Nigel and Jeffrey Jones

Jeffrey ordered a seafood salad, Nigel a bowl of fruit and I was after crab cakes and a double Cuba Libra. There was love and laughter in the small talk and innocent gossip that propped up that lunch and helped us avoid the question..

Later that afternoon the question was answered with a call from Carrie Fisher.  Since filming STAR WARS in London, Carrie has spent a great deal of time in the UK and knew Nigel quite well years before I met him in 1992 while shooting Demolition Man.  I'd known Carrie much longer than I had Nigel and she knew how close Nigel and I had become in recent years and asked me to pull together a guest list for a large sit-down dinner at her home for Nigel. Her estate was once the abode of legendary costume designer Edith Head and later Bette Davis.  It certainly was a home designed for entertaining large groups and there were lots of nooks and crannies to have more intimate gatherings. In short just about as glamorous a home you could imagine in your wildest Hollywood dreams.   Carrie let me know our dear friend had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and this would almost surely be his last trip to the U.S.  Carrie essentially put me in charge of the guest list and find out who Nigel would like to meet and we went to work planning what would be a wonderful and very memorable evening at Ms. Fisher's home in Coldwater Canyon. I was to find who he'd like to see and she, of course would have their private numbers.

When I spoke to Nigel the next evening we were having dinner in his suite at Shutters.  Full of optimism, Nigel was frank about his fears but seemed to glow with health and I thought we might be, all of us, over reacting but Nigel especially wanted to see Jean Simmons and  our mutual friend Maryum d'Abo and a few fun tricks like Courtney Love and Debi Mazar.  Buck Henry was a specific request. Carrie invited (in my opinion) the snide and homophobic Gary Shandling who just, well we suffer from a bad case of cognitive dissonance. Elizabeth Taylor was ill but we had quite a round up and I hit the phones the next day. 

Buck & Courtney

Nigel, Jean & Glenn

I only made one faux pas that turned out to be a treasure.  I got Jean Simmons confused and thought it was Jennifer Jones he so wanted to see.  Well, I, with the help of Carrie (who knows everybody) got Jennifer and Jean once I found it was Jean he had known in London. The most memorable  hour of the gathering was not the sit-down dinner for fifty, It was Jennifer Jones with her silver tipped cane reclining on Carrie's bed while Nigel, Jeffrey, Jean Simmons and I surrounded the bed and listened to her stories of  Old Hollywood, her life with David O. Selznick, her study of psychology and her (then) current job managing her late and last husband Norton Simon's museum in Pasadena.  Ah the stories that were told and I was amazed at her still radiant beauty.  If she was a mistake I gladly take credit as culprit. 

 
Jennifer Jones in her hey day

That was the last party I attended with Nigel.  The next morning I took him to The Gospel Brunch at The House of Blues on Sunset.  I can certainly say he enjoyed to no end that raucously religious event. We ended the day with a beautiful sunset drive up the pacific coast highway.  He left the next day for England.  The last we spoke was Thanksgiving 2003 before he died at Christmas. His sister had come from South Africa and they spent the last year gardening while Trevor cooked marvelous meals.   Nigel asked me a simple question in our last conversation. "I don't know, Glenn", he said, "about how to go about this business of dying". Without thinking or hesitation I said "concentrate on living Nigel, dying will take care of itself".  I still don't know where that came from but I do know I loved him so. Year before last I spent a week with Trevor and Donald MacLeary, the now retired Repetiteur of The Royal Ballet, a long time friend and now partner to Trevor.

 In late May of 2005 I spent a week with Trevor and Donald and it was very sweet and somewhat sad.  Nigel had planted surprises for Trevor and friends throughout the five acres of formal gardens and it was great fun and sometimes emotional to find some exotic (for England) plant that had been artfully hidden only to peek out at visitors in the high spring of May. 

Trevor, Louise Beard & Donald

Glen & Lanford Beard by Wetlands Pool "Lanford Beard is a major writer on the rise in NYC"

Louise happened to be in London and joined us with her brilliant writer daughter Lanford for a day and we had our own memorial for Sir Nigel with an absolute feast Louise brought up from Harrod's on the train.   Nigel had just found world renown, received his first Best Actor academy Award nomination (For The Madness Of King George) when he was taken away but he lives on in the hearts of the countless lives he touched and, of course, the movies...

 

One of the great achievements (outside the entertainment field) Sir Nigel and Trevor Bentham brought to fruition is close to my heart.  Together, with help from connections inside the Royal Family and the British Press changed English law to permit same sex unions and they were married publicly. For two people who basically eschewed the lime light it was a great gift to untold millions now and forever in The United Kingdom.  Nigel and Trevor’s love was a love that will never die. 

Trevor and Nigel
Still in his "Lion" King Lear beard