Word: chamberlaine
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...more than a foot shorter and 75 Ibs. lighter than many of his opponents, Murphy is not one to be intimidated. He had barely suited up for the Rockets in a preseason game when he found himself staring into the navel of 7-ft. 1-in. Wilt Chamberlain of the Los Angeles Lakers. "If you want to stay on the court, rookie," growled Wilt the Stilt, "stay out of the middle." The next thing Chamberlain knew, there was Murphy charging straight into the keyhole. Calvin faked one way, Wilt lunged another, and the little man followed his fake to scoot...
...went to England, let his peroxided hair grow brown and long. He took speech lessons, and, after a strong performance in a BBC drama, received an offer to play Hamlet with the excellent Birmingham Repertory Theater. Recalls Chamberlain: "I felt pride, amazement, disbelief, terror." He was the first American to dare Hamlet in Britain since John Barrymore, and, premiere night, a full cry of London critics rode to Birmingham for the kill -and for a shock. Wrote the Times critic the next morning: "Anyone who comes to this production prepared to scoff at the sight of a popular American television...
That same gratifying surprise awaits NBC viewers next Tuesday when Hallmark Hall of Fame televises the Chamberlain Hamlet. It is an aristocratic, romantic and (he admits) "not scholarly" conception of the role. His Hamlet is passionate sometimes to the point of hysteria and Chamberlain's accents (well east of mid-Atlantic) are tinged with tremolo. Sir Michael Redgrave, an esteemed former Old Vic Hamlet who plays Polonius in this TV production, says that, overall, "Richard is very good-more than just interesting." To fit the two-hour time slot, however, more massive surgery has been performed on the Folio...
...Chamberlain was not to the Shakespearean canon born. He grew up in Beverly Hills and, out of "sheer uncooperativeness," did not learn to read until the fourth grade. He eventually managed a B.A. from Pomona College, and, after some acting lessons, landed an MGM contract. The studio gave him the Kildare part after passing over 35 others (including Lew Ayres, who created the role in films). It did not, however, make an actor out of him, as Sir Cedric Hardwicke once told Chamberlain. "You're doing it all backwards. You're a star...
...Chamberlain still considers himself about ten years away "from really learning my trade." He has just finished two film parts, as Tchaikovsky in a romanticized biography and as Octavius in a remake of Julius Caesar. From his homes in London and Los Angeles (he is unmarried), Chamberlain is currently angling for stage work. If nothing else, he thinks he has at last kicked Kildare. "The umbilical cord that once bound us," he declares...