Today would have been Bill’s 55th birthday. I tend to celebrate it like any other poignant anniversary, with revered remembrance and lots of love.
I wrote once about how we’d turn one another on to movies we loved, the other hadn’t seen. A great memory of mine. But there was one film we both loved and watched together. A Lion in Winter, with Katharine Hepburn and Peter O’Toole, both never as majestic on the big screen.
The movie itself is extremely poignant, it’s story of an exiled wife, by her unhinged husband who also happened to be King Henry II, each with a favorite son, through palace intrigue, wanting to inherit the throne. 
There was also real life drama going on, it being Kate Hepburn’s first film since the death of Spencer Tracy, O’Toole gently coaxing her out of mourning to play the part.
“You’re the only one who could play Eleanor,” he was known to have said, as in Eleanor of Aquitaine, one of the most powerful women of her day. It was also Anthony Hopkins’s film debut as Richard the Lionhearted, a slam dunk first performence launching him like a cinematic rocket.
I remember sitting at Hicks’s feet with him on the couch swooning in the language.
But the soliquy I remember best is the exchange between the two brothers locked in the dungeon by their father.
Prince Richard: “He’s here (Henry II ). He’ll get no satisfaction out of me. He isn’t going to see me beg.”
Prince Geoffrey: “My, you chivalric fool…as if the way one fell down mattered.”
Prince Richard: “When the fall is all there is, it matters.”
If there was ever a speech tailored for Bill Hicks, it was that one.
The noblest of all falling on his sword February 26th, 1994, a little after his 32nd birthday.
I picture you Bill, strolling in the sunshine in worn out jeans with the tails of your white muslim, what you called your Jakarta shirt, swaying in the breeze.
You have the black raincoat, you love so much your mom bought you, over your arm just in case of rain. We can hear your boots clicking on those heavenly cobblestones humming a happy tune, working on something fiercely funny to enlighten us with.
We think of you today, as in every day.
Happy Birthday Willie. 
Love, Susannah
Beautiful Susannah ❤
Bill actually came up at our Thanksgiving table…yep he was in the house. My nephews love his humor. Thank goodness for YouTube! They are in their 20's & 30's and couldn't believe how relevant he is to society today. That is how you know just how ahead he was in his game.
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Susannah, that is truly a great movie. I don’t know why I never focused on that particular exchange, but it is certainly memorable. Thanks for pointing it out.
And I love the picture you painted of you and Bill nestled together while watching it.
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Warm memories. :O)
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Sweet memories. That’s something that no one can take away.
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Sending love to you today. Yours was a love story that I rate right up there with other greats.
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🙂
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In honor of Bill, I just watched some youtube videos of interviews with him. So well spoken and REAL. So sorry for your loss……..
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I’m touched you did that. It was a long time ago but some people just change your life. He did, when he was here and hugely when he left. He was my meteor if you will. Thank you.
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Keep writing your memories of him, Susannah. Your writing rings especially clear when you are writing about things you care about as much as Bill. I love the image of you watching a movie together.
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Have you ever seen A Lion In Winter? You of all people would love the language. So beautiful.
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Awesome. So great to read someone with experience of perhaps my biggest hero and a huge influence on my own work. xx
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He was my biggest hero too. I appreciate you writing. Susannah
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That’s one movie I haven’t seen and I love everything with Katherine Hepburn. I’ll look it up…
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It’s in my top ten favorites.
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