The Elephant Man (film) me hate acting." Because of the strain on the actor, he worked alternate days. Lynch originally wanted Jack Nance for the title character. "But it just wasn't in the cards," Lynch says; the role went to John Hurt after Brooks, Lynch and Sanger saw his performance in "The Naked Civil Servant" as Quentin Crisp. Lynch bookended the film with surrealist sequences centered around Merrick's mother and her death. Lynch used Samuel Barber’s "Adagio for Strings" to underline the end of the film and Merrick's own death. The film's composer, John Morris, argued against using the music, stating that "this piece
The True History of the Elephant Man exhibitions. Monagu's book inspired numerous dramatic works about Merrick, notably a 1979 play by Bernard Pomerance and a 1980 film by David Lynch. Between these two works, Michael Howell and Peter Ford published their "True History". In a book review for "Medical History", medical historian Roy Porter called the book "well-researched and level-headed — easily the best offering in this year of the elephant man." and noted the new material on the topic introduced by the authors. Reviewing for "Postgraduate Medical Journal", M. J. Arnold praised the book, calling it "a comprehensive account ... of the complex interrelationships between Joseph