History Trivia / LawrenceOfArabia

** Puerto Rican Creator/JoseFerrer as the [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment Turkish]] Turkish Bey.

** Puerto Rican [[Creator/JoseFerrer José Ferrer]] as the [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment Turkish]] Turkish Bey.

* FollowTheLeader: This movie was so influential in its day that practically every movie set in whole or in part in a desert since it came out has effectively borrowed or outright stolen from it. Echoes of Maurice Jarre's iconic sweeping score can be heard in everything from ''Film/{{Stargate}}'' to the Creator/BrendanFraser Film/TheMummyTrilogy movies.
* MoneyDearBoy: José Ferrer was initially unsatisfied with the small size of his part, and accepted the role only on the condition of being paid $25,000 (more than O'Toole and Sharif combined) plus a Porsche. However, he afterwards considered this his best film performance, saying in an interview: "If I was to be judged by any one film performance, it would be my five minutes in Lawrence." O'Toole once said that he learned more about screen acting from Ferrer than he could in any acting class.

* RecycledSet: The Aqaba set constructed for the film remained intact for several decades, turning up in numerous later movies such as Creator/SidneyLumet's ''The Hill'' and Creator/JohnMilius' ''Film/TheWindAndTheLion''. In the early nineties the Spanish government finally tore down the set to make way for highway construction.

** Puerto Rican José Ferrer as the [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment Turkish]] Turkish Bey.

* AllStarCast: Besides Creator/PeterOToole and Creator/OmarSharif, who became stars thanks to this movie, most of ''Lawrence'''s supporting cast were leading men in their own right (Creator/AlecGuinness, Jack Hawkins, Creator/AnthonyQuinn) or veteran character actors (Arthur Kennedy, Anthony Quayle, Creator/ClaudeRains). You even have Oscar-winner José Ferrer in a glorified cameo. O'Toole once commented that acting opposite so many seasoned stars was more intimidating than anything else about the film.

* AllStarCast: Besides Creator/PeterOToole and Creator/OmarSharif, who became stars thanks to this movie, most of ''Lawrence'''s supporting cast were leading men in their own right (Creator/AlecGuinness, Creator/JackHawkins, Creator/AnthonyQuinn) or veteran character actors (Creator/ArthurKennedy, Creator/AnthonyQuayle, Creator/ClaudeRains). You even have Oscar-winner Creator/JoseFerrer in a glorified cameo. O'Toole once commented that acting opposite so many seasoned stars was more intimidating than anything else about the film.

* DeletedScenes: Despite the extensive restoration done in 1989, the currently available cut of Lawrence (216 minutes without overture and intermission) still misses several sequences present in the original 1962 release. The most famous is a longer version of Lawrence's meeting with Allenby in Jerusalem towards the end, the so-called "balcony" or "seduction" scene. According to Robert Harris this scene couldn't be restored because of a poor audio match. It is included in the 2012 Blu-Ray release, with Creator/CharlesGray dubbing Creator/JackHawkins as Allenby.

** Puerto Rican Creator/JoseFerrer as the [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment Turkish]] Turkish Bey.

* MoneyDearBoy: Creator/JoseFerrer was initially unsatisfied with the small size of his part, and accepted the role only on the condition of being paid $25,000 (more than O'Toole and Sharif combined) plus a Porsche. However, he afterwards considered this his best film performance, saying in an interview: "If I was to be judged by any one film performance, it would be my five minutes in Lawrence." O'Toole once said that he learned more about screen acting from Ferrer than he could in any acting class.

** Creator/EdmundOBrien was originally cast as Jackson Bentley, but had to drop out when he suffered a heart attack. Creator/ArthurKennedy was flown in from New York to replace him.

* StarMakingRole: Creator/PeterOToole and Creator/OmarSharif. O'Toole was an acclaimed stage actor, but only had a few minor film roles beforehand: Lean reportedly spotted him in ''Film/TheDayTheyRobbedTheBankOfEngland'', playing a SympatheticInspectorAntagonist. Sharif was already famous in Egypt, but this movie made him an international superstar.

** First, it's worth noting that filmmakers had been trying to make a Lawrence movie since the mid-'20s. Two of the better known examples were an Alexander Korda epic in the '30s with Creator/LaurenceOlivier as Lawrence, and a '50s Rank Organisation picture starring Creator/DirkBogarde. Both films fell apart due to political pressure: the former because of fear of alienating Turkey in the run-up to World War II; the latter because of a coup d'etat in Iraq, where the film was set to shoot. Lean and Spiegel narrowly beat a competing project, an adaptation of Terence Rattigan's play Ross, to the screen.

* WagTheDirector: Creator/AnthonyQuayle argued with Creator/DavidLean about his character. Quayle thought he was an idiot, while Lean thought he was the only true noble character in the film.

