Gelgaudiškis ( pronunciation ) is a town in the Šakiai district municipality , Lithuania . It is located 15 km (9.3 mi) north of Šakiai . The town is just south of Neman River .
148-525: Sir Arthur John Gielgud ( / ˈ ɡ iː l ɡ ʊ d / GHEEL -guud ; 14 April 1904 – 21 May 2000) was an English actor and theatre director whose career spanned eight decades. With Ralph Richardson and Laurence Olivier , he was one of the trinity of actors who dominated the British stage for much of the 20th century. A member of the Terry family theatrical dynasty, he gained his first paid acting work as
296-460: A failed uprising against Russian rule in 1830–31. Jan Gielgud took refuge in England with his family; one of his grandchildren was Frank Gielgud, whose maternal grandmother was a famous Polish actress, Aniela Aszpergerowa . Frank married into a family with wide theatrical connections . His wife, who was on the stage until she married, was the daughter of the actress Kate Terry , and a member of
444-674: A "Chekhov boom" in British theatres, and Gielgud was among its leading players. As Konstantin in The Seagull in October 1925 he impressed the Russian director Theodore Komisarjevsky , who cast him as Tusenbach in the British premiere of Three Sisters . The production received enthusiastic reviews, and Gielgud's highly praised performance enhanced his reputation as a potential star. There followed three years of mixed fortunes for him, with successes in fringe productions, but West End stardom
592-477: A Lamp (1929) with Edith Evans and Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies. In 1928 he made his second film, The Clue of the New Pin . This, billed as "the first British full-length talkie ", was an adaptation of an Edgar Wallace mystery story; Gielgud played a young scoundrel who commits two murders and very nearly a third before he himself is killed. In 1929 Harcourt Williams , newly appointed as director of productions at
740-483: A US tour and on Broadway . Romeo was played by Maurice Evans and Juliet by Cornell. Richardson's performance greatly impressed American critics, and Cornell invited him to return to New York to co-star with her in Macbeth and Antony and Cleopatra , though nothing came of this. In 1936, London Films released Things to Come , in which Richardson played the swaggering warlord "The Boss". His performance parodied
888-531: A West End star. In 1933 he had his first speaking part in a film, playing the villain, Nigel Hartley, in The Ghoul , which starred Cedric Hardwicke and Boris Karloff . The following year he was cast in his first starring role in a film, as the hero in The Return of Bulldog Drummond . The Times commented, "Mr Ralph Richardson makes Drummond as brave and stupid on the screen as he is in print." Over
1036-472: A better performance of this play than this before I die, it will be a miracle." Morley writes that junior members of the cast such as Alec Guinness and Frith Banbury would gather in the wings every night "to watch what they seemed intuitively already to know was to be the Hamlet of their time". Mr Olivier was about twenty times as much in love with Peggy Ashcroft as Mr Gielgud is. But Mr Gielgud spoke most of
1184-616: A cat with rickets . It dealt a severe blow to my conceit, which was a good thing." Before and after joining the school he played in several amateur productions, and in November 1921 made his debut with a professional company, though he himself was not paid. He played the Herald in Henry V at the Old Vic ; he had one line to speak and, he recalled, spoke it badly. He was kept on for the rest of
1332-515: A film version , which was his sole venture into direction for the screen. Once he had played himself into a role in a long run, Richardson felt able to work during the daytime in films, and made two others in the early 1950s beside the film of the Sherriff piece: Outcast of the Islands , directed by Carol Reed, and David Lean 's The Sound Barrier , released in 1951 and 1952 respectively. For
1480-513: A friend reveals Gielgud's view of film acting: "There is talk of my doing Inigo in the film of The Good Companions , which appals my soul but appeals to my pocket." In his first volume of memoirs, published in 1939, Gielgud devoted two pages to describing the things about filming that he detested. Unlike his contemporaries Richardson and Laurence Olivier , he made few films until after the Second World War, and did not establish himself as
1628-671: A friendship. The friendship and professional association lasted until the end of Richardson's life. Gielgud wrote in 1983, "Besides cherishing our long years of work together in the theatre, where he was such an inspiring and generous partner, I grew to love him in private life as a great gentleman, a rare spirit, fair and balanced, devotedly loyal and tolerant and, as a companion, bursting with vitality, curiosity and humour." Among Richardson's other parts in his first Old Vic season, Enobarbus in Antony and Cleopatra gained particularly good notices. The Morning Post commented that it placed him in
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#17327797071721776-729: A friendship. The friendship and professional association lasted for more than fifty years, until the end of Richardson's life. Gielgud's other roles in this season were Lord Trinket in The Jealous Wife , Richard II again, Antony in Antony and Cleopatra , Malvolio in Twelfth Night , Sergius in Arms and the Man , Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing – another role for which he became celebrated – and he concluded
1924-593: A garden and forested park with an area of 112 ha leading to Neman ( Lithuanian : Nemunas ) River. The town and nearby castle is mentioned in John Gielgud : The Authorized Biography , (by Sheridan Morley ), as being the actor's ancestral home and from where his family name originated. During World War I , it was occupied by Germany . During World War II , it was occupied by the Soviet Union from 1940, by Nazi Germany from 1941, and then once again by
2072-648: A junior member of his cousin Phyllis Neilson-Terry 's company in 1922. After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), he worked in repertory theatre and in the West End before establishing himself at the Old Vic as an exponent of Shakespeare in 1929–31. During the 1930s Gielgud was a stage star in the West End and on Broadway , appearing in new works and classics. He began
2220-583: A major step up in his career. For the first weeks of the run Gielgud played Mercutio and Olivier played Romeo, after which they exchanged roles. As at Oxford, Ashcroft and Evans were Juliet and the nurse. The production broke all box-office records for the play, running at the New Theatre for 189 performances. Olivier was enraged at the notices after the first night, which praised the virility of his performance but fiercely criticised his speaking of Shakespeare's verse, comparing it with his co-star's mastery of
2368-405: A means of subsidising his much less profitable stage work. He said, "I've never been one of those chaps who scoff at films. I think they're a marvellous medium, and are to the stage what engravings are to painting. The theatre may give you big chances, but the cinema teaches you the details of craftsmanship." The Fallen Idol was followed by Richardson's first Hollywood part. He played Dr Sloper,
2516-662: A new piece by Priestley, Bees on the Boatdeck . Both actors won excellent notices, but the play, an allegory of Britain's decline, did not attract the public. It closed after four weeks, the last in a succession of West End productions in which Richardson appeared to much acclaim but which were box-office failures. In August of the same year he finally had a long-running star part, the title role in Barré Lyndon 's comedy thriller , The Amazing Dr Clitterhouse , which played for 492 performances, closing in October 1937. After
2664-629: A parallel career as a director, and set up his own company at the Queen's Theatre , London. He was regarded by many as the finest Hamlet of his era, and was also known for high comedy roles such as John Worthing in The Importance of Being Earnest . In the 1950s Gielgud feared that his career was threatened when he was convicted and fined for a homosexual offence, but his colleagues and the public supported him loyally. When avant-garde plays began to supersede traditional West End productions in
