John Gielgud

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Sir Arthur John Gield, CH (14 April 1904 – May 20, 2000) was an English actor and stage director whose career spanned eight decades.

Ralph Richardson and Laurence Olivier were two of the trinity of actors who dominated the British stage for a large part of the twentieth century.

He began paid acting work as a junior actor of his cousin's business, Phyllis Neilson-Terry's company in 1922. He was a member of the Terry family drama dynasty.

After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he worked in repertory theatre and in the West End before establishing himself at the Old Vic as an exponent of Shakespeare in 1929-1931. Gield appeared in new works and classics throughout the 1930s and Broadway, as a stage actor in the West End and Broadway.

He began working as a producer and founded his own company at the Queen's Theatre in London.

He was regarded by some as the best Hamlet of his time, and he was also known for comedies such as John Worthing in The Importance of Being Earnest.

Gield's career was jeopardized after he was found and punished for a homosexual offence in the 1950s, but his coworkers and the public all supported him.

When avant-garde plays began to supersede traditional West End productions in the 1950s, he found no new starring roles, and for many years, he was best known in the theater for his one-man Shakespeare performance Ages of Man.

He discovered new plays that suited him, including Alan Bennett, David Storey, and Harold Pinter. Gield did not take cinema seriously in the first half of his career.

Despite making his first film appearance in 1924 and having success with The Good Companions (1933) and Julius Caesar (1953), he didn't start a regular film career until his sixties.

Gielbert appeared in more than sixty films since Becket (1964), for which he was nominated for playing Louis VII of France and Elizabeth (1998).

He received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in Arthur (1981).

He has been given a Golden Globe Award and two BAFTAs for his film work. Gield was fortunate to win an Oscar, an Emmy, a Grammy, and a Tony, despite being largely indifferent to honors.

He was known from the start of his career for his voice and his mastery of Shakespearean verse.

He appeared on more than a hundred television and television dramas between 1929 and 1994, as well as commercial recordings of several plays, including ten of Shakespeare's.

He was knighted in 1953, and the Giel Theatre was named after him, which was one of his awards.

He was president of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art from 1977 to 1989.

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Life and career

Gield was born in South Kensington, London, on April 14th, the third of Frank Henry Gielbert's four children (1868–1958) and his second wife, Kate Terry-Gielis (1868–1958). Lewis, the Red Cross and UNESCO's senior official, and Val, the younger brother of BBC radio drama; his younger sister Eleanor became John's secretary for many years. Gield, who was of Lithuanian and Polish descent, was on his father's side. The surname derives from Gelgaudikis, a Lithuanian village. The Counts Gielguds owned the Gelgaudikis Castle on the Nemunas river, but their estates were confiscated after they participated in a failed rebellion against Russian rule from 1830 to 31. Jan Gielgud and his family immigrated to England; Frank Gielgud, one of his grandchildren, was born in England; Aniela Aszpergerowa, a well-known Polish actress, was one of his grandchildren.

Frank was born into a family with a strong theatrical history. His mother, who was on stage before she died, was Ellen, Fred and Marion Terry, Mabel Terry-Lewis and Edward Gordon Craig, and she was a member of the stage dynasty that included Ellen, Frederick and Marion Terry, Mabel Terry-Lewis and Edward Gordon Craig. Frank had no aspirations and spent his entire life as a stockbroker in the City of London.

Gieloeld, an eight-year-old boy, went to Hillside preparatory school in Surrey, as his older brothers had done in 1912. He acquitted himself reasonably well in cricket and rugby for the school, even though he had no interest in sport. He hated mathematics, was fair in classics, and excelled at English and divinity in class. Hillside piqued his curiosity in drama, and he appeared in several leading roles in school productions, including Mark Antony in Julius Caesar and Shylock in The Merchant of Venice's.

As a result of academic success, Hillside, Lewis and Val had won scholarships to Eton and Rugby, respectively; John was unable to obtain such a scholarship. He was sent as a day boy to Westminster School, where he later said he had access to the West End "in time to reach the fringe of the great century of the theater." In the music halls, Sarah Bernhardt performed, Adeline Genée dance, and Albert Chevalier, Vesta Tilley, and Marie Lloyd performed. The school choir performed in Westminster Abbey's services, which appealed to his fondness for ritual. He demonstrated a natural drawing ability, and for a brief period of time, thought of scenic design as a potential career.

