Lawrence of Arabia - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[bryan]

Director Sir David Lean wanted Malcolm Arnold to score the movie, while Producer Sam Spiegel wanted William Walton to do it. Both composers turned down the chance to work on this movie.

[jessica]

There are two actors named Jack Hawkins in this movie. The veteran character actor who played General Allenby, and Jack Hedley (born Jack Hawkins), who played the reporter at the beginning.

[morris]

Sir David Lean and Omar Sharif's first movie together.

[claude]

T.E. Lawrence's brother, A.E. Lawrence, who was also executor of his will, wasn't keen on the movie's representation of his brother, so he didn't allow the use of his sibling's autobiography title "Seven Pillars of Wisdom".

[sara]

While filming, Peter O'Toole bonded with co-star Omar Sharif. Recalls Sharif, "Peter and I were like brothers immediately. He said to me, 'Your name is not Omar Sharif - no one is called Omar Sharif. Your real name is probably Freddy something!' And for the rest of the film and the rest of our lives, he's never called me Omar. He calls me Freddy."

[kylie]

While filming in Morocco, the crew took up residence at an old Foreign Legion encampment in Ouarzazate, with no air conditioning in one hundred-plus degree Fahrenheit (thirty-eight-plus degrees Celsius) temperatures.

[bernard]

Referring to the secret Sykes-Picot treaty, Faisal says "and the need to keep (the Arabs) in the British interest and the French interest." When he says "British interest" he shakes Allenby's hand, and when he says "French interest" he shakes Dryden's hand. Dryden is not French, but one of Claude Rains' iconic roles was as Captain Renault in Casablanca (1942).

[sandra]

Because filming was not possible in the complete darkness of night, the night scenes were filmed during the day with light filters on the lenses. This is also the reason there are shadows from the camels during the night scenes.

[duane]

King Hussein of Jordan lent an entire brigade of his Arab Legion as extras for the movie, so most of the film's "soldiers" are played by real soldiers. Hussein frequently visited the sets and became enamored of a young British secretary, Antoinette Gardiner, who became his second wife in 1962. Their eldest son, Abdullah II King Of Jordan, ascended to the throne in 1999.

[carl]

Sir David Lean never saw any dailies while filming. He only missed one day of work, though the production endured many illnesses.

[ruby]

Peter O'Toole claimed that he learned more about acting from his few days of filming with José Ferrer than he did in all of his years at drama school.

[michele]

While assisting Screenwriter Robert Bolt with research, Anthony Nutting, who was working on his own biography of T.E. Lawrence, became convinced that the war hero had left something out of the final edition of "Seven Pillars of Wisdom" in his description of his capture and mistreatment by the Turkish police. He finally uncovered a rare 1922 edition of the manuscript and a letter to George Bernard Shaw's wife that strongly suggested that the Turkish Bey had actually raped Lawrence, a fact hinted at in the movie.

[willard]

Peter O'Toole had only one son , and he christened him "Lorcan". "Lorcan" is the Gaelic, or Irish, for Lawrence.

[linda]

The production schedule was so long that Producer Sam Spiegel insisted on a two-month break. This afforded him the chance to find a filming location that was less arduous than Jordan, ultimately settling on Spain. Anthony Quinn, Sir Anthony Quayle, Sir Alec Guinness, and Omar Sharif all took advantage of the break to work on other movies. Quayle starred in Damn the Defiant! (1962), while Quinn starred in Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962).