Colin Clark - a native of an aristocratic family, a graduate of Eaton and Oxford, has mastered many professions in his life: he was the personal assistant of Lawrence Olivier, worked on television, and was the director of documentaries. Having retired and having mastered yet another profession, this time as a writer, Clark publishes a biographical book and becomes a real celebrity. Indeed, in this book he talks about his short, but amazing acquaintance with the greatest movie star - Marilyn Monroe!
In the photo below, Colin Clark and Marilyn Monroe.
Third Assistant Director
Colin was born in 1932 in England, in the most aristocratic family: his father was an influential art historian and director of the National Gallery. In 1957, after graduating from Eaton and having failed in the field of military aviation (Clark wanted to become a fighter pilot, but was unsuitable for service), the young man got a third assistant director on the set. This happened largely due to the ties of his father. These were the filming of Lawrence Olivier's "The Prince and the Dancer" starring Marilyn Monroe. Colin was a mobile young man, brought up in the best English traditions from birth, he turned out to be complaisant and grabbed everything on the fly. The director noted these qualities and after shooting the film left him with him. For a long time, Clark remained the personal assistant of Olivier himself. But Colin released a book about these shootings only many years later - in 1995, and he wrote about the details of his personal acquaintance with Marilyn even later - in 2000, just two years before his own death.
Personal assistant
Lawrence Olivier is one of the most famous and outstanding actors of the 20th century, as well as a director and producer. Even before starting work on the set of The Prince and the Dancer, Colin knew both Laurence Olivier and his wife Vivien Leigh. They were friends of his father and often came to visit Clarks. “I always treated them as part of our large family,” Colin recalls in the pages of his second book. It was thanks to the supportive attitude of Olivier to him, an inexperienced youth, that Colin Clark later became a successful television worker. "I learned a lot from Olivier, I studied, even when he did not say anything, just being next to him," Clark wrote.
In the photo below, Lawrence Olivier and Marilyn Monroe on the set of the film "The Prince and the Dancer."
Meet Marilyn Monroe
The brightest star of American cinema and one of the greatest comedic actresses of Hollywood Marilyn Monroe in 1956 was at the peak of popularity. At this time, she received an offer to star in the film "The Prince and the Dancer," on the set of which Clark met her. “I did not dare to write my book while Marilyn was alive,” the first lines of “Weeks with Marilyn” say, “and now I am writing her in the hope of paying tribute to the beautiful woman who changed my life. If I could, I would like to save her. " As the third assistant director, Colin somehow quietly became an unofficial personal assistant to a Hollywood star: he rented a house for her, hired the entire staff of assistants - from bodyguards to the cook. Here's how Colin Clark said about her:
Marilyn turned out to be a goddess, and should be treated accordingly.
Colin Clark's book "The Prince, the Dancer, and Me"
This work Clark releases already at the sunset of his life, in 1995. It is a literary processed diaries that he kept during his work on the set of the film "The Prince and the Dancer." The book may be of interest to all fans of the "backstage". It is a pretty colorful collection of excerpts from the lives of so many celebrities, not just Olivier and Monroe. True, nine days are missing in the detailed narrative. This is the period when Clark just had no time to write. It was these days, recovered from the memory after the death of the actress, that formed the basis of the next book, "My Week with Marilyn."
Unforgettable week
Speaking about the events described in the book, Clark uses one word - "magic." Indeed, this is not a diary, not another superficial biography of the actress, this is a fairy tale, a miracle that happened to an English youth and forever changed his life.
For the first time outside the set, Colin encounters an actress in her house, becoming an accidental witness to an unpleasant family scene between her and her husband, playwright Arthur Miller. Because of this, Marilyn suspects the young man of espionage, and on this basis she herself enters into a dialogue with him. From that moment on, Colin considers himself to be her friend, protector and something like a personal page. She invites him to visit, they begin to spend part of the time together. Marilyn sometimes seems to openly laugh at a young man who is naive and deeply in love with her, but it is still noticeable that Colin is in fact a sort of outlet for her.
Suddenly she wrapped her arms around my head, pulled her to her and kissed her on the lips. It took me a hundredth of a second to understand what was going on. After another second, I realized that Marilyn was not wearing clothes - at least above the waist. The touch of her lips and chest in icy water nearly made me lose consciousness.
- Phew! That was wonderful, ”breathed Marilyn. “The first time I kissed someone younger than myself.” Repeat?
In the photo below, a shot from the movie "Seven Days and Nights with Marilyn", where Monroe and Colin Clark were shot in an explicit scene in a pond.
According to Clark, she becomes more confident and collected on the set, and all simply because he was the only one in this foreign country who treated her with warmth and understanding. No one else could think of such a simple thing.
The book ends with a sad result: after the filming and the departure of the actress, Colin Clark never saw or spoke to her again. Four years later, she once called him and left her number since Clark was not at home.
I still dialed the number and listened for a long time in the silence of a California night. No one answered, and I - ashamed to admit - felt relieved. And not because there was already no place for her in my heart. But because by that time no one could help her. Poor Marilyn. Time is over.
Screen adaptation of memoirs
11 years after the publication of the book, the film “The Seven Days and Nights with Marilyn” is released with Michelle Williams and Eddie Redmayne in the lead roles, illustrating the story of Colin Clark. Filming took place at the same studio, which once starred "The Prince and the Dancer."
The film was favorably received by the audience and critics, however, none of the main participants in those events at the time the film was released was already alive, therefore it is very difficult to judge the reliability of the events depicted. But the film coped with one important task: he drew attention to the book of Colin Clark, having read it, maybe someone would feel sympathy for Marilyn Monroe just as Colin Clark had once sympathized with her.