Sir John Gielgud

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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, regarded by many as one of the greatest British actors in history. Arthur John Gielgud was born in Kensington in London to a Protestant mother, Kate Terry, and a Catholic father, Frank Gielgud (who was of Polish or Lithuanian descent), 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 one of the most pioneering and influential leaders of BBC Radio. After Westminster School, where he gained a King's Scholarship, he trained at RADA and had his initial success as a stage actor in classical roles. He starred and directed in many Royal Shakespeare Company productions at Stratford-upon-Avon. His Hamlet of 1936 was particularly admired and widely acclaimed. 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, and then on television with Richard Chamberlain. Although he began to appear in British films as early as the 1930s, he would not make an impact in the medium until the last decades of his life. His film roles included: Benjamin Disraeli in The Prime Minister (1940), Cassius in Julius Caesar (1953) and George, Duke of Clarence to Laurence Olivier's Richard III (1955). Unlike Olivier, he remained primarily a stage actor, and so

top songs

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The Great Sherlock Holmes Adventures

The Best of Sir John Gielgud

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The Great Sherlock Holmes Returns

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Favourite Scenes From Hamlet & Five Sonnets

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When Love Speaks - The Sonnets

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Shakespeare: The Sonnets

William Shakespeare's Hamlet Part 1

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The Classic Sherlock Holmes, Vol. 4

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Sherlock Holmes - The Yatsley Case

Sir John Gielgud's Favorite Scenes from Shakespeare

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The 100 Greatest Poems of All Time

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Legendary Scenes from Shakespeare

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