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Sir John Gielgud, one of the greatest classical actors in the history of the theater, is probably best remembered by American audiences for his role as Hobson, Dudley Moore's butler in Arthur. A sad commentary on our cultural proclivities, as Gielgud played every major male character in Shakespeare's repertoire. His signature role was Prospero, the mysterious protagonist of The Tempest. But, according to author Sheridan Morley, "If, at the end of almost a century, John Gielgud is to be remembered for any single achievement, it would surely have to be the way in which he redefined and recreated the resident classical repertory company."
Gielgud was recognized as one of a famous foursome of British actors that included Ralph Richardson, Alec Guinness, and Laurence Olivier, with whom he endured a particularly intense love/hate relationship, which the author describes in great detail.
That Gielgud's career spanned more than seven decades is an indication of his popularity and devotion to his art. Besides the stage and cinema, he also appeared on radio and television and wrote frequent book reviews on the theater. As a man of many talents --- actor, writer, director --- he had the occasional run-in with those less skilled. His temper and sarcasm could be biting, but often this anger and frustration was a temporary setback, forgotten by the next rehearsal.
Morley spends an inordinate amount of time reporting Gielgud's homosexuality, as if his sexuality defined the actor. A watershed moment in his life, and one that is recorded in painstaking depth, involves his arrest for soliciting in 1953, a time when deviance from established sexual mores was less tolerated. While he never denied this aspect of his identity, Gielgud always tried to maintain a sense of discretion and was mortified over this faux pas.
Like many actors of his generation, Gielgud eschewed film work. In the early days of talkies, he wrote of his unease on the set, with all the "...early rising, the long endless days of spasmodic work," and how he hated to be "patted and slapped and curled and painted, while I lie supine and helpless in the make-up equivalent of a dentist's chair." But by the 1960s, he realized that "if he was ever going to make any real money he would have to cease turning his back on the world of film, and it was at this time that he instructed his agent...to pick up any movie offers within reason that were to come his way."
As can be expected in a book of this nature, there are plenty of testimonials from fellow actors and those who looked up to Sir John as a mentor, including Anthony Quayle, Noel Coward, and Dudley Moore, who would help Gielgud's career in the twilight years.
Morley, the drama critic of the London Spectator and International Herald Tribune, has also written the biographies of such entertainers as Noel Coward, Katherine Hepburn, Marlene Dietrich, Elizabeth Taylor, David Niven, and his father Robert Morley. He has attempted to write the definitive biography of another legendary figure, but the result seems superficial, devoid of a sufficient accounting of personal information, though that is not totally the writer's fault. It may have more to do with Gielgud's admitted lack of interests outside the theater. Politics and world affairs held no interest for him. His life revolved around the theater and theater people, for which many of his fans are grateful. His single-mindedness to perfect his craft, the self-imposed isolation, the cocoon that he built around himself --- which he regretted in the sunset of his years --- brought entertainment to millions over the course of several generations.
--- Reviewed by Ron Kaplan (mailto:(ronk23@aol.com)
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