New in paperback, John Gielgud: Matinee Idol to Movie Star is the most authoritative and comprehensive account of the finest classical actor of the twentieth century. This entertaining but critical biography charts the ups and downs of Gielgud's long and glittering career, from his young ground-breaking Hamlet to his later success in plays by Pinter, Storey, Bond and Bennett, and his recognition as a major movie star following his role in Arthur. It also reassesses his complex relationship with his great rival Laurence Olivier and throws fresh light on his personal relationships and the turbulent episodes of his private life that threatened to shatter his career. For this biography Jonathan Croall's exhaustive research has included over a hundred new interviews with key people from his life and career, including Peter Brook, Kenneth Branagh, Alec Guinness, Joan Plowright and Eileen Atkins, and it draws on several hundred letters to and from Gielgud that have never been published, including correspondences with Noël Coward, Somerset Maugham, Siegfried Sassoon, Edith Evans and Edward Gordon Craig. What emerges is an intimate, complex and often startling portrait of this great actor and much-loved man. Gielgud's interpretations of Shakespeare's great roles made Shakespeare's plays a commercial success on London's West End for the first time. He was also hugely influential as a director and an actor-manager and worked extensively in film and television later in life. Since Jonathan Croall's first biography of Gielgud was published in 2000 a considerable amount of new material has come to light and the result is a much more rounded, candid and richly textured portrait of this celebrated stage and screen actor.
Published to coincide with the centenary of Gielgud's birth, this is the remarkable autobiography of one of the greatest actors of the 20th century, seen through his frank, mesmerizing, and intimate letters. of photos. Line drawings.
... on wearing a false nose (he always used one whenever possible - as Puff, Shallow, and Oedipus, as well as for Richard III and Lear). ... [voix d'or I imagine he meant], Edith Evans as the Nurse quite overbalanced the production.
It was over thirty years ago that John Gielgud wrote Early Stages, a memoir of his informative years and first successes.
John Gielgud: an actor's life
Gielgud Stories: Anecdotes, Sayings and Impressions of Sir John Gielgud
This unique volume brings together two of these for the first time: EARLY STAGES, his classic memoir of childhood, of growing up and taking to the stage, with vivid evocations of his family and the people he knew and worked with, from his ...
Full of startling new material, drawn from many unpublished letters and Jonathan Croall's extensive interviews, the book also celebrates the man who dropped a thousand bricks.
The acclaimed British actor looks back on his long career in the theater and recalls the many great actors and actresses with whom he has worked
John Gielgud's Hamlet: A Record of Performance
They include actors such as Alec Guinness, John Mills, Dorothy Tutin, Dirk Bogarde, Sarah Miles, Peter Ustinov, Virginia McKenna, Richard Briers, Anna Carteret and Michael Pennington; the playwrights Edward Albee,...