John Gielgud Pics

Sir John

Gielgud

14 April 1904

71

South Kensington, London

Aries

21 May 2000

Wotton Underwood, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire

Natural causes

White

Male

British

Average

Grey

Arthur

Sir Arthur John Gielgud, OM, CH (pronounced 14 April 1904 – 21 May 2000) was an English actor, director, and producer. A descendant of the renowned Terry acting family, he achieved early international acclaim for his youthful, emotionally expressive Hamlet which broke box office records on Broadway in 1937. He was known for his beautiful speaking of verse and particularly for his warm and expressive voice, which his colleague Sir Alec Guinness likened to "a silver trumpet muffled in silk". Gielgud is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Award.

Sir Arthur John Gielgud, OM, CH (14 April 1904 – 21 May 2000), known as Sir John Gielgud, was an English theatre and film actor particularly known for his warm expressive voice, which his colleague Sir Alec Guinness likened to "a silver trumpet muffled in silk."Gielgud is a member of the short list of entertainers with the distinction of having won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony award. In addition to Hamlet which he played over 500 times in six productions, he gave what some consider definitive performances in The Tempest (as Prospero) in four productions (and in the 1991 film Prospero`s Books), as well as in other roles - Richard II in three productions, Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing which he first played in 1930 and revived throughout the 1950s, Macbeth and Oberon in A Midsummer Night`s Dream twice, Romeo three times, and King Lear four times (as well as taking on the part for a final time in a radio broadcast at the age of 90). He also had triumphs as Malvolio in Twelfth Night (1931), Shylock in The Merchant of Venice (1937), Angelo in Measure for Measure (1950), Cassius in Julius Caesar (1950) (which he immortalized in the 1953 film), Leontes in The Winter`s Tale (1951), and Cardinal Wolsey in Henry VIII (1959) (although his 1960 performance as Othello was not a success). It became rumored that Gielgud also provided the voice for the uncredited role of the Ghost of Hamlet`s Father in Laurence Olivier`s 1948 film version, but the voice was actually that of Olivier, electronically distorted. Gielgud did voice the Ghost in both the stage and film version of the Richard Burton Hamlet, which he directed in 1964, and in the 1970 Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation starring Richard Chamberlain. Although he began to appear in British films as early as 1924, making his debut in the silent movie Who Is the Man?, he would not make an impact in the medium until the last decades of his life. His early film roles were sporadic and included the lead in Alfred Hitchcock`s Secret Agent (1936), Benjamin Disraeli in The Prime Minister (1940), Cassius in Julius Caesar (1953) (BAFTA Award for Best British Actor), George, Duke of Clarence to Olivier`s Richard III (1955), and Henry IV to Orson Welles` Falstaff in Chimes at Midnight (1966). A brief glimpse of his Hamlet from the gravediggers scene appears in the Humphrey Jennings short A Diary for Timothy (1945). But he lost his aversion to filming in the late 1960s, and by the 1980s and 1990s he had thrown himself into the medium with a vengeance, so much so that it was jokingly said that he was prepared to do almost anything for his art. He won an Academy Award for his supporting role as a sardonic butler in the 1981 comedy Arthur, starring Dudley Moore and Liza Minnelli, a New York Film Critics Circle Award for Providence (1977), and a BAFTA Award for Murder on the Orient Express (1974), and his performances in The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968), The Elephant Man (1981), and Shine (1996) were critically acclaimed. In 1991, Gielgud was able to satisfy his life`s ambition by immortalizing his Prospero on screen in Peter Greenaway`s extremely offbeat version of The Tempest, a film called Prospero`s Books in which Gielgud voiced every single character in the play. Gielgud lived and thrived in an era when there was a conspiracy of silence around homosexuality outside of theatrical circles. And so, not too long after he was knighted, Gielgud endured a horrific humiliation. In 1953, Gielgud was convicted of "persistently importuning for immoral purposes" (cottaging) in a Chelsea mews, i.e., he was arrested for trying to pick up a man in a public lavatory. There was much discussion behind closed doors about whether his career could endure the ignominy, but he continued to rehearse the play in which he was scheduled to direct and act. Instead of being rejected by the public, he received a standing ovation at the play`s initial opening in Liverpool. Longtime partner Martin Hensler died just a few months before Gielgud`s own death in 2000 (Morley 2002, p. 23). He publicly acknowledged Hensler as his partner only in 1988, in the programme notes for The Best of Friends, which was his final stage performance. Gielgud would avoid Hollywood for over a decade for fear of being denied entry because of the arrest. John Gielgud was cremated at Oxford Crematorium.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gielgud

Westminster School, London, UK

Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts

Sir John Gielgud

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Actor/Actress, Director, Other Crew

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Alfred Lunt, Lynn Fontane, Burgess Meredith, Ruth Gordon, Helen Hayes, Gloria Swanson, Dorothy Parker, Elsa Maxwell, Thorton Wilder, Rosamund Gilder

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