2812-400: A plain villain, and, in fact, we have seldom seen a man smile and smile and be a villain so adequately." His biggest success of the season was as Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream . Both Agate and Darlington commented on how the actor transformed the character from the bumbling workman to the magically changed creature on whom Titania dotes. Agate wrote that most of those who had played
2960-530: A priest. In Brighton he served as an altar boy , which he enjoyed, but when sent at about fifteen to the nearby Xaverian College, a seminary for trainee priests, he ran away. As a pupil at a series of schools he was uninterested in most subjects and was an indifferent scholar. His Latin was poor, and during church services he would improvise parts of the Latin responses, developing a talent for invention when memory failed that proved useful in his later career. I
3108-572: A prominent film actor until many years after that. As he put it in 1994, "I was stupid enough to toss my head and stick to the stage while watching Larry and Ralph sign lucrative Korda contracts." In 1932 Gielgud turned to directing. At the invitation of George Devine , the president of the Oxford University Dramatic Society , Gielgud took charge of a production of Romeo and Juliet by the society, featuring two guest stars: Peggy Ashcroft as Juliet and Edith Evans as
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#17327797071723256-567: A regular film career until his sixties. He appeared in more than sixty films between Becket (1964), for which he received his first Academy Award nomination for playing Louis VII of France , and Elizabeth (1998). As the acid-tongued Hobson in Arthur (1981) he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor . His film work further earned him a Golden Globe Award and two BAFTAs . Although largely indifferent to awards, Gielgud had
3404-464: A religious element, although Arthur was a dedicated Quaker , whose first two sons were brought up in that faith, whereas Lydia was a devout convert to Roman Catholicism , in which she raised Ralph. Mother and son had a variety of homes, the first of which was a bungalow converted from two railway carriages in Shoreham-by-Sea on the south coast of England. Lydia wanted Richardson to become
3552-878: A rising star but Richardson's talents were not yet so apparent; he was allotted supporting roles such as Lane in The Importance of Being Earnest and Albert Prossor in Hobson's Choice . Richardson made his London debut in July 1926 as the stranger in Oedipus at Colonus in a Sunday-night performance at the Scala Theatre , with a cast including Percy Walsh , John Laurie and D. A. Clarke-Smith . He then toured for three months in Eden Phillpotts 's comedy Devonshire Cream with Jackson's company led by Cedric Hardwicke . When Phillpotts's next comedy, Yellow Sands ,
3700-468: A scholarship. He was sent as a day boy to Westminster School where, as he later said, he had access to the West End "in time to touch the fringe of the great century of the theatre". He saw Sarah Bernhardt act, Adeline Genée dance and Albert Chevalier , Vesta Tilley and Marie Lloyd perform in the music halls . The school choir sang in services at Westminster Abbey , which appealed to his fondness for ritual. He showed talent at sketching, and for
3848-510: A sell-out hit and played in London and on tour over the next three years. Between seasons of Richard , in 1934 Gielgud returned to Hamlet in London and on tour, directing and playing the title role. The production was a box-office success, and the critics were lavish in their praise. In The New York Times , Charles Morgan wrote, "I have never before heard the rhythm and verse and the naturalness of speech so gently combined. ... If I see
3996-462: A series of leading roles took him to stardom in the West End and on Broadway . In the 1940s, together with Olivier and John Burrell , Richardson was the co-director of the Old Vic company. There, his most celebrated roles included Peer Gynt and Falstaff . He and Olivier led the company to Europe and Broadway in 1945 and 1946, before their success provoked resentment among the governing board of
4144-563: A short run in The Silent Knight , described by Miller as "a Hungarian fantasy in rhymed verse set in the fifteenth century", Richardson returned to the Old Vic for the 1937–38 season, playing Bottom once again and switching parts in Othello , playing the title role, with Olivier as Iago. The director, Tyrone Guthrie , wanted to experiment with the theory that Iago's villainy is driven by suppressed homosexual love for Othello. Olivier
4292-540: A stage career until a production of Hamlet in Brighton inspired him to become an actor. He learned his craft in the 1920s with a touring company and later the Birmingham Repertory Theatre . In 1931 he joined the Old Vic , playing mostly Shakespearean roles. He led the company the following season, succeeding Gielgud, who had taught him much about stage technique. After he left the company,
4440-412: A teenager, the director Peter Hall saw the production; he said fifty years later, "Of the performances I've seen in my life I'm gladdest I saw that." In the second double bill it was Olivier who dominated, in the title roles of Oedipus Rex and The Critic . Richardson took the supporting role of Tiresias in the first, and the silent, cameo part of Lord Burleigh in the second. After the London season
4588-552: A timid pilot. He counted himself lucky to have been accepted, but the Fleet Air Arm was short of pilots. He rose to the rank of lieutenant-commander . His work was mostly routine administration, probably because of "the large number of planes which seemed to fall to pieces under his control", through which he acquired the nickname " Pranger " Richardson. He served at several bases in the south of England, and in April 1941, at
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4736-530: A triple bill of short plays, including two from Coward's Tonight at 8.30 , but he found at first that less highbrow performers like Beatrice Lillie were better than he at entertaining the troops. He returned to filming in 1940, as Disraeli in Thorold Dickinson 's The Prime Minister . In this morale-boosting film he portrayed the politician from ages thirty to seventy; this was, in Morley's view,
4884-713: A wage of £3 a week. Richardson made his first appearance as a professional actor at the Marina Theatre, Lowestoft , in August 1921, as Lorenzo in The Merchant of Venice . He remained with Doran's company for most of the next two years, gradually gaining more important roles, including Banquo in Macbeth and Mark Antony in Julius Caesar . Doran's company specialised in the classics, principally Shakespeare . After two years of period costumes Richardson felt
5032-751: A week. After his final Old Vic season he made two films in quick succession for Korda. The first, Anna Karenina , with Vivien Leigh , was an expensive failure, although Richardson's notices in the role of Karenin were excellent. The second, The Fallen Idol , had notable commercial and critical success, and won awards in Europe and America. It remained one of Richardson's favourites of his films. In Miller's words, " Carol Reed 's sensitive direction drew faultless performances not just from Ralph as Baines (the butler and mistakenly suspected murderer), but also from Michèle Morgan as his mistress, Sonia Dresdel as his cold-hearted wife, and especially from Bobby Henrey as
5180-502: A while thought of scenic design as a possible career. The young Gielgud's father took him to concerts, which he liked, and galleries and museums, "which bored me rigid". Both parents were keen theatregoers, but did not encourage their children to follow an acting career. Val Gielgud recalled, "Our parents looked distinctly sideways at the Stage as a means of livelihood, and when John showed some talent for drawing his father spoke crisply of
5328-437: Is now completely and authoritatively master of this tremendous part. ... I hold that this is, and is likely to remain, the best Hamlet of our time." Also in the season were A Midsummer Night's Dream , The Duchess of Malfi and the first major revival of Lady Windermere's Fan (1945). These productions attracted much praise, but at this point in his career Gielgud was somewhat overshadowed by his old colleagues. Olivier
5476-475: Is the high water-mark of English Shakespearean acting of our time." Hamlet was a role with which Gielgud was associated over the next decade and more. After the run at the Queen's finished he turned to another part for which he became well known, John Worthing in The Importance of Being Earnest . Gielgud's biographer Jonathan Croall comments that the two roles illustrated two sides of the actor's personality: on
