Up Close: More Tales from Peter Gallagher
Up Close with Peter Gallagher from the June/July 2021 issue.
Singing a Dean Martin song to Paul Newman
When I was a kid, I loved Dean Martin. He just made the world look like a place I wanted to be part of… I ended up using that professionally because I did a Dean Martin homage and played Vic Tenetta in the Coen brothers’ movie “The Hudsucker Proxy.” I had just worked with Frannie [Frances McDormand, married to Joel Coen since 1984] in something and she said you should have Peter Gallagher play this part. it's just a one-off thing playing this guy, Vic Tenetta – “the maestro of moonlight, the Rajah of romance.” And I sang the song, it was a Dean Martin hit called “Memories are Made of This.” And I sang it live, [with] a backing track in my ear, the band was miming so that we didn't screw up the music tracks, and I was singing to the right of camera and just pointing to the camera [while] singing it. They [filmed] it while they were in between stuff. And in the movie, it's intercut with all these society doyennes looking adoringly at Vic Tenetta. But when I was singing, there was nobody to sing it to – just, “Here, yes, just sing it right at camera.” And we rehearsed it a couple of times, and then finally when the camera rolls, I get to my place on stage and look at camera right and who's standing there with a big smile on his face with his mug right next to camera so I'd have something to look at and respond to – Paul Newman. He heard I was singing and he was a friend of mine because his daughter was a fan of the first movie I'd ever done. A few years after that movie [“The Idolmaker,” in which he played a character based on the pop star Fabian], I was doing a play at [the] Long Wharf [Theatre in New Haven]. One night the GM said to me, “Hey, Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward want to come by and meet you and they’d like an autographed photo.”
I didn't believe the GM. I thought he was just, you know, taunting me. Yeah. Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. Sure.
And so I didn't bite, What I didn't realize was that they were at the performance that night and the GM came back in and said, “What the hell’s wrong with you? Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, all they asked for is a picture, they’re waiting right outside, that's all they asked for.” Oh, my God. So we had this kind of wonderful meeting. And it was the beginning of a wonderful friendship I had with Paul and Joanne, and Paul brought me into the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
He used to drive -- I think it was a VW Golf. Like a little VW. But it had it had a Porsche engine. He said, “They're a little surprised when I open it up on the Merritt Parkway.”
Beating balls with Bill Murray
I was doing a movie with Bill Murray, “The Man Who Knew Too Little.” We were shooting in London. And we had all these amazing things that we were going to do -- we were going to get a private jet to fly us from London to Troon [since] I'd never played any Scottish courses -- then the production found out and put the kibosh on everything. because what happens if the jet goes down? (I said, “Before or after we play there? If it's after, it wouldn't be as bad.”) But obviously it was a big insurance matter.
So we would go to a driving range in London and we played Wentworth, and we'd go to this one driving range and we’d just pretend it was, “All right, it's a 520-yard par four, it’s long.” So we hit drives, we hit all these shots. [But the range is in] a rough part of town, it was not where you would expect [a range]. I mean, it felt like a rough part of town. and it was late at night, it was after work. And there's a few other people there that I'm thinking, they don't look like golfers. And within two seconds Bill is with the guy next to us – he looked dangerous, I'll be honest with you -- and Bill’s giving him golf lessons. And he made him pay him for them. “Oh, no, you're gonna have to give me some for that. Yeah. Whaddya got on ya?”
So anyway, Billy and I had a great time, and he knows we have a mutual friend, and he says, “So listen, what are you doing in January? You want to play some golf in January?” This was in December, and I said, Sure, yeah. “Want to play Pebble?” Oh my god, I’ve always wanted to play Pebble. But, Billy -- that's the AT&T! He says, “I know.” Billy, I'm not good enough to play in the AT&T. “I know.”
So, that's how I ended up in the AT&T.
Watching Tiger Listen
At that same AT&T, it was 1997, Tiger’s first year there. I remember watching him on the range, and talking to him afterwards, and we were just talking, and I’m sure he doesn’t remember it and there’s no reason he should. But I’d see him a few more times, and we both played in J.P. McManus’s event at Adare Manor, with the top 20 pros in the world and a few guys like me. Tiger would get these big roars, and this was when “The O.C.” was airing and it was very popular in Ireland, so you’d hear a kind of a rumble or two for old Sandy Cohen.
Years later, my wife and I were at a Dodgers game. And we were sitting up in a box and everybody want to go down and sit closer to the action on the field. So we're going down in the tunnels, and Tiger is coming the other way. He goes, “Hey, man, how you doing? You playing any golf?” I said, “Well, as a matter of fact. I made a hole on one last week.” He says, “Did you see it go in.” I said, Yeah. “Describe it.”
My wife is there. But Tiger tells me to describe it, so -- I said, “Well, it was at Robinson Ranch, and it was a long par-3, I had a four-wood. Three tier green. A little wind into me. Nice draw on the 4-wood, and it bounced up there.” And my wife said watching his eyes was like watching a video replay of the entire event, because he knew the golf course, I described it well enough, and he's like, his eyes go di-di-di-di-di as I was telling it.
He goes, “Pete, was that your first hole in one?” No, actually it was my third. He said. “Wow!” And I asked, Tiger, how many have you had? “Nineteen.” And that was probably only the ones in competition. Just to keep things in perspective.
Heroes
We have this marvelous game that allows people of such enormously disparate abilities and experience to play together. I remember, I was playing my first round with Rory McIlroy [at the AT&T] and there was a little distraction going on in the group, and the first day was rough. The second day, at Poppy Hills, I got up earlier, I meditated, and I was determined that I'm not going to beat myself on this one, I'm going to try to put my best foot forward. I started to play well; I think I shot in the 70s, 76 or something like that. Gross. And Rory said, “How come you played like shit yesterday and you're playing good today?”… Anyway, and so then he made a birdie. And he literally jumped in my arms -- you just have the most remarkable experiences with people you wouldn't expect to.
It’s been that way in my life. In the work I've done. I've worked with my heroes. I've worked with Peter O'Toole, and Lemmon, and Cagney. I worked with James Cagney. In fact, I remember when Jack and I were doing long days in rehearsal for “A Long Day's Journey,” Jimmy was dying, pretty much done. And he and Lemmon were close, from being in “Mr. Roberts” [in the ‘50s]. Jack came back from seeing Jimmy in the hospital and he said, “Cagney says -- he said, ‘You tell Gallagher I’m saying hello.’ So I'm saying hello. Alright.” Jack, are you serious? Did he really? “Yes, you jerk. He said hello.” And, you know, just to feel like you're part of that history, part of something that's bigger than you and that informs you at the same time.
I like the old great guys I've worked with. You just had the sense that no matter how many awards they had, or what they'd achieved, they didn't think they were better than anybody else. They just knew they were luckier. I remember when O’Toole would come to work in the morning, and he’d see me: “Mr. Gallagher, how are you sir?” And I'd say fine, thank you, Mr. O'Toole, how are you? And he’d say, “Ah ….. gruesome.” And then we’d talk about Yeats and we would go to a football game, and all of this was in Ireland where he lived and where I had family… so it's a grand, grand adventure.