** The original idea for the score was that it be divided between Music/MauriceJarre for the dramatic score, Music/AramKhatchaturyan for the Middle Eastern themes and Music/BenjaminBritten for the British Imperial themes. The latter two had to pull out so Richard Rodgers was hired. Then when Lean and Spiegel listened to his contributions and Jarre's, they loved Jarre's so much they gave him the whole job instead.

* TheOtherMarty: Creator/EdmundOBrien was originally cast as Jackson Bentley, but had to drop out when he suffered a heart attack. Creator/ArthurKennedy was flown in from New York to replace him.
* RecycledSet: The Aqaba set constructed for the film remained intact for several decades, turning up in numerous later movies such as Creator/SidneyLumet's ''The Hill'' and Creator/JohnMilius's ''Film/TheWindAndTheLion''. In the early nineties the Spanish government finally tore down the set to make way for highway construction.

** Creator/HorstBuchholz was the first choice to play Ali, but had already signed on for ''Film/OneTwoThree''. Creator/AlainDelon had a successful screen test, but ultimately declined because of the brown contact lenses he would have had to wear.
** Another French actor, Maurice Ronet, was cast as Ali after Delon dropped out. Ronet actually spent time on the set in Jordan (several scenes not involving his character were filmed while he was present), but the uncertain shooting schedule and his own difficulty mastering English convinced him to leave the project. He was replaced by Creator/OmarSharif, who'd initially been cast in a minor role.
** Sal Mineo wanted to play Ali as well, and his agent arranged an audition with the filmmakers, but he was turned down. Mineo later claimed that his playing an Israeli character in ''Film/{{Exodus}}'' prevented his being cast as an Arab.

** The original idea for the score was that it be divided between Creator/MauriceJarre for the dramatic score, Creator/AramKhatchaturyan for the Middle Eastern themes and Creator/BenjaminBritten for the British Imperial themes. The latter two had to pull out so Richard Rodgers was hired. Then when Lean and Spiegel listened to his contributions and Jarre's, they loved Jarre's so much they gave him the whole job instead.

* CaliforniaDoubling: David Lean originally wanted to shoot the entire movie in Jordan, which is located in the same region where it takes place. Although the Jordanian government was very helpful, this proved to be impractical. In particular, Lean's plan to shoot the first battle scene at the real Aqaba simply wasn't feasible, as Aqaba (which had been a small village in 1917) had grown into a major city by 1962. (The scene was shot on a specially-constructed set in Almeria, Spain.) Much of the desert scenes were filmed in Jordan, but ultimately most of the movie was filmed in Spain. With its abundance of Moorish architecture, Seville plays the part of basically every Middle Eastern city in the movie. Desert scenes were also filmed in Morocco (specifically the climactic massacre and its aftermath) and, yes, California.

** Several actors were offered the leading role, including Creator/MarlonBrando, but Lean initially seemed set on Creator/AlbertFinney, an unknown actor with few roles to his credit. Finney received an elaborate, four day screen test, performing scenes from early script drafts with several actors and reciting passages from Lawrence's ''Seven Pillars of Wisdom''. Finney impressed Lean and producer Sam Spiegel, but Spiegel demanded Finney sign a multi-picture contract. Finney refused, instead performing his StarMakingRole in ''Film/SaturdayNightAndSundayMorning'' while ''Lawrence'' was still in production. Enter Creator/PeterOToole and the rest is history.

** Creator/HorstBuchholz was the first choice, but had already signed on for ''Film/OneTwoThree''. Creator/AlainDelon had a successful screen test, but ultimately declined because of the brown contact lenses he would have had to wear.

* BFILists/BFITop100BritishFilms: #3.

* CaliforniaDoubling: David Lean originally wanted to shoot the entire movie in Jordan, which is located in the same region where it takes place. Although the Jordanian government was very helpful, this proved to be impractical. In particular, Lean's plan to shoot the first battle scene at the real Aqaba simply wasn't feasible, as Aqaba (which had been a small village in 1917) had grown into a major city ny 1962. (The scene was shot on a specially-constructed set in Almeria, Spain.) Much of the desert scenes were filmed in Jordan, but ultimately most of the movie was filmed in Spain. With its abundance of Moorish architecture, Seville plays the part of basically every Middle Eastern city in the movie. Desert scenes were also filmed in Morocco (specifically the climactic massacre and its aftermath) and, yes, California.

* CaliforniaDoubling: David Lean originally wanted to shoot the entire movie in Jordan, which is located in the same region where it takes place. Although the Jordanian government was very helpful, this proved to be impractical. Much of the desert scenes were filmed in Jordan, but ultimately most of the movie was filmed in Spain. With its abundance of Moorish architecture, Seville plays the part of basically every Middle Eastern city in the movie. Desert scenes were also filmed in Morocco and, yes, California.

