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Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, Knight of the Garter, and Earl Marshal of England (1473 - 1554), portrayed by Sir Rex Harrison, was a real-life Tudor period politician. He was also the uncle of Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, two of the six wives of King Henry VIII. Norfolk had a major role in the drama and arrangements behind both marriages. Norfolk fell out of favor with King Henry VIII in 1546, when he was stripped of his titles and imprisoned in the Tower of London. However, soon after his imprisonment, Henry VIII died, and Norfolk was able to cheat trial and execution, being finally released on the accession of Edward VI's oldest sister, Queen Mary I. He was of assistance to Catholic Mary succeeding to the throne, thereby setting the stage for alienation between his Catholic family and the successive Protestant monarchs beginning with his great niece, Queen Elizabeth I. In 1546-1547, Norfolk would have been aged about seventy-three, slightly older than Harrison (born 1908), who was sixty-eight at the time of production in 1976.
Mark Lester's last acting role. He gave up acting due to the film's poor reception. It was widely rumoured, beginning around 2010, that he would return to acting in a portrayal of King Harold II in a film called "1066". Reports of this project faded toward the end of the 2010s without the film being made.
Rex Harrison deliberately avoided his The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965) co-star Charlton Heston during filming.
A drunken Oliver Reed brought a prostitute as a gift for Mark Lester to celebrate his birthday on July 11, 1976.
This movie's failure was largely blamed on the casting of Mark Lester, who, at eighteen, was nine years older than King Edward VI was at the time of his accession to the throne. Lester's performance in the dual title roles was heavily criticized. However, there were also complaints that the movie was "too Americanized".
Attempts by Ernest Borgnine to affect a lower class English accent were unsuccessful, so in most scenes, he just played his part with his natural American accented voice, although there are scenes where a bit of an English accent can still be heard.