ralphsmotorbike: One more for Ralph’s birthday. On December 19, 1982, the Observer invited Ral
ralphsmotorbike: One more for Ralph’s birthday. On December 19, 1982, the Observer invited Ralph Richardson to write “a word or two” on the occasion of his 80th birthday. He began by quoting a song, “Love and Life” by the Earl of Rochester.“All my Past Life is mine no more,The flying hours are gone;Like transitory Dreams giv’n o’er,Whose Images are kept in storeBy Memory alone.”With that, Ralph again displayed his own unique writing style.“’By Memory alone’ seems rather apt for writing a scribble just now. I do remember that I have been a lucky man in love and life; but my memory is a bundle of snapshots, not in any sequence.“In my life I have had the great luck to work on a job I respect deeply, the Drama, and in all its branches, theatre, films and television. Among these branches I have spent more than 60 years in a magnetic forest. It was started in medieval times, and there are great old trees still flourishing that we can climb up into today. I have done a bit of climbing myself. Sometimes I have let go of something up there and come down with a bump, and there are one or two trees I would never go up again; though I envy the boys who have got there.“And the forest is growing all the time. I have seen it grow in my time: wonderful things have happened, new seeds have blown in and made it quite different. The Ibsen took root there: though considered a poisonous weed at first, it has come to stay, it is beautiful and it has done no harm to the old trees. Indeed, we can see them all the clearer. What a sight the place is now: you’d hardly know it!”“Sasha Guitry said that ‘acting is a trick’–it is indeed rather like learning to ride your first push-bike; it took me 10 years to learn to ride the acting bicycle, and I’m not quite sure of it yet. It requires a certain confidence. The fast you go on a bicycle, the steadier the ride becomes. If you can control the speed of the words you’re partly on the way. I’ve been fortunate to have been given many beautiful parts in which to learn the craft.“ -- source link