* CreatorBacklash: Creator/PeterOToole always seemed ambivalent about his performance, even though it was his StarMakingRole. He did not enjoy the experience at all (understandable given the TroubledProduction it went through) and felt that he was too raw and untested an actor to truly capture Lawrence's complex personality. Further, O'Toole went years without ever seeing the finished film in its entirety, though when he finally watched it sometime in the 1980's he admitted that it was quite impressive.

** Though apparently Creator/AlecGuinness bore such a striking resemblance to the real Faisal that people who didn't know he was dead thought he was the real deal, it's rather uncomfortable to a modern audience to see a white Englishman playing an Arab.

* FakeNationality: In the real Battle of Aqaba, Lawrence was nearly killed when his camel threw him after he accidentally shot it in the head. In a remarkable coincidence, Creator/PeterOToole was nearly killed himself when a gun or rocket used to signal "action" in the first take went off prematurely, and O'Toole was thrown by his panicked camel in front of the charging horses. (Another account holds that O'Toole was temporarily blinded by pellets from an effects gun and lost control of his animal.) Fortunately for O'Toole, the camel, trained for such situations, stood over him and saved him from being trampled.
** Kind of. Half-Irish, half-Scottish Creator/PeterOToole, who might have been born in England or Ireland (he had two different birth certificates), as Welsh born but half Anglo-Irish and half Scots Lawrence. At any rate, they're both from the British Isles.

* FatalMethodActing: Averted.

** First, it's worth noting that filmmakers had been trying to make a Lawrence movie since the mid-'20s. Two of the better known examples were an Alexander Korda epic in the '30s with Laurence Olivier as Lawrence, and a '50s Rank Organisation picture starring Creator/DirkBogarde. Both films fell apart due to political pressure: the former because of fear of alienating Turkey in the run-up to World War II; the latter because of a coup d'etat in Iraq, where the film was set to shoot. Lean and Spiegel narrowly beat a competing project, an adaptation of Terence Rattigan's play Ross, to the screen.
** Michael Wilson worked on the screenplay for over a year, then was summarily dismissed by Lean for unsatisfactory work. Unfortunately the cast and crew were already in Jordan and waited for weeks before a new writer was hired. Robert Bolt's tenure as screenwriter got off to a rocky start when he was arrested for taking part in a CND demonstration in London, forcing Sam Spiegel to bail him out of jail. Bolt then showed his gratitude by granting a press interview where he slammed Spiegel and Lean as egomaniacs. Eventually Spiegel invited Bolt to live on his private yacht in Aqaba, mostly to keep an eye on him.
** Logistics filming in Jordan were a nightmare. For a start, gaining rights to film there required intense negotiation: Spiegel brought in Anthony Nutting, a former British Foreign Office official, to secure King Hussein's approval.note The crew commandeered tanker trucks full of fresh water from Aqaba and airlifted frozen food to the location every day. Lean and crew had to meticulously sweep the desert sands free of footprints and tire tracks between takes. Outbreaks of illness laid many crew members low. Creator/PeterOToole's on-set drinking caused tension with Arab extras. The Jordanian government initially cooperated with the production but proved leery about filming in cities like Aqaba and Maan.

* FakeNationality:

* ThrowItIn: Lawrence using his dagger-blade as a mirror was something that O'Toole came up with while shooting the scene.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Several actors were offered the leading role, including Creator/MarlonBrando, but Lean initially seemed set on Creator/AlbertFinney, an unknown actor with few roles to his credit. Finney received an elaborate, four day screen test, performing scenes from early script drafts with several actors and reciting passages from Lawrence's ''Seven Pillars of Wisdom''. Finney impressed Lean and producer Sam Spiegel, but Spiegel demanded Finney sign a multi-picture contract. Finney refused, instead performing his StarMakingRole in ''Film/SaturdayNightAndSundayMorning'' while ''Lawrence'' was still in production. Enter Creator/PeterOToole and the rest is history.

** Creator/HorstBuchholz was the first choice, but had already signed on for ''Film/One,Two,Three''. Creator/AlainDelon had a successful screen test, but ultimately declined because of the brown contact lenses he would have had to wear.

* TheOtherMarty: Creator/EdmundO'Brien was originally cast as Jackson Bentley, but had to drop out when he suffered a heart attack. Creator/ArthurKennedy was flown in from New York to replace him.
* StarMakingRole: Creator/PeterO'Toole and Creator/OmarSharif. O'Toole was an acclaimed stage actor, but only had a few minor film roles beforehand: Lean reportedly spotted him in ''Film/TheDayTheyRobbedTheBankOfEngland'', playing a SympatheticInspectorAntagonist. Sharif was already famous in Egypt, but this movie made him an international superstar.