John Gielgud: Matinee Idol to Movie Star
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.

1136738994
John Gielgud: Matinee Idol to Movie Star
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.

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John Gielgud: Matinee Idol to Movie Star

John Gielgud: Matinee Idol to Movie Star

by Jonathan Croall
John Gielgud: Matinee Idol to Movie Star

John Gielgud: Matinee Idol to Movie Star

by Jonathan Croall

Paperback

$36.95 
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Overview

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.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781408179451
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date: 11/08/2012
Series: Biography and Autobiography
Pages: 736
Product dimensions: 5.80(w) x 9.00(h) x 2.20(d)

About the Author

Jonathan Croall is a distinguished biographer and theatre historian. He is the author of over twenty-five books, notably the acclaimed biographies John Gielgud: Matinee Idol to Movie Star (Bloomsbury Methuen Drama) and Sybil Thorndike: A Star of Life. His other titles include The Coming of Godot: A Short History of a Masterpiece (short-listed for the 2005 Theatre Book Prize); The Wit and Wisdom (and Gaffes) of John Gielgud and In Search of Gielgud: A Biographer's Tale; two collections of his theatre journalism, Buzz Buzz! Playwrights, Actors and Directors at the National Theatre and Closely Observed Theatre: From the National to the Old Vic; and three books in the series The National Theatre at Work – Hamlet Observed, Peter Hall's 'Bacchai', and Inside the Molly House.

Table of Contents

List of Photographs xi

Acknowledgements xiii

Introduction 1

Part 1 Early Stages 1904-1929

1 A Terry Childhood 7

2 Gielgud Minor 15

3 Drama School 33

4 Apprentice at Oxford 50

5 Coward and Chekhov 64

6 Man about Town 74

7 The Search for Stardom 83

8 Three Strong Women 93

Part 2 Matinee Idol 1929-1933

9 Hamlet at the Vic 109

10 Turning Point 125

11 Young Producer 141

12 Richard of Bordeaux 154

Part 3 Lord of the West End 1934-1938

13 Hamlet Revisited 169

14 Saint-Denis and Hitchcock 183

15 Two Romeos 195

16 A Prince on Broadway 209

17 Actor-Manager at the Queen's 222

Part 4 Theatres of War 1938-1946

18 Earnest and Elsinore 247

19 Barker and King Lear 267

20 Every Night Something Different 280

21 Macbeth on Tour 291

22 In Production 299

23 The Haymarket Season 307

24 Eastern Approaches 317

Part 5 Rise and Fall 1946-1954

25 The Rivals 329

26 Back in the USA 336

27 Rattigan and Fry 344

28 Brook, Stratford and Much Ado 358

29 Hollywood to Hammersmith 375

30 Desperate Hours 390

Part 6 Travelling Player 1954-1959

31 Olivier and Twelfth Night 403

32 Into Europe 412

33 One Man in His Time 425

34 On the Road in America 439

Part 7 Late Stages 1959-1976

35 Time Out of Joint 455

36 Zeffirelli and Othello 467

37 Burton and Albee 483

38 Back to the Screen 496

39 Oedipus at the National 509

40 Bennett, Storey and the Royal Court 518

41 Taxing Times 532

42 Final Directions 546

43 Hall, Bond and Pinter 553

Part 8 Movie Star 1976-2000

44 A Dream of Beauty 571

45 Resnais and Providence 579

46 The Road to Brideshead 590

47 A New Public 603

48 Cameo Corner 616

49 Final Curtain 635

50 Greenaway and Prospero's Books 641

51 Ninety Years On 656

Epilogue 672

Chronology 675

Select Bibliography 687

Sources 692

Index 699

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