John Gielgud: Matinee Idol to Movie Star (Biography and Autobiography) - Softcover

Croall, Jonathan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1408179458 ISBN 13: 9781408179451

Publisher: Methuen Drama, 2012

Synopsis

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.

About this title

Book Description:

The paperback edition of the acclaimed definitive life of John Gielgud, arguably the greatest classical actor of the twentieth century.

About the Author:

Jonathan Croall is the author of Buzz Buzz: Playwrights, Actors and Directors at the National Theatre. He worked as features editor on the Times Educational Supplement and as editor of Arts Express magazine, the National Theatre's magazine StageWrite, and programmes at the Old Vic.

About this edition

• Publisher: Methuen Drama
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1408179458
• ISBN 13: 9781408179451
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 736