offered the part, and turned it down. Irish actor Peter O'Toole took a screen test, and Lean said, "This is Lawrence!"

Not everyone agreed: Lawrence was short, 5-foot-5, while O'Toole was 6-foot-2. And British playwright Noël Coward told O'Toole after the premiere, "If you had been any prettier, the film would have been called Florence of Arabia."

Laurence Olivier was originally supposed to play Faisal, but the role went instead to Alec Guinness, who had previously starred for Lean in Bridge On the River Kwai. Egyptian actor Omar Sharif played Sherif Ali ibn el Kharish, a composite character. He wasn't the only composite, and there were plenty of other inaccuracies for a film taking place less than half a century earlier. It would be like making a film about Watergate today, and making a single character play the roles of Bob Haldeman, John Ehrlichman and Chuck Colson.

Nevertheless, the film was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, and won 7, including Best Picture, and Best Director for Lean. O'Toole was nominated for Best Actor, and Sharif for Best Supporting Actor, but neither won.

Lean died in 1991, Guinness in 2000, O'Toole in 2013, and Sharif in 2015.

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December 10, 1962 was a Monday. Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. No NHL games were scheduled.  One game was played in the NBA: The Detroit Pistons beat the Chicago Zephyrs, 109-100 -- but not in either team's home city. Rather, this game was played at the Baltimore Civic Center (now named the CFG Bank Arena). Walt Bellamy scored 36 points.

The failing Zephyrs franchise got the message, and moved the next season, becoming the Baltimore Bullets. They moved to Washington in 1973, and became the Washington Wizards in 1997.

March 11, 1964: The Film “Becket” Premieres

Burton (left) as Becket, and O'Toole as Henry

March 11, 1964: Becket premieres, directed by Peter Glenville, and based on the 1959 play Becket or the Honour of God by Jean Anouilh.

It stars Richard Burton as Thomas Becket. For the first time, but not for the last, Peter O'Toole plays Becket's boss and rival, King Henry II of England. In real life, both the Welshman Burton and the Irishman O'Toole were party animals. In the film, as in real history, Becket admonishes the King for his wicked ways.

The film also includes John Gielgud as King Louis VII of France, Pamela Brown as Henry’s wife Eleanor of Aquitaine, Siân Phillips as Lady Gwendolen, and a young Edward Woodward, 20 years away from being the 1st actor to play The Equalizer.

The film was nominated for a whopping 12 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, both Burton and O'Toole for Best Actor, and Gielgud for Best Supporting Actor. But it only won one: Best Screenplay Based On Material from Another Medium, for Edward Anhalt.

In 1135, King Henry I of England died. His only legitimate child was a daughter, Matilda, and England's barons wouldn't let her reign as Queen. This began a period called "The Anarchy," with a cousin, Stephen of Blois, reigning. Being the son of Matilda and Geoffrey Plantagenet, Duke of Anjou, made Henry, Duke of Normandy, rich and powerful. Marrying Eleanor, Duchess of Aquitaine and the former wife of Louis VII, even more so. He couldn't get Stephen to abdicate, but, without a male heir of his own, he was forced to name Henry as his successor. He died in 1154, and Henry II focused on England, Wales and Ireland, letting parts of France slip through his fingers.

Henry appointed his friend, Thomas Becket, born in 1119 in London, as Lord Chancellor, and then as Archbishop of Canterbury, making him, essentially, the Pope's viceroy in the British Isles. But he came into conflict with Henry over the rights and privileges of the Catholic Church, and he was murdered inside Canterbury Cathedral on December 29, 1170, just after his 51st birthday.

In the film, Henry says to four men, "So long as he is alive, I tremble. I shake. I am the King, and yet I shake. Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest? A priest who mocks me, and all around me cowers! Like my son! Are there no men left in England?"

For the record, the line -- sometimes written as "this troublesome priest," or "this turbulent priest" -- was never actually spoken by Henry II, either as a command or as a rhetorical question. Edward Grim, a monk who was a witness to Becket's assassination, asked the killers why they did it, and one of them said that what Henry actually said was, "What miserable drones and traitors have I nurtured and promoted in my household, who let their lord be treated with such shameful contempt by a low-born cleric!"

And so, four knights went into the Cathedral, and called Becket out as a traitor to King and country. His last words were, "For the name of Jesus and the protection of the Church, I am ready to embrace death." They hacked Becket to death with their swords.

Two years after his death, Becket was canonized as a Saint by Pope Alexander III. The Pope also excommunicated the 4 assassins. What happened to them? They fled to Scotland, and eventually switched sides, supporting Henry's son Richard "the Lionheart" against him in the rebellion of 1173 and 1174. They were exiled, and the Pope ordered them to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in order to get back into the good graces of the Church. Reginald FitzUrse ("Son of the Bear"), Hugh de Morville and Richard le Breton apparently all died on the way in. William de Tracy made it, and stayed, and died in 1189 -- the same year as Henry II.

Becket remains revered by the Church, and by fans of the film; while Henry is regarded as a man who squandered his great power to fulfill his pleasures. This was as seen in O'Toole's 2nd go-round as Henry, the 1968 film The Lion In Winter, set in 1183, with Katharine Hepburn as Eleanor; Anthony Hopkins as their son, the future King Richard I; John Castle as their son, Geoffrey II, Duke of Brittany; Nigel Terry as their son, the future King John, usually depicted as the villain of the Robin Hood stories, and eventually forced to sign the Magna Charta; and Timothy Dalton as King Philip II of France, Eleanor's ex-brother-in-law.

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March 11, 1964 was a Wednesday. Film director Peter Berg was born.

Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. There were 2 games played in the NBA. The Philadelphia 76ers beat the St. Louis Hawks, 124-111 at the Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis. Hal Greer scored 42 points. And the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Baltimore Bullets, 115-109 at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena.

And there were 2 games played in the NHL. The New York Rangers lost to the Boston Bruins, 5-3 at the old Madison Square Garden. And the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Montreal Canadiens, 1-0 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.