5624-675: Is the wrong colour." In 1945 the company toured Germany, where they were seen by many thousands of Allied servicemen; they also appeared at the Comédie-Française theatre in Paris, the first foreign company to be given that honour. The critic Harold Hobson wrote that Richardson and Olivier quickly "made the Old Vic the most famous theatre in the Anglo-Saxon world." The second season, in 1945, featured two double-bills. The first consisted of Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2 . Olivier played
5772-479: The 1955 film of Richard III . Olivier, who directed, was exasperated at his old friend's insistence on playing the role sympathetically. Gelgaudi%C5%A1kis Gelgaudiškis is the Lithuanian name of the town. Versions of the name in other languages include Polish : Giełgudyszki , Russian : Гельгудишки Gel'gudishki , Belarusian : Гельгудiшкi Gel'hudishki , Yiddish : געלגודישק Gelgudishk . Before
5920-460: The Birmingham Repertory Theatre for a touring production of The Farmer's Wife . From December of that year they were members of the main repertory company in Birmingham. Through Jackson's chief director, the veteran taskmaster H. K. Ayliff , Richardson "absorbed the influence of older contemporaries like Gerald du Maurier , Charles Hawtrey and Mrs Patrick Campbell ." Hewitt was seen as
6068-741: The Emperor in Androcles and the Lion and the title role in Pirandello 's The Man with the Flower in His Mouth . In April 1930 Gielgud finished the season playing Hamlet . Williams's production used the complete text of the play. This was regarded as a radical innovation; extensive cuts had been customary for earlier productions. A running time of nearly five hours did not dampen the enthusiasm of
John Gielgud - Misplaced Pages Continue
6216-546: The Grand Duke Alexander in Alfred Neumann 's The Patriot . The play was a failure, closing after a week, but Gielgud liked New York and received favourable reviews from critics including Alexander Woollcott and Brooks Atkinson . After returning to London he starred in a succession of short runs, including Ibsen 's Ghosts with Mrs Patrick Campbell (1928), and Reginald Berkeley 's The Lady with
6364-522: The Malvern Festival , under the direction of his old Birmingham director, Ayliff. Salaries at the Old Vic and the Festival were not large, and Richardson was glad of a job as an extra in the 1931 film Dreyfus . As his wife's condition worsened he needed to pay for more and more nursing; she was looked after in a succession of hospitals and care homes. Succeeding Gielgud as leading man at
6512-637: The Red Cross and UNESCO , and Val , later head of BBC radio drama; his younger sister Eleanor became John's secretary for many years. On his father's side, Gielgud was of Lithuanian and Polish descent. The surname derives from Gelgaudiškis , a village in Lithuania. The Counts Gielgud had owned the Gelgaudiškis Manor on the Nemunas river, but their estates were confiscated after they took part in
6660-471: The Royal Albert Hall and elsewhere, and made one short film and three full-length ones, including The Silver Fleet , in which he played a Dutch Resistance hero, and The Volunteer , a propaganda film in which he appeared as himself. Throughout the war Guthrie had striven to keep the Old Vic company going, even after German bombing in 1942 left the theatre a near-ruin. A small troupe toured
6808-498: The Royal Naval Air Station, Lee-on-Solent , he was able to welcome Olivier, newly commissioned as a temporary sub-lieutenant. Olivier rapidly eclipsed Richardson's record for pranging. In 1942, on his way to visit his wife at the cottage where she was cared for by a devoted couple, Richardson crashed his motor-bike and was in hospital for several weeks. Kit was at that point mobile enough to visit him, but later in
6956-629: The Sea Lords consented, with, as Olivier put it, "a speediness and lack of reluctance which was positively hurtful." The triumvirate secured the New Theatre for their first season and recruited a company. Thorndike was joined by, among others, Harcourt Williams, Joyce Redman and Margaret Leighton . It was agreed to open with a repertory of four plays: Peer Gynt , Arms and the Man , Richard III and Uncle Vanya . Richardson's roles were Peer, Bluntschli, Richmond and Vanya; Olivier played
7104-635: The Button Moulder, Sergius, Richard and Astrov. The first three productions met with acclaim from reviewers and audiences; Uncle Vanya had a mixed reception. The Times thought Olivier's Astrov "a most distinguished portrait" and Richardson's Vanya "the perfect compound of absurdity and pathos". Agate, on the other hand, commented, " 'Floored for life, sir, and jolly miserable' is what Uncle Vanya takes three acts to say. And I just cannot believe in Mr Richardson wallowing in misery: his voice
7252-529: The Italian dictator Benito Mussolini so effectively that the film was immediately banned in Italy. The producer was Alexander Korda ; the two men formed a long and mutually beneficial friendship. Richardson later said of Korda, "Though not so very much older than I am, I regarded him in a way as a father, and to me he was as generous as a prince." In May 1936 Richardson and Olivier jointly directed and starred in
7400-515: The National Theatre and had no intention of letting actors run it. He was encouraged by Guthrie, who, having instigated the appointment of Richardson and Olivier, had come to resent their knighthoods and international fame. Esher terminated their contracts while both were out of the country, and they and Burrell were said to have "resigned". Looking back in 1971, Bernard Levin wrote that the Old Vic company of 1944 to 1947 "was probably
7548-645: The New York press was over almost as soon as it had begun. Howard's version closed within a month; the run of Gielgud's production beat Broadway records for the play. After his return from America in February 1937 Gielgud starred in He Was Born Gay by Emlyn Williams . This romantic tragedy about French royalty after the Revolution was quite well received during its pre-London tour, but was savaged by
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#17327797071727696-485: The Nurse. The rest of the cast were students, led by Christopher Hassall as Romeo, and included Devine, William Devlin and Terence Rattigan . The experience was satisfactory to Gielgud: he enjoyed the attentions of the undergraduates, had a brief affair with one of them, James Lees-Milne , and was widely praised for his inspiring direction and his protégés' success with the play. Already notorious for his innocent slips of
7844-703: The Old Vic, Richardson had a varied season, in which there were conspicuous successes interspersed with critical failures. James Agate was not convinced by him as the domineering Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew ; in Julius Caesar the whole cast received tepid reviews. In Othello Richardson divided the critics. He emphasised the plausible charm of the murderous Iago to a degree that Agate thought "very good Richardson, but indifferent Shakespeare", whereas The Times said, "He never stalked or hissed like
7992-454: The Old Vic, invited Gielgud to join the company for the forthcoming season. The Old Vic, in an unfashionable area of London south of the Thames , was run by Lilian Baylis to offer plays and operas to a mostly working-class audience at low ticket prices. She paid her performers very modest wages, but the theatre was known for its unrivalled repertory of classics, mostly Shakespeare , and Gielgud
8140-468: The Old Vic, leading to their dismissal from the company in 1947. In the 1950s, in the West End and occasionally on tour, Richardson played in modern and classic works including The Heiress , Home at Seven , and Three Sisters . He continued on stage and in films until shortly before his sudden death at the age of eighty. He was celebrated in later years for his work with Peter Hall 's National Theatre and his frequent stage partnership with Gielgud. He
8288-474: The Old Vic, with Malcolm Keen as Shylock and Ashcroft as Portia. In 1932 he starred in Richard of Bordeaux by Elizabeth MacKintosh . This, a retelling in modern language of the events of Richard II , was greeted as the most successful historical play since Shaw's Saint Joan nine years earlier, more faithful to the events than Shakespeare had been. After an uncertain start in the West End it rapidly became
