The Counts Gielgud had owned the Gelgaudiškis Manor on the Nemunas river, but their estates were confiscated after they took part in a failed uprising against Russian rule in 1830–31. The surname derives from Gelgaudiškis, a village in Lithuania. On his father's side, Gielgud was of Lithuanian and Polish descent. Gielgud's older brothers were Lewis, who became a senior official of the Red Cross and UNESCO, and Val, later head of BBC radio drama his younger sister Eleanor became John's secretary for many years. Gielgud was born on 14 April 1904 in South Kensington, London, the third of the four children of Frank Henry Gielgud (1860–1949) and his second wife, Kate Terry-Gielgud, née Terry-Lewis (1868–1958). Life and career Background and early years From 1977 to 1989, he was president of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Among his honours, he was knighted in 1953 and the Gielgud Theatre was named after him in 1994. He broadcast more than a hundred radio and television dramas between 19, and made commercial recordings of many plays, including ten of Shakespeare's. He was famous from the start of his career for his voice and his mastery of Shakespearean verse. His film work further earned him a Golden Globe Award and two BAFTAs.Īlthough largely indifferent to awards, Gielgud had the rare distinction of winning an Oscar, an Emmy, a Grammy, and a Tony. As the acid-tongued Hobson in Arthur (1981) he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. 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). Though he made his first film in 1924, and had successes with The Good Companions (1933) and Julius Caesar (1953), he did not begin a regular film career until his sixties. From the late 1960s he found new plays that suited him, by authors including Alan Bennett, David Storey and Harold Pinter.ĭuring the first half of his career Gielgud did not take the cinema seriously. When avant-garde plays began to supersede traditional West End productions in 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. 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. 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. He began a parallel career as a director, and set up his own company at the Queen's Theatre, London. 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.ĭuring the 1930s Gielgud was a stage star in the West End and on Broadway, appearing in new works and classics. A member of the Terry family theatrical dynasty, he gained his first paid acting work as a junior member of his cousin Phyllis Neilson-Terry's company in 1922. 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. Sir Arthur John Gielgud, OM, CH ( / ˈ ɡ iː l ɡ ʊ d/ 14 April 1904 – ) was an English actor and theatre director whose career spanned eight decades. Gielgud as Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing, 1959 I forget his name the actor who played Caeser but he was rubbish, failed to Capture any of Caesers traits and was simple poor at his role.English actor and theatre director (1904–2000) The most disappointing Caeser i've seen in a while was on the BBC's docu-drama Ancient Rome: Rise and Fall of an Empire. Its a pity he can't continue to amaze us in the second season of Rome. Timothy DaltonCiaran "Caeser" Hinds is by far the best Julius Caeser i've ever seen. WHO DO YOU THINK WAS THE BEST RANK THEM top 5 - HERE ARE MINE.ĥ. Klaus Maria Brandauer – Druids / Vercingetorix Jeremy Sisto – Julius Caesar TVġ5.ěarry Jones – The Spread of the Eagle ġ9.Ĝlaude Rains – Caesar and Cleopatra Ģ0.
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