John Gielgud |
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Career Highlights |
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Actor Credits
Other InformationAwardsOutstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie Emmy Awards [1991] (Won/Nominated: won) Outstanding Lead Actor in a miniseries or Special Emmy Awards [1989] (Won/Nominated: nominated) Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Special Emmy Awards [1985] (Won/Nominated: nominated) Laurence Olivier Awards OTHER [1985] (Won/Nominated: won) Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Special Emmy Awards [1984] (Won/Nominated: nominated) Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Special Emmy Awards [1982] (Won/Nominated: nominated) Best Supporting Actor Academy Awards [1981] (Won/Nominated: won) Best Supporting Actor Academy Awards [1964] (Won/Nominated: nominated) |
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John Gielgud Biography |
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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.
Career Arthur John Gielgud was born in South Kensington in London to a Protestant mother, Kate Terry, and a Catholic father, Frank Gielgud, and was raised a Protestant. Gielgud had a head start in the theatrical profession, being a great nephew of Dame Ellen Terry. His elder brother was Val Gielgud who was a pioneering influence in BBC Radio. His niece is Maina Gielgud, dancer and one time artistic director of The Australian Ballet and the Royal Danish Ballet. Early stage After Westminster School, where he gained a King`s Scholarship, Gielgud trained at RADA and had his initial success as a stage actor in classical roles, first winning stardom during a successful two seasons at the Old Vic Theatre from 1929 to 1931 where his performances as Richard II and Hamlet were particularly acclaimed, the latter being the first Old Vic production to be transferred to the West End for a run. He returned to the role of Hamlet in a famous production under his own direction in 1934 at the New Theatre in the West End, was hailed as a Broadway star in Guthrie McClintic`s production in which Lillian Gish played Ophelia in 1936 (and which was assisted by a rival staging starring Leslie Howard that opened shortly afterwards and failed badly by comparison), a 1939 production that Gielgud again directed that was the last play performed at Henry Irving`s Orpheum Theatre and was later taken to Elsinore Castle in Denmark (the actual setting of the play), a 1944 production directed by George Rylands and finally a 1945 production that toured the Far East under Gielgud`s own direction. In his later years, Gielgud would play the Ghost of Hamlet`s Father in productions of the play, first to Richard Burton`s Melancholy Dane on the Broadway stage which Gielgud directed in 1964, and then on television with Richard Chamberlain and finally in a radio production starring Gielgud`s protégé Kenneth Branagh. Gielgud had triumphs in many other plays, notably his greatest popular success Richard of Bordeaux (1933) (a romantic version of the story of Richard II), The Importance of Being Earnest which he first performed at the Lyric Hammersmith in 1930 and would remain in his repertory until 1947, and a legendary production of Romeo and Juliet (1935) which Gielgud directed and alternated the roles of Romeo and Mercutio with a young Laurence Olivier in his first professional Shakespearean leading role. Olivier`s performance won him an engagement as the leading man of the Old Vic Theatre the following season starting his career as a classical actor, but he was said to have resented Gielgud`s direction and developed a wary relationship with Gielgud which resulted in Olivier turning down Gielgud`s request to play the Chorus in Olivier`s film of Henry V and later doing his best to block Gielgud from appearing at the Royal National Theatre when Olivier was its director. Queen`s Theatre season Gielgud had hoped to stay in America after his Broadway performance as Hamlet in 1936 to play Richard II in New York, but director Guthrie McClintic was |
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Trivia |
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BiographyFriends and FamilyRosamund Gilder [Friend] :: Thorton Wilder [Friend] :: Elsa Maxwell [Friend] :: Dorothy Parker [Friend] :: Gloria Swanson [Friend] :: Helen Hayes [Friend] :: Ruth Gordon [Friend] :: Burgess Meredith [Friend] :: Lynn Fontane [Friend] :: Alfred Lunt [Friend]Trivia and QuotesQuotes [At age 84] When you`re my age, you just never risk being ill - because then everyone says, "Oh, he`s done for". [on Peggy Ashcroft] I`m absolutely devoted to her. People can`t behave badly when she`s around. She has such integrity. [During an interview on US television the interviewer asked who had inspired him] It was during my time at RADA, there was a man who inspired us all. Claude Rains. I don`t know what happened to him, I think he failed and went to America. Like all professions, acting has terrible drawbacks. It can be fearfully boring, fearfully unglamorous . . . but what is fun about the theatre is that we get our prizes while we are alive to enjoy them. We have the pleasure of the audience`s reaction, we have the applause, we have the publicity, we have the tribute and the honors and whatever it may be. Much more than we probably deserve. [on Claude Rains] He was a great influence on me. I don`t know what happened to him. I think he failed and went to America. [on James Mason] He was a punctilious man, beautifully mannered, quiet, generous and