8436-440: The President of the Magicians' Union ... a clear, arresting picture of a virile Renaissance notable", according to Brown. The critics singled out, among the other players, Jack Hawkins as Caliban, Marius Goring as Ariel, Jessica Tandy as Miranda and Alec Guinness as Ferdinand. Following the example of several of his stage colleagues, Gielgud joined tours of military camps. He gave recitals of prose and poetry, and acted in
8584-399: The Prussian barons von Keudell, and finally Komar family (till the beginning of World War I ). In the interwar period, the establishment was nationalized and housed an orphanage and later a school. The classicist palace was built in the first half of the 19th century by the family of von Keudell. After the fire of 1979 the palace was rebuilt and since remains unoccupied. It is surrounded by
8732-624: The Sea , which ran at the Haymarket for 386 performances. During this period, Richardson played Dr Watson in an American/BBC radio co-production of Sherlock Holmes stories, with Gielgud as Holmes and Orson Welles as the evil Professor Moriarty. These recordings were later released commercially on disc. In late 1954 and early 1955 Richardson and his wife toured Australia together with Sybil Thorndike and her husband, Lewis Casson , playing Terence Rattigan 's plays The Sleeping Prince and Separate Tables . The following year he worked with Olivier again, playing Buckingham to Olivier's Richard in
8880-432: The UK, Europe and the US for his stage and screen work from 1948 until his death. Richardson was twice nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor , first for The Heiress (1949) and again (posthumously) for his final film, Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984). Throughout his career, and increasingly in later years, Richardson was known for his eccentric behaviour on and off stage. He
9028-423: The West End, Gielgud starred in J. B. Priestley 's The Good Companions , adapted for the stage by the author and Edward Knoblock . The production ran from May 1931 for 331 performances, and Gielgud described it as his first real taste of commercial success. He played Inigo Jollifant, a young schoolmaster who abandons teaching to join a travelling theatre troupe. This crowd-pleaser drew disapproval from
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#17327797071729176-408: The West End, and Macbeth on tour. Returning, with more assurance than before, to entertaining the troops, he so far departed from his classical style as to join Lillie and Michael Wilding singing a comic trio. His 1943 revival of William Congreve 's Love for Love on tour and then in London received high praise from reviewers. In 1944 he was approached by Ralph Richardson, who had been asked by
9324-467: The West End, with Ashcroft as Sloper's daughter Catherine. The piece was to open in February 1949 at Richardson's favourite theatre, the Haymarket. Rehearsals were chaotic. Burrell, whom Richardson had asked to direct, was not up to the task – possibly, Miller speculates, because of nervous exhaustion from the recent traumas at the Old Vic. With only a week to go before the first performance, the producer, Binkie Beaumont , asked him to stand down, and Gielgud
9472-425: The academy at the end of 1923 Gielgud played a Christmas season as Charley in Charley's Aunt in the West End, and then joined Fagan's repertory company at the Oxford Playhouse . Gielgud was in the Oxford company in January and February 1924, from October 1924 to the end of January 1925, and in August 1925. He played a wide range of parts in classics and modern plays, greatly increasing his technical abilities in
9620-423: The acting and management in a triumvirate. Initially he proposed Gielgud and Olivier as his colleagues, but the former declined, saying, "It would be a disaster, you would have to spend your whole time as referee between Larry and me." It was finally agreed that the third member would be the stage director John Burrell . The Old Vic governors approached the Royal Navy to secure the release of Richardson and Olivier;
9768-584: The actor and the production were a critical and commercial success. During the season Gielgud was knighted in the 1953 Coronation Honours . Ralph Richardson Sir Ralph David Richardson (19 December 1902 – 10 October 1983) was an English actor who, with John Gielgud and Laurence Olivier , was one of the trinity of male actors who dominated the British stage for much of the 20th century. He worked in films throughout most of his career, and played more than sixty cinema roles. From an artistic but not theatrical background, Richardson had no thought of
9916-486: The advantages of an architect's office." On leaving Westminster in 1921, Gielgud persuaded his reluctant parents to let him take drama lessons on the understanding that if he was not self-supporting by the age of twenty-five he would seek an office post. Gielgud, aged seventeen, joined a private drama school run by Constance Benson, wife of the actor-manager Sir Frank Benson . On the new boy's first day Lady Benson remarked on his physical awkwardness: "she said I walked like
10064-410: The armed forces. Gielgud directed Michael Redgrave in a 1940 London production of The Beggar's Opera for the Glyndebourne Festival . This was a chaotic affair: Gielgud's direction confused his star, and when Redgrave lost his voice Gielgud had to step in and sing the role as best he could. Gielgud felt that something serious or even solemn was necessary for wartime London , where most entertainment
10212-443: The art school in 1920, and considered how else he might make a career. He briefly thought of pharmacy and then of journalism, abandoning each when he learned how much study the former required and how difficult mastering shorthand for the latter would be. He was still unsure what to do, when he saw Sir Frank Benson as Hamlet in a touring production. He was thrilled, and felt at once that he must become an actor. Buttressed by what
10360-478: The best piece of Shakespearean acting on the English stage today". Olivier said that Gielgud's Joseph Surface was "the best light comedy performance I've ever seen, or ever shall see". The venture did not make much money, and in July 1938 Gielgud turned to more conventional West End enterprises, in unconventional circumstances. He directed Spring Meeting , a farce by Perry and Molly Keane , presented by Binkie Beaumont , for whom Perry had just left Gielgud. Somehow
10508-449: The character as a breezy cockney , winning praise for turning a usually dreary role into something richly entertaining. For the rest of 1928 he appeared in what Miller describes as several unremarkable modern plays. For much of 1929 he toured South Africa in Gerald Lawrence 's company in three period costume plays, including The School for Scandal , in which he played Joseph Surface. The sole venture into musical comedy of his career
10656-720: The company played both the double-bills and Uncle Vanya in a six-week season on Broadway. The third, and final, season under the triumvirate was in 1946–47. Olivier played King Lear, and Richardson, Cyrano de Bergerac . Olivier would have preferred the roles to be cast the other way about, but Richardson did not wish to attempt Lear. Richardson's other roles in the season were Inspector Goole in An Inspector Calls , Face in The Alchemist and John of Gaunt in Richard II , which he directed, with Alec Guinness in
10804-437: The company. Donald Wolfit , who loathed him and was himself disliked by his colleagues, was dropped, as was Adele Dixon. Gielgud was uncertain of the suitability of the most prominent new recruit, Ralph Richardson , but Williams was sure that after this season Gielgud would move on; he saw Richardson as a potential replacement. The two actors had little in common. Richardson recalled, "He was a kind of brilliant butterfly, while I
10952-539: The critics in the West End. The Times said, "This is one of those occasions on which criticism does not stand about talking, but rubs its eyes and withdraws hastily with an embarrassed, incredulous, and uncomprehending blush. What made Mr Emlyn Williams write this play or Mr Gielgud and Miss Ffrangcon-Davies appear in it is not to be understood." The play closed after twelve performances. Its failure, so soon after his Shakespearean triumphs, prompted Gielgud to examine his career and his life. His domestic relationship with Perry
11100-416: The distraught boy, Philippe." Richardson had gained a national reputation as a great actor while at the Old Vic; films gave him the opportunity to reach an international audience. Unlike some of his theatre colleagues, he was never condescending about film work. He admitted that film could be "a cage for an actor, but a cage in which they sometimes put a little gold", but he did not regard filming as merely
