#david niven

[ithappenedinhollywood]

"Raymond I cannot be casual"

" I´ve never been less casual in my life."

" Then why do I still feel so frightened?"

" I don´´t know."

Bonjour Tristesse ( 1958)

Director Otto Preminger

[thoughtkick]

You are not just here to fill space or be a background character in someone else’s movie. Consider this: nothing would be the same if you did not exist. Every place you have ever been and everyone you have ever spoken to would be different without you. We are all connected, and we are all affected by the decisions and even the existence of those around us.

David Niven

[vilecousin]

a matter of life and death (1946) — dir. michael powell & emeric pressburger

[citizenscreen]

Remembering David Niven on the anniversary of his death (July 29, 1983)

[outlawpetegsc]

When English actor David Niven died, the largest flower arrangement at his funeral was a wreath sent by the porters of Heathrow Airport. The card said "To the finest gentleman who ever walked through these halls. He made a porter feel like a king."

It costs nothing to be nice to people.

[sparklejamesysparkle]

While introducing Elizabeth Taylor to present the Best Picture Oscar at the 46th Academy Awards on April 2nd, 1974 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, David Niven gets a "surprise" interruption by 34 year old English teacher, photographer and art gallery owner Robert Opel who ran onstage stark naked and flashed a peace sign, causing chaos and hilarity to ensue. After everyone calmed down, Elizabeth presented the Best Picture Oscar to the Paul Newman-Robert Redford movie The Sting. Opel entered the Oscars ceremony under the guise of a "journalist" before the stunt, which was allegedly pre-arranged by that year's Oscar's producer Jack Haley Jr. (the son of Jack Haley, best remembered as the Tin Man in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz; Haley Jr. married Oz star Judy Garland's daughter Liza Minnelli a few months after the Oscar's streaking incident). David Niven apparently conferred with the production team during rehearsals and wrote down his famous ad-lib, and Opel had to cut through a curtain to enter the stage (he would've been caught by backstage security had the streaking stunt not been given the green light by the production team beforehand). An infamous moment in Academy Awards history, the Oscars paid homage to the event fifty years later in 2024 when John Cena walked out naked onstage to present the Best Costume Design award covered only by an envelope (though backstage photos later showed he was wearing a modesty pouch that covered his front and rear, unlike Robert Opel who went "au naturel"). It's of interest to note that Opel was openly bisexual, previously worked as a speech-writer for (of all people!) then California Governor Ronald Reagan, and later opened an art gallery in San Francisco which featured the works of lgbtq+ artists Tom of Finland and Robert Mapplethorpe, among others. He was in a relationship with drag king and performance artist Camille O'Grady prior to his tragic death at the age of 39 during a botched robbery attempt by two gun wielding men at his art gallery in 1979.

[perfectquote]

You are not just here to fill space or be a background character in someone else’s movie. Consider this: nothing would be the same if you did not exist. Every place you have ever been and everyone you have ever spoken to would be different without you. We are all connected, and we are all affected by the decisions and even the existence of those around us.

David Niven

[resqectable]

You are not just here to fill space or be a background character in someone else’s movie. Consider this: nothing would be the same if you did not exist. Every place you have ever been and everyone you have ever spoken to would be different without you. We are all connected, and we are all affected by the decisions and even the existence of those around us.

David Niven