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Smiley's People

LAist
Interview of Joe Praml about Smiley's People
and acting with Alec Guinness
by Cathy McConnell

Joe Praml is very proud of acting in Smiley's People, BBC-TV's series with Alec Guinness. Most Americans probably know Alec Guinness as Star War's Obi-Wan Kenobi. Smiley's People is a sequel to Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Joe Praml was cast in Tinker Tailor in London because of his stage acting. John Irvin, the director of Tinker Tailor, saw him in a stage play in London. One day Joe Praml's agent got a call that John Irvin wanted him in Tinker Tailor as Paul Skordeno, a Lamplighter/Watcher for Alec Guinness. John Irvin gave him the role without an audition because he saw him on the stage -– unheard of !

During Tinker Tailor and Smiley’s People, there was a saying in London: "The best acting companies in England are the National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company, and the cast of Tinker Tailor and Smiley’s People."  All the actors were stage actors.  

Joe Praml is in Episode 6 of Smiley's People. Alec Guinness/ George Smiley goes to Switzerland to interview Grigoriev and others about the daughter of Karla, the Soviet spy master played by Patrick Stewart, to find out anything he can to ‘turn’ Karla to defect to the West. Karla has hidden his daughter in a sanitarium/ institution in Switzerland. Joe Praml is one of Smiley's Lamplighters/ Watchers.

While Smiley's People was shooting in Switzerland, the cast and crew of Smiley’s People stayed in a hotel on Lake Brienz, Switzerland. Joe Praml tells me it was a small, elegant old-style European hotel furnished with art work and beautiful wood. The restaurant/bar had chintz armchairs set around a large stone fireplace. After filming, the cast and crew gathered there in the evenings.  On two evenings after the other cast and crew had gone to bed, Alec Guinness and Joe Praml talked late into the night – two insomniacs, two stage actors, drinking Bloody Marys.

Joe Praml tells me they started talking about Thomas Mann, the German novelist who wrote the famous novel, The Magic Mountain, set it in the same type of sanitarium/institution where they were filming the scenes about Karla's daughter. Joe Praml read Magic Mountain when he was about 17 and again while he was at the University of Minnesota. Both he and Alec Guinness knew and were interested in The Magic Mountain, the history and setting of the book and that period.

They talked about Catholicism, the Church, history, acting. Alec Guinness was a convert and wanted to know Joe Praml's views of the Church, and growing up a Catholic. Joe Praml was a long-time admirer of Alec Guinness and the Ealing Comedies that made Alec Guinness famous. He used to go to the World Theatre in Minneapolis that showed European movies. That's where he saw the Alec Guinness movies. What really got Alec Guinness was that Joe Praml saw him in the film Tunes of Glory. Most people never heard of that movie. Alec played a soldier, Major Jock Sinclair. Joe Praml asked Alec Guinness about his approach to acting. Alec Guinness said he gets into characters by getting the walk and he learned that in Tunes of Glory, so each of his character's walks are different: Prince Faisal in Lawrence of Arabia, Col. Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai.

People in the business like this story. Francesca Gabor Hilton, an actress and the daughter of Conrad Hilton and Za Za Gabor, was so impressed by Joe Praml's work in Smiley's People and this story of Joe Praml's late night chats with Alec Guinness that she bought him a DVD of the entire series.  (She died recently and he went to her funeral at St. Ambrose in West Hollywood.)

In 1989-90 Joe Praml visited London to renew his British permanent residency. His stage work and Smiley's People paid off again. While he was at the airport, Joe Praml found out Alec Guinness was in a play at the Comedy Theatre in Lee Blessing's stage play, A Walk In The Woods. Joe Praml went straight to the theatre to get tickets. Sold out.  He showed his British Equity card, told them he used to be a stage actor in London. That's how he used to get tickets to shows in London because they always save seats for actors. No use. Sold out, no chance. Joe Praml told the box office he acted with Alec Guinness in Smiley's People. The box office manager said OK, come back after lunch. When Joe Praml came back there were two VIP tickets...best seats in the house near the front.

Smiley's People and Joe Praml's London stage acting got him an agent in Los Angeles. In 1982, Smiley's People aired on BBC-TV in England. A few months later, it aired in Los Angeles. Joe Praml paid for an ad in the Hollywood Reporter trade magazine so it would appear at the same time Smiley's People aired in Los Angeles. Maxine Arnold, a well-established agent, wrote to Joe Praml in London. She said she saw his performance in Smiley's People and was interested in representing him if he should decide to move to LA.  They wrote back and forth. When Joe Praml moved to LA, he had a Hollywood talent agent, Maxine Arnold. She arranged  his audition for Fletch. But that's another story.                                         ---Cathy McConnell