11248-562: The end of the 14th century the area of Gelgaudiškis settlement and manor, positioned on the upper bank of Neman, belonged to the Grand Dukes of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania . In 1504, King and Grand Duke Aleksander Jagiellon gave it away as a gift to his royal secretary Sapieżyc, progenitor to the szlachta family of Sapieha . Afterwards, the grange belonged to families of Massalski , Dembiński, Oziembłowski, Giełgud, Czartoryski ,
11396-576: The family In 1907 the family split up; there was no divorce or formal separation, but the two elder boys, Christopher and Ambrose, remained with their father and Lydia left them, taking Ralph with her. The ostensible cause of the couple's separation was a row over Lydia's choice of wallpaper for her husband's study. According to John Miller's biography, whatever underlying causes there may have been are unknown. An earlier biographer, Garry O'Connor , speculates that Arthur Richardson might have been having an extramarital affair. There does not seem to have been
11544-520: The first rank of Shakespearean actors. At the beginning of 1931 Baylis re-opened Sadler's Wells Theatre with a production of Twelfth Night starring Gielgud as Malvolio and Richardson as Sir Toby Belch . W. A. Darlington in The Daily Telegraph wrote of Richardson's "ripe, rich and mellow Sir Toby, [which] I would go many miles to see again." During the summer break between the Old Vic 1930–31 and 1931–32 seasons, Richardson played at
11692-629: The first time he seemed at home before the camera. Gielgud made no more films for the next ten years; he turned down the role of Julius Caesar in the 1945 film of Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra with Vivien Leigh . He and Leigh were close friends, and Shaw tried hard to persuade him to play the part, but Gielgud had taken a strong dislike to the director, Gabriel Pascal . Caesar was eventually played by Gielgud's former teacher, Claude Rains. Throughout 1941 and 1942 Gielgud worked continually, in Barrie's Dear Brutus , another Importance of Being Earnest in
11840-471: The first time since his Old Vic days was keenly anticipated, but turned out to be a serious disappointment. He had poor reviews for his Prospero in The Tempest , judged too prosaic. In the second production of the festival his Macbeth, directed by Gielgud, was generally considered a failure. He was thought unconvincingly villainous; the influential young critic Kenneth Tynan professed himself "unmoved to
11988-490: The gaiety and exactly the right atmosphere. It's all delightful!" At the start of the Second World War Gielgud volunteered for active service, but was told that men of his age, thirty-five, would not be wanted for at least six months. The government quickly came to the view that most actors would do more good performing to entertain the troops and the general public than serving, whether suitable or not, in
12136-458: The governors of the Old Vic to form a new company. Unwilling to take sole charge, Richardson proposed a managing triumvirate of Gielgud, Olivier and himself. Gielgud declined: "It would be a disaster, you would have to spend your whole time as referee between Larry and me." A 1944–45 season at the Haymarket for Beaumont included a Hamlet that many considered his finest. Agate wrote, "Mr Gielgud
12284-653: The ineffectual Vershinin. He did not attempt Chekhov again for more than a quarter of a century. Richardson's playing of Macbeth suggests a fatal disparity between his temperament and the part The Times , June 1952 In 1952 Richardson appeared at the Stratford-upon-Avon Festival at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre (forerunner of the Royal Shakespeare Company ). His return to Shakespeare for
12432-507: The last time. He was Raskolnikoff in a stage version of Crime and Punishment , in the West End in 1946 and on Broadway the following year. Agate thought it the best thing Gielgud had done so far, other than Hamlet. Between these two engagements Gielgud toured North America in The Importance of Being Earnest and Love for Love . Edith Evans was tired of the role of Lady Bracknell, and refused to join him; Margaret Rutherford played
12580-512: The later 1950s he found no new suitable stage roles, and for several years he was best known in the theatre for his one-man Shakespeare show The Ages of Man . From the late 1960s he found new plays that suited him, by authors including Alan Bennett , David Storey and Harold Pinter . During the first half of his career Gielgud did not take the cinema seriously. Though he made his first film in 1924, and had successes with The Good Companions (1933) and Julius Caesar (1953), he did not begin
12728-568: The latter he won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor . With his characteristic liking for switching between modern roles and the classics, his next stage part was Colonel Vershinin in Three Sisters in 1951. He headed a strong cast, with Renée Asherson , Margaret Leighton and Celia Johnson as the sisters, but reviewers found the production weakly directed, and some felt that Richardson failed to disguise his positive personality when playing
12876-496: The more austere reviewers, who felt Gielgud should be doing something more demanding, but he found playing a conventional juvenile lead had challenges of its own and helped him improve his technique. During the run of the play he made another film, Insult (1932), a melodrama about the French Foreign Legion , and he starred in a cinema version of The Good Companions in 1933, with Jessie Matthews . A letter to
13024-453: The most illustrious that has ever been assembled in this country". The Times said that the triumvirate's years were the greatest in the Old Vic's history; as The Guardian put it, "the governors summarily sacked them in the interests of a more mediocre company spirit". For Richardson, parting company with the Old Vic brought the advantage of being free, for the first time, to earn substantial pay. The company's highest salary had been £40
13172-564: The next two years Richardson appeared in six plays in London ranging from Peter Pan (as Mr Darling and Captain Hook) to Cornelius , an allegorical play written for and dedicated to him by J. B. Priestley . Cornelius ran for two months; this was less than expected, and left Richardson with a gap in engagements in the second half of 1935. He filled it by accepting an invitation from Katharine Cornell and Guthrie McClintic to play Mercutio in their production of Romeo and Juliet on
13320-425: The one hand the romantic and soulful Hamlet, and on the other the witty and superficial Worthing. The formidable Lady Bracknell was played by his aunt, Mabel Terry-Lewis. The Times observed, "Mr Gielgud and Miss Terry-Lewis together are brilliant ... they have the supreme grace of always allowing Wilde to speak in his own voice." Returning to the Old Vic for the 1930–31 season, Gielgud found several changes to
13468-488: The overprotective father of Olivia de Havilland in The Heiress , based on Henry James 's novel Washington Square . The film did not prosper at the box-office despite good reviews, an Academy Award for Best Actress for Havilland, and nominations for the director ( William Wyler ) and Richardson. The Heiress had been a Broadway play before it was a film. Richardson so liked his part that he decided to play it in
13616-498: The part hitherto "seem to have thought Bottom, with the ass's head on, was the same Bottom, only funnier. Shakespeare says he was 'translated', and Mr Richardson translated him." With Sybil Thorndike as a guest star and Richardson as Ralph, The Knight of the Burning Pestle was a hit with audiences and critics, as was a revival of Twelfth Night , with Edith Evans as Viola and Richardson again playing Sir Toby, finishing
13764-470: The part to great acclaim. Gielgud was in demand as a director, with six productions in 1948–49. They included The Heiress in 1949, when he was brought in at the last moment to direct Richardson and Ashcroft, saving what seemed a doomed production; it ran for 644 performances. His last big hit of the 1940s was as Thomas Mendip in The Lady's Not for Burning , which he also directed. The London cast included
