This curious connection between Stanley Kubrick’s ‘2001’ and John Lennon’s ‘Plastic Ono Band’
In 1967, Daniel Richter was a virtually unknown mime artist working in London. That year, the Connecticut-born actor was cast as Moonwatcher, the ape who discovers the bone in the “Dawn of Man” sequence from Stanley Kubrick’s pioneering science-fiction movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. But Richter was already far more than just an actor: he was a choreographer, a photographer and a close friend of John Lennon and Yoko Ono.
During a conversation with Vulture, Richter explained how he landed the role of Moonwatcher. “Stanley had shot most of the picture already,” he began. “They were trying to figure out how to do the opening scenes. They had done tests on dancers, actors — even comedians. He and Arthur C. Clarke were talking about it, and they said, ‘You know, we haven’t talked to a mime.’ It so happened I was teaching private classes in mime in London at the time. Anyway, I was asked if I would go out and let Stanley pick my brain. I said, ‘If you give me twenty minutes, a stage, leotards, and some towels, I can show you how to do it.’ So he hired me to choreograph it, and eventually talked me into playing the part of Moonwatcher as well. I always thought of myself as a choreographer on that film. But I saw it again the other day, and I realized I starred in the thing!”
Having spent weeks studying the monkeys at London Zoo and watching every Jane Goodall documentary he could get his hands on, Richter was determined to imbue the opening scene with a hitherto unseen level of realism. “Stanley planned everything in great detail, but he was also the kind of great artist who could capitalize on things when they just happened,” he said. “I got there and I sort of just dropped a bone down casually, and it hit a rib bone in such a way that it spun up in the air. At first, I said, ‘I’m sorry, Stanley.’ And he said, ‘No, that’s great.’ So, I hit it once, a bone flips, and then I hit it a bit harder, and another bone flips. And it builds and builds, and finally, it all led up to Stanley saying, ‘Throw the bones in the air!’ But that first accidental flipping was what gave us the idea.”
By then, Richter had already met Yoko Ono while travelling in Japan. “We became very close friends,” he explained. “She translated some poems of mine to use as part of her performance. Later, when I was in London working for Stanley, she turned up there to do some shows. We got together again, and we had apartments side by side for a couple of years. Then when John started coming around, suddenly I was drawn into their lives. When they got married, they asked me to come out and help with their projects.”
As well as being present for The Beatles’ final photoshoot and appearing in John and Yoko’s 1972 ‘Imagine’ music video at Tittenhurst Park, Richter was also responsible for taking the photo featured on the cover of Plastic Ono Band and providing Ono with heroin for John at the height of his addiction. “It felt weird to be sitting on the bed talking to Yoko while the Beatles were working across the studio,” he told Salon. “I couldn’t help thinking that those guys were making rock ‘n’ roll history, while I was sitting on this bed in the middle of the Abbey Road studio, handing Yoko a small white packet.”
