Gielgud, Sir (Arthur) John (1904–2000 ), English actor and director, the foremost Shakespearian actor of his day, with a magnificent speaking voice. The grandnephew of Ellen
Terry, he made his first appearance on the stage at the
Old Vic in 1921 as the Herald in
Henry V. In 1924 he became a member of
Fagan's repertory company (see
OXFORD PLAYHOUSE), and in 1925 in London he took over the part of Nicky Lancaster in
Coward's The Vortex from the author, also succeeding Coward as Lewis Dodd in Margaret Kennedy's
The Constant Nymph (1926). After Oswald in
Ibsen's Ghosts (1928) he joined the company at the Old Vic in 1929 to play among other parts Hamlet, his greatest role, which he was eventually to play over 500 times. In 1930 he played another part important in his career— John Worthing in
Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest—and he then returned to the Old Vic. On the reopening of
Sadler's Wells Theatre in 1931 he played Malvolio in
Twelfth Night, and later in that year he appeared in
Priestley's The Good Companions, the following year achieving his first popular success with Gordon Daviot's
Richard of Bordeaux, which he also directed. In 1935 he alternated the parts of Romeo and Mercutio with Laurence
Olivier in a production which he also directed, achieving the longest run on record for this play. He followed it, after a brilliant performance as Trigorin in
Chekhov's The Seagull in 1936, with
Hamlet in New York in the same year, whose 132 consecutive performances broke John
Barrymore's record. In 1937 he took over the
Queen's Theatre, where he headed a distinguished repertory company in which his own roles were Richard II, Joseph Surface in Sheridan's
The School for Scandal, Vershinin in Chekhov's
Three Sisters, and Shylock in
The Merchant of Venice, also directing the first and last plays. Before and after playing Hamlet at the
Lyceum Theatre in 1939 he again appeared in
The Importance of Being Earnest, which he also directed. In a repertory season at the Haymarket (1944–5) he played Oberon in
A Midsummer Night's Dream, Felix in Webster's
The Duchess of Malfi, Hamlet, and Valentine in
Congreve's Love for Love. He gave an outstanding performance as Raskolnikoff in Dostoevsky's
Crime and Punishment (1946; NY, 1947), and then scored another personal triumph as Thomas Mendip in
Fry's The Lady's not for Burning (1949; NY, 1950). His first appearance at the
Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in 1950 was memorable for his Lear, Benedick (in
Much Ado about Nothing), and Angelo (in
Measure for Measure). They were followed by a memorable Leontes in
The Winter's Tale (1951) in the West End and an excellent repertory season at the Lyric, Hammersmith (1952–3), his roles there including Jaffier in
Otway's Venice Preserv'd and Mirabell in Congreve's
The Way of the World; the latter he also directed.
Having played most of the great classic roles, he then turned his attention to modern plays, appearing in N. C.
Hunter's A Day by the Sea (1953) and Coward's
Nude with Violin (1956), both of which he directed, and Graham
Greene's The Potting Shed (1958). In 1957 there was a superb Prospero in
The Tempest at Stratford, and in 1958 an equally impressive Wolsey in
Henry VIII at the Old Vic. In the same year he first presented his Shakespeare recital
Ages of Man in North America, bringing it to London in 1959 and subsequently taking it on extensive world tours. He directed two productions of Chekhov—
The Cherry Orchard (1961), in which he played Gaev, and
Ivanov (1965; NY, 1966), in which he played the title-role—and appeared in new plays, among them
Albee's Tiny Alice (NY, 1964), Alan
Bennett's Forty Years On (1968), Peter
Shaffer's The Battle of Shrivings (1970), and, at the
Royal Court, David
Storey's Home (London and NY, 1970) and Charles
Wood's Veterans (1972). In 1974 he inaugurated Peter
Hall's directorship of the
National Theatre by appearing again as Prospero in
The Tempest, but returned to modern drama with Edward
Bond's Bingo (also 1974), again at the Royal Court. The seedy Spooner in
Pinter's No Man's Land (1975; NY, 1976), also for the National Theatre, was one of his best modern roles. He was seen at the National in 1977 in the title-role of
Julius Caesar and in Julian Mitchell's
Half-Life. After the latter's West End run (1978) he was absent from the stage for 10 years, returning in Hugh Whitemore's
The Best of Friends (1988).