13912-413: The poetry far better than Mr Olivier ... Yet – I must out with it – the fire of Mr Olivier's passion carried the play along as Mr Gielgud's doesn't quite. Herbert Farjeon on the rival Romeos. The following year Gielgud staged perhaps his most famous Shakespeare production, a Romeo and Juliet in which he co-starred with Ashcroft and Olivier. Gielgud had spotted Olivier's potential and gave him
14060-848: The poetry. The friendship between the two men was prickly, on Olivier's side, for the rest of his life. In May 1936 Gielgud played Trigorin in The Seagull , with Evans as Arkadina and Ashcroft as Nina. Komisarjevsky directed, which made rehearsals difficult as Ashcroft, with whom he had been living, had just left him. Nonetheless, Morley writes, the critical reception was ecstatic. In the same year Gielgud made his last pre-war film, co-starring with Madeleine Carroll in Alfred Hitchcock 's Secret Agent . The director's insensitivity to actors made Gielgud nervous and further increased his dislike of filming. The two stars were praised for their performances, but Hitchcock's "preoccupation with incident"
14208-577: The point of paralysis", though blaming the director more than the star. Richardson's third and final role in the Stratford season, Volpone in Ben Jonson 's play, received much better, but not ecstatic, notices. He did not play at Stratford again. Back in the West End, Richardson was in another Sherriff play, The White Carnation , in 1953, and in November of the same year he and Gielgud starred together in N. C. Hunter 's A Day by
14356-399: The position of understudy, with a guarantee that he would take over the lead from Coward when the latter, who disliked playing in long runs, left. In the event Coward, who had been overworking, suffered a nervous collapse three weeks after the opening night, and Gielgud played the lead for the rest of the run. The play ran for nearly a year in London and then went on tour. By this time Gielgud
14504-642: The process. The role he most enjoyed was Trofimov in The Cherry Orchard , his first experience of Chekhov : "It was the first time I ever went out on stage feeling that perhaps, after all, I could really be an actor." Between Gielgud's first two Oxford seasons, the producer Barry Jackson cast him as Romeo to the Juliet of Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies at the Regent's Theatre, London, in May 1924. The production
14652-421: The provinces, with Sybil Thorndike at its head. By 1944, with the tide of the war turning, Guthrie felt it time to re-establish the company in a London base, and invited Richardson to head it. Richardson made two stipulations: first, as he was unwilling to seek his own release from the forces, the governing board of the Old Vic should explain to the authorities why it should be granted; secondly, that he should share
14800-402: The public, the critics or the acting profession. Sybil Thorndike said, "I never hoped to see Hamlet played as in one's dreams ... I've had an evening of being swept right off my feet into another life – far more real than the life I live in, and moved, moved beyond words." The production gained such a reputation that the Old Vic began to attract large numbers of West End theatregoers. Demand
14948-403: The rare distinction of winning an Oscar, an Emmy, a Grammy, and a Tony . He was famous from the start of his career for his voice and his mastery of Shakespearean verse. He broadcast more than a hundred radio and television dramas between 1929 and 1994, and made commercial recordings of many plays, including ten of Shakespeare's and three recordings from his own "Ages of Man". Among his honours, he
15096-507: The relaxed attitude there to homosexuality. Returning to London later in 1953 Gielgud took over management of the Lyric, Hammersmith, for a classical season of Richard II , Congreve's The Way of the World , and Thomas Otway 's Venice Preserv'd , directing the first, acting in the last, and doing both in the second. Feeling he was too old for Richard, he cast the young Paul Scofield ; both
15244-697: The run of Yellow Sands in March 1928 and rejoined Ayliff, playing Pygmalion in Back to Methuselah at the Royal Court Theatre ; also in the cast was a former colleague from the Birmingham Repertory, Laurence Olivier . The critics began to notice Richardson and he gained some favourable reviews. As Tranio in Ayliff's modern-dress production of The Taming of the Shrew , Richardson played
15392-752: The same reason, in O'Connor's view, that he never attempted the title roles in Hamlet or King Lear . Richardson made his television debut in January 1939, reprising his 1936 stage role of the chief engineer in Bees on the Boatdeck . His last stage part in the 1930s was Robert Johnson, an Everyman figure, in Priestley's Johnson Over Jordan directed by Basil Dean . It was an experimental piece, using music (by Benjamin Britten ) and dance as well as dialogue, and
15540-627: The same year Noël Coward chose Gielgud as his understudy in his play The Vortex . For the last month of the West End run Gielgud took over Coward's role of Nicky Lancaster, the drug-addicted son of a nymphomaniac mother. It was in Gielgud's words "a highly-strung, nervous, hysterical part which depended a lot upon emotion". He found it tiring to play because he had not yet learned how to pace himself, but he thought it "a thrilling engagement because it led to so many great things afterwards". The success of The Cherry Orchard led to what one critic called
15688-452: The school. In class, he hated mathematics, was fair at classics , and excelled at English and divinity . Hillside encouraged his interest in drama, and he played several leading roles in school productions, including Mark Antony in Julius Caesar and Shylock in The Merchant of Venice . After Hillside, Lewis and Val had won scholarships to Eton and Rugby , respectively; lacking their academic achievement, John failed to secure such
15836-596: The season as King Lear . His performance divided opinion. The Times commented, "It is a mountain of a part, and at the end of the evening the peak remains unscaled"; in The Manchester Guardian , however, Brown wrote that Gielgud "is a match for the thunder, and at length takes the Dover road with a broken tranquillity that allowed every word of the King's agony to be clear as well as poignant". Returning to
15984-730: The season in walk-on parts in King Lear , Wat Tyler and Peer Gynt , with no lines. If your great-aunt happens to be Ellen Terry, your great-uncle Fred Terry, your cousins Gordon Craig and Phyllis Neilson-Terry, and your grandmother the greatest Shakespearean actress in all Lithuania, you are hardly likely to drift into the fish trade. Gielgud on his theatrical background. Gielgud's first substantial engagement came through his family. In 1922 his cousin Phyllis Neilson-Terry invited him to tour in J. B. Fagan 's The Wheel as understudy , bit-part player and assistant stage manager, an invitation he accepted. A colleague, recognising that
16132-526: The season to renewed praise. Richardson returned to the Malvern Festival in August 1932. He was in four plays, the last of which, Bernard Shaw 's Too True to Be Good , transferred to the New Theatre in London the following month. The play was not liked by audiences and ran for only forty-seven performances, but Richardson, in Agate's phrase, "ran away with the piece", and established himself as
16280-544: The stage dynasty that included Ellen , Fred and Marion Terry , Mabel Terry-Lewis and Edith and Edward Gordon Craig . Frank had no theatrical ambitions and worked all his life as a stockbroker in the City of London . In 1912, aged eight, Gielgud went to Hillside preparatory school in Surrey as his elder brothers had done. For a child with no interest in sport he acquitted himself reasonably well in cricket and rugby for
16428-534: The three men remained on excellent terms. In September of the same year Gielgud appeared in Dodie Smith 's sentimental comedy Dear Octopus . The following year he directed and appeared in The Importance of Being Earnest at the Globe , with Evans playing Lady Bracknell for the first time. They were gratified when Allan Aynesworth , who had played Algernon in the 1895 premiere, said that the new production "caught
16576-410: The title role. During the run of Cyrano , Richardson was knighted in the 1947 New Year Honours , to Olivier's undisguised envy. The younger man received the accolade six months later, by which time the days of the triumvirate were numbered. The high profile of the two star actors did not endear them to the new chairman of the Old Vic governors, Lord Esher . He had ambitions to be the first head of