amusing. I never heard him say a vicious or bitter thing about anything or anyone. If one watches television enough, one begins to perceive the texture with which it`s contrived. [to Richard Burton on seeing Burton`s first "Hamlet"] I`ll come back and see it when you`re better. [on reading bad reviews] It`s wonderful when it isn`t you. The only thing I liked about films was looking at the back of my head, which otherwise I could only see at the tailor`s. [on Ralph Richardson] Ralph is a remarkable man, shrewd, observant, warm and generous-hearted, once you get to know him. He is also reserved and cautious, never making a swift decision about anything. The joke is that people think of me as an intellectual actor. Yet I have always trusted almost entirely to observation, emotion and instinct. Acting is half shame, half glory. Shame at exhibiting yourself, glory when you can forget yourself.Trivia Archive footage of Gielgud as Hamlet appears briefly on the computer screen of Ethan Hawke as Hamlet (2000) in the year 2000 version of Shakespeare's play. The role is considered the summit for a tragedian, and Gielgud was the most celebrated Hamlet of the 20th century, surpassing even John Barrymore, Laurence Olivier and Richard Burton in acclaim for his stage portrayal of the melancholy Dane. His career spanned 76 years. Actor William Redfield, who appeared as Guildernstern in the Gielgud-directed stage version of Richard Burton's "Hamlet" (a filmed version of the stage production was released in 1964, as Hamlet (1964/I)) wrote in his 1967 memoir of the event, "Notes of an Actor", that Gielgud had an encyclopedia knowledge of the play and could play any and all parts of it from memory for his cast as he directed the production. All his Oscar and Emmy nominations were received during the latter part of his career, after he had turned sixty. He was awarded the 1982 London Evening Theatre Award's Special Award for lifetime achievement to the theatre. Has been called arguably the century's greatest "Hamlet". Gielgud stated in his autobiography that he wanted desperately to be cast as The Chorus in Laurence Olivier's film The Chronicle History of King Henry the Fift with His Battell Fought at Agincourt in France (1944). He understood why Olivier did not cast him, as when the two had acted together in Shakespearean repertory in the mid-'30s, Gielgud got the better notices. Blessed with a beautiful voice, Gielgud played Shakespeare traditionally, a style Olivier thought of as too close to song as compared to his own revolutionary colloquial style. When Olivier was more secure, he did cast Gielgud as Clarence in Richard III (1955). In 1936, he and Leslie Howard appeared on Broadway in "rival" productions of "Hamlet". Gielgud's was the more successful of the two. Made member of 'Order of Merit' by Queen Elizabeth II for exeptional contributions to arts. [December 1996] Appeared with Laurence Olivier in a 1935 production of "Romeo and Juliet" in which he and Olivier alternated the roles of Romeo and Mercutio. Gielgud got the better reviews in the lead as Romeo, which spurred Olivier on to become a better actor. He once playfully quipped, "Ingrid Bergman is fluent in five languages. And she can't act in any of them." As of June 2006, he is one of only nine people ever to win an Oscar, a Grammy, an Emmy and a Tony. He provided the voice of King Arthur in Dragonheart (1996), played King Constant, King Arthur's grandfather, in Merlin (1998/II) (TV) and provided the voice of Merlin in Quest for Camelot (1998). Laurence Olivier, acknowledging Gielgud's mastery of Shakespeare's verse (though he criticized him for making it too much like song), said that Gielgud was possessed of a voice "that wooed the world". Three-time Tony winner, Gielgud graced the Broadway boards as a live performer 15 times between 1928 and 1976, yet never won an acting Tony Award. He was nominated twice for Best Actor (Dramatic): Edward Albee's "Tiny Alice" and in 1971 for David Storey's "Home." It was as a director that he was honored, with the 1961 Tony as Best Director (Dramatic) for "Big Fish, Little Fish." Directing a total of 15 Broadway productions starring himself or others, he also was nominated as Best Director (Dramatic) in 1963 for Richard B. Sheridan's "The School for Scandal." He won two other Tonys, a 1959 Special Award "for his contribution to theatre for his extraordinary insight into the writings of Shakespeare as demonstrated in his one-man play, 'Ages of Man'," and shared in a 1948 award for Oustanding Foreign Company for Oscar Wilde 's "The Importance of Being Earnest," which he produced, directed and starred in. Longtime lover Martin Hensler, 30 years younger, died. [1999] Uncle of dancer Maina Gielgud . He believed that animals should not be exploited. He was particularly fond of birds and joined PETA's campaign against the foie gras industry in the early 1990s, narrating PETA's video exposé of the force-feeding of geese and ducks. Many chefs and restaurateurs who saw that video dropped foie gras from their menus. Sir John received PETA's Humanitarian of the Year Award twice, in 1994 and 1999. Great-uncle of dancer and movie choreographer Piers Gielgud. Won a Tony in 1961 for Best Director of a Play for "Big Fish, Little Fish". Knighted in 1953 and appointed a Companion of Honour in 1977. He was awarded the Laurence Olivier Theatre Special Award in 1986 (1985 season) for lifetime achievement to theatre. Great nephew of celebrated stage actress Ellen Terry. Died the same day as Barbara Cartland. | ||
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