16724-416: The tongue (he called them "Gielgoofs"), in a speech after the final performance he referred to Ashcroft and Evans as "Two leading ladies, the like of whom I hope I shall never meet again". During the rest of 1932 Gielgud played in a new piece, Musical Chairs by Ronald Mackenzie, and directed one new and one classic play, Strange Orchestra by Rodney Ackland in the West End, and The Merchant of Venice at
16872-539: The urge to act in a modern work. He left Doran in 1923 and toured in a new play, Outward Bound by Sutton Vane . He returned to the classics in August 1924, in Nigel Playfair 's touring production of The Way of the World , playing Fainall. While on that tour he married Muriel Hewitt, a young member of Doran's company, known to him as "Kit". To his great happiness, the two were able to work together for most of 1925, both being engaged by Sir Barry Jackson of
17020-401: The warrior Hotspur in the first and the doddering Justice Shallow in the second. He received good notices, but by general consent the production belonged to Richardson as Falstaff. Agate wrote, "He had everything the part wants – the exuberance, the mischief, the gusto. ... Here is something better than virtuosity in character-acting – the spirit of the part shining through the actor." As
17168-482: The wrong people as well as engaging in pranks that alarmed his superiors. His paternal grandmother died and left him £500, which, he later said, transformed his life. He resigned from the office post, just in time to avoid being dismissed, and enrolled at the Brighton School of Art . His studies there convinced him that he lacked creativity, and that his drawing skills were not good enough. Richardson left
17316-520: The year her condition worsened and in October she died. He was intensely lonely, though the camaraderie of naval life was some comfort. In 1944 he married again. His second wife was the actress Meriel Forbes , a member of the Forbes-Robertson theatrical family. The marriage brought him lifelong happiness and a son, Charles (1945–98), who became a television stage manager. During the war Richardson compered occasional morale-boosting shows at
17464-774: The young Claire Bloom and Richard Burton , who went with Gielgud when he took the piece to the US the following year. At the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre , Stratford-upon-Avon , Gielgud did much to reclaim his position as a leading Shakespearean. His cold, unsympathetic Angelo in Peter Brook 's production of Measure for Measure (1950) showed the public a new, naturalistic manner in his playing. He followed this with three other Shakespeare productions with Brook, which were well received. His own attempt at direction in Stratford, for Richardson's Macbeth in 1952,
17612-408: The young West End star John Gielgud to lead the drama company. For the following season Williams wanted Richardson to join, with a view to succeeding Gielgud from 1931 to 1932. Richardson agreed, though he was not sure of his own suitability for a mainly Shakespearean repertoire, and was not enthusiastic about working with Gielgud: "I found his clothes extravagant, I found his conversation flippant. He
17760-413: The young man had talent but lacked technique, recommended him to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). Gielgud was awarded a scholarship to the academy and trained there throughout 1923 under Kenneth Barnes , Helen Haye and Claude Rains . The actor-manager Nigel Playfair , a friend of Gielgud's family, saw him in a student presentation of J. M. Barrie 's The Admirable Crichton . Playfair
17908-596: Was knighted in 1953 and the Gielgud Theatre was named after him in 1994. From 1977 to 1989, he was president of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Gielgud was born on 14 April 1904 in South Kensington , London, the third of the four children of Frank Henry Gielgud and his second wife, Kate Terry-Gielgud, née Terry-Lewis. Gielgud's elder brothers were Lewis , who became a senior official of
18056-881: Was a very gloomy sort of boy", and "I found his clothes extravagant, I found his conversation flippant. He was the New Young Man of his time and I didn't like him." The first production of the season was Henry IV, Part 1 , in which Gielgud as Hotspur had the best of the reviews. Richardson's notices, and the relationship of the two leading men, improved markedly when Gielgud, who was playing Prospero in The Tempest , helped Richardson with his performance as Caliban : He gave me about two hundred ideas, as he usually does, twenty-five of which I eagerly seized on, and when I went away I thought, "This chap, you know, I don't like him very much but by God he knows something about this here play." ... And then out of that we formed
18204-527: Was another production in which Richardson was widely praised but that did not prosper at the box-office. After it closed, in May 1939, he did not act on stage for more than five years. At the outbreak of war Richardson joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve as a sub-lieutenant pilot. He had taken flying lessons during the 1930s and had logged 200 hours of flying time, but, though a notoriously reckless driver, he admitted to being
18352-507: Was celebrated for his recent film of Henry V , and with Richardson (and John Burrell in Gielgud's stead) was making the Old Vic "the most famous theatre in the Anglo-Saxon world" according to the critic Harold Hobson . In late 1945 and early 1946 Gielgud toured for ENSA in the Middle and Far East with Hamlet and Coward's Blithe Spirit . During this tour he played Hamlet on stage for
18500-500: Was comfortable but unexciting, he saw no future in a film career, and the Old Vic could not afford to stage the classics on the large scale to which he aspired. He decided that he must form his own company to play Shakespeare and other classic plays in the West End. Gielgud invested £5,000, most of his earnings from the American Hamlet ; Perry, who had family money, put in the same sum. From September 1937 to April 1938 Gielgud
18648-538: Was earning enough to leave the family home and take a small flat in the West End. He had his first serious romantic relationship, living with John Perry, an unsuccessful actor, later a writer, who remained a lifelong friend after their affair ended. Morley makes the point that, like Coward, Gielgud's principal passion was the stage; both men had casual dalliances, but were more comfortable with "low-maintenance" long-term partners who did not impede their theatrical work and ambitions. In 1928 Gielgud made his Broadway debut as
18796-459: Was elusive. In 1926 the producer Basil Dean offered Gielgud the lead role, Lewis Dodd, in a dramatisation of Margaret Kennedy 's best-selling novel, The Constant Nymph . Before rehearsals began Dean found that a bigger star than Gielgud was available, namely Coward, to whom he gave the part. Gielgud had an enforceable contractual claim to the role, but Dean, a notorious bully, was a powerful force in British theatre. Intimidated, Gielgud accepted
18944-519: Was felt by critics to make the leading roles one-dimensional, and the laurels went to Peter Lorre as Gielgud's deranged assistant. From September 1936 to February 1937 Gielgud played Hamlet in North America, opening in Toronto before moving to New York and Boston. He was nervous about starring on Broadway for the first time, particularly as it became known that the popular actor Leslie Howard
19092-554: Was impressed and cast him as Felix, the poet-butterfly, in the British premiere of the Čapek brothers' The Insect Play . Gielgud later said that he made a poor impression in the part: "I am surprised that the audience did not throw things at me." The critics were cautious but not hostile to the play; it did not attract the public and closed after a month. While still continuing his studies at RADA, Gielgud appeared again for Playfair in Robert E Lee by John Drinkwater . After leaving
19240-615: Was in Silver Wings in the West End and on tour. It was not a personal triumph; the director's final injunction to the company was, "For God's sake don't let Richardson sing". In May 1930 Richardson was given the role of Roderigo in Othello in what seemed likely to be a prestigious production, with Paul Robeson in the title role. The biographer Ronald Hayman writes that though a fine singer, "Robeson had no ear for blank verse" and even Peggy Ashcroft 's superb performance as Desdemona
19388-569: Was left of the legacy from his grandmother, Richardson determined to learn to act. He paid a local theatrical manager, Frank R. Growcott, ten shillings a week to take him as a member of his company and to teach him the craft of an actor. He made his stage debut in December 1920 with Growcott's St Nicholas Players at the St Nicholas Hall, Brighton, a converted bacon factory. He played a gendarme in an adaptation of Les Misérables and
19536-411: Was light-hearted. Together with Harley Granville-Barker and Guthrie he reopened the Old Vic with Shakespeare. His King Lear once again divided the critics, but his Prospero was a considerable success. He played the role quite differently from his attempt on the same stage in 1930: in place of the "manic conjurer" his Prospero was "very far from the usual mixture of Father Christmas, a Colonial Bishop, and
19684-637: Was much less successful, with poor notices for the star and worse ones for the director. In 1953 Gielgud made his first Hollywood film, the sole classical actor in Joseph L. Mankiewicz 's Julius Caesar , playing Cassius . Marlon Brando (Mark Antony) was in awe of him, and James Mason (Brutus) was disheartened at Gielgud's seemingly effortless skill. Gielgud, for his part, felt he learned much about film technique from Mason. Gielgud enjoyed his four-month stay in California, not least, as Morley comments, for
19832-743: Was not a great success, but the two performers became close friends and frequently worked together throughout their careers. Gielgud made his screen debut during 1924 as Daniel Arnault in Walter Summers 's silent film Who Is the Man? (1924). In May 1925 the Oxford production of The Cherry Orchard was brought to the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith . Gielgud again played Trofimov. His distinctive speaking voice attracted attention and led to work for BBC Radio , which his biographer Sheridan Morley calls "a medium he made his own for seventy years". In
19980-633: Was not enough to save the production from failure. Ashcroft's notices were laudatory, while Richardson's were mixed; they admired each other and worked together frequently during the next four decades. In 1930 Richardson, with some misgivings, accepted an invitation to join The Old Vic company. The theatre, in an unfashionable location south of the Thames , had offered inexpensive tickets for opera and drama under its proprietor Lilian Baylis since 1912. Its profile had been raised considerably by Baylis's producer, Harcourt Williams , who in 1929 persuaded
20128-416: Was not known for his portrayal of the great tragic roles in the classics, preferring character parts in old and new plays. Richardson's film career began as an extra in 1931. He was soon cast in leading roles in British and American films including Things to Come (1936), The Fallen Idol (1948), Long Day's Journey into Night (1962) and Doctor Zhivago (1965). He received nominations and awards in
20276-608: Was not the first West End star to take a large pay cut to work there. It was, in Morley's words, the place to learn Shakespearean technique and try new ideas. During his first season at the Old Vic, Gielgud played Romeo to the Juliet of Adele Dixon , Antonio in The Merchant of Venice , Cleante in The Imaginary Invalid , the title role in Richard II , and Oberon in A Midsummer Night's Dream . His Romeo
20424-551: Was not well reviewed, but as Richard II Gielgud was recognised by critics as a Shakespearean actor of undoubted authority. The reviewer in The Times commented on his sensitiveness, strength and firmness, and called his performance "work of genuine distinction, not only in its grasp of character, but in its control of language". Later in the season he was cast as Mark Antony in Julius Caesar , Orlando in As You Like It ,
20572-642: Was often seen as detached from conventional ways of looking at the world, and his acting was regularly described as poetic or magical. Richardson was born in Cheltenham , Gloucestershire, the third son and youngest child of Arthur Richardson and his wife Lydia ( née Russell ) on 19 December 1902. The couple had met while both were in Paris, studying with the painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau . Arthur Richardson had been senior art master at Cheltenham Ladies' College from 1893. She eloped with me, then aged four. Richardson on his mother's breakup of
20720-462: Was recruited in his place. Matters improved astonishingly; the production was a complete success and ran in London for 644 performances. After one long run in The Heiress , Richardson appeared in another, R. C. Sherriff 's Home at Seven , in 1950. He played an amnesiac bank clerk who fears he may have committed murder. He later recreated the part in a radio broadcast, and in
20868-510: Was so great that the cast moved to the Queen's Theatre , in Shaftesbury Avenue , where Williams staged the piece with the text discreetly shortened. The effect of the cuts was to give the title role even more prominence. Gielgud's Hamlet was richly praised by the critics. Ivor Brown called it "a tremendous performance ... the best Hamlet of [my] experience". James Agate wrote, "I have no hesitation whatsoever in saying that it
21016-522: Was soon entrusted with larger parts, including Banquo in Macbeth and Malvolio in Twelfth Night . The heyday of the touring actor-manager was nearing its end but some companies still flourished. As well as Benson's, there were those of Sir John Martin-Harvey , Ben Greet , and, only slightly less prestigious, Charles Doran . Richardson wrote to all four managers: the first two did not reply; Greet saw him but had no vacancy; Doran engaged him, at
21164-769: Was the New Young Man of his time and I didn't like him." The first production of the season was Henry IV, Part 1 , with Gielgud as Hotspur and Richardson as Prince Hal; the latter was thought by The Daily Telegraph "vivacious, but a figure of modern comedy rather than Shakespeare." Richardson's notices, and the relationship of the two leading men, improved markedly when Gielgud, who was playing Prospero , helped Richardson with his performance as Caliban in The Tempest : He gave me about two hundred ideas, as he usually does, twenty-five of which I eagerly seized on, and when I went away I thought, "This chap, you know, I don't like him very much but by God he knows something about this here play." ... And then out of that we formed
21312-545: Was the tenant of the Queen's Theatre, where he presented a season consisting of Richard II , The School for Scandal , Three Sisters , and The Merchant of Venice . His company included Harry Andrews , Peggy Ashcroft, Glen Byam Shaw , George Devine, Michael Redgrave and Harcourt Williams, with Angela Baddeley and Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies as guests. His own roles were King Richard, Joseph Surface, Vershinin and Shylock. Gielgud's performances drew superlatives from reviewers and colleagues. Agate considered his Richard II, "probably
21460-536: Was to appear there in a rival production of the play. When Gielgud opened at the Empire Theatre in October the reviews were mixed, but, as the actor wrote to his mother, the audience response was extraordinary. "They stay at the end and shout every night and the stage door is beset by fans." Howard's production opened in November; it was, in Gielgud's words, a débâcle, and the "battle of the Hamlets" heralded in
21608-483: Was to be mounted at the Haymarket Theatre in the West End , Richardson and his wife were both cast in good roles. The play opened in November 1926 and ran until September 1928; with 610 performances it was the longest London run of Richardson's entire career. During the run Muriel Hewitt began to show early symptoms of encephalitis lethargica , a progressive and ultimately fatal illness. Richardson left
21756-542: Was too lazy to be a painter ... I hadn't the persistency – but then I hadn't got very much talent. Richardson on his time at art school In 1919, aged sixteen, Richardson took a post as office boy with the Brighton branch of the Liverpool Victoria insurance company. The pay, ten shillings a week, was attractive, but office life was not; he lacked concentration, frequently posting documents to
21904-405: Was willing to co-operate, but Richardson was not; audiences and most critics failed to spot the supposed motivation of Olivier's Iago, and Richardson's Othello seemed underpowered. O'Connor believes that Richardson did not succeed with Othello or Macbeth because of the characters' single-minded "blind driving passion – too extreme, too inhuman", which was incomprehensible and alien to him. It was for
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