"Extraordinary bored me rigidly" led the young Gield's father to concerts, which he loved, as well as galleries and museums. Both parents were keen theatregoers but did not encourage their children to pursue an acting career. Val Gield recalled, "Our parents looked distinctly sideways at the Stage as a means of livelihood," and "when John demonstrated some talent for attracting his father, he spoke openly about the benefits of an architect's office." Gield's reluctant parents pushed him to attend drama lessons on the understanding that if he wasn't self-supporting by the age of twenty-five, he would want an office job.

Gield, 17, attended Constance Benson's wife of actor-manager Sir Frank Benson, who died at the age of seventeen. "I walked like a cat with rickets on the first day of the new boy's life," Lady Benson remarked on his physical discomfort: "she said I walked like a duck with rickets." It was a serious blow to my conceit, which was a good thing." He appeared in many amateur productions before and after joining the school and made his debut with a professional firm in November 1921, but he was not paid. He appeared in Henry V at the Old Vic; he had one line to speak but he regretted it; he recalled it. He was on stand-on in King Lear, Wat Tyler, and Peer Gynt for the remainder of the season.

Gield's first significant involvement came from his family. Phyllis Neilson-Terry, his uncle, was welcomed to tour in J. in 1922. The Wheel, a B. Fagan's understudy, bits-part actor, and assistant stage manager, received an invitation, which he accepted. A colleague, who understood that the young man was gifted but lacked technique, referred him to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). Gield was granted a scholarship to the academy and trained there until 1923, under Kenneth Barnes, Helen Haye, and Claude Rains.

Nigel Playfair, a friend of Gield's family, was seen in a student presentation of J. M. Barrie's The Admirable Crichton. In the British premiere of the 'apek brothers' The Insect Play', Playfair was captivated and cast him as Felix, the poet-butterfly. "I'm surprised that the audience did not throw things at me," Gield later said. The critics were cautious but not hostile to the play; it did not attract the public and closed after a month. Gield appeared in Robert E Lee by John Drinkwater while still studying at RADA. After leaving the academy at the end of 1923, Gield appeared in Charley's Aunt and then joined Fagan's repertory company at the Oxford Playhouse in Charley.

Gield served with the Oxford Company in January 1924 to the end of January 1925, and in August 1925. He appeared in a number of classics and modern plays, greatly improving his technical skills in the process. Trofimov's first appearance in The Cherry Orchard was one of his favorite roles: "It was the first time I ever went out on stage with the suspicion that perhaps, after all, I could actually be an actor."

In May 1924, Gielman's first two Oxford seasons portrayed him as Romeo to the Juliet of Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies at the Regent's Theatre, London. The performance was not a huge success, but the two actors became close friends and continued to work together throughout their careers. Daniel Arnault, a character in Walter Summers' little film Who Is the Man?, made his screen debut in 1924. (1924).

The Cherry Orchard's Oxford production was transferred to Hammersmith's Lyric Theatre in May 1925. Gielmov returned to Trofimov once more. His unique speaking voice attracted attention, leading to work with BBC Radio, which his biographer Sheridan Morley describes as "a medium he made for seven years." In his play The Vortex, Nol Coward selected Gielc as his understudy. Nicky Lancaster, the drug-addicted son of a nymphomaniac mother, was taken over by Gield for the last month of the West End. "A highly strrung, anxious, hysterical portion of the game that depended heavily on emotion," Gield's description. He found it tiring to play because he hadn't yet learned how to pace himself, but it was "a thrilling journey" because it culminated in so many good things afterward.

The success of The Cherry Orchard spawned what one observer called a "Chekhov revival" in British theatres, and Gield was one of the key players. Konstantin in The Seagull in October 1925 impressed Russian director Theodore Komisarjevsky, who portrayed him as Tusenbach in the British premiere of Three Sisters. The production received rave reviews, and Gield's highly lauded appearance only boosted his fame as a potential actor. He had three years of mixed fortunes, including successes in fringe productions, but West End stardom was elusive.

In 1926, producer Basil Dean gave Gield the lead role in a dramatization of Margaret Kennedy's best-selling book, The Constant Nymph. Before rehearsals began, Dean discovered that a bigger actor than Gield was on hand, namely Coward, to whom he gave the role. Gield had a legally bound role to the position, but Dean, a notorious bully, was a major force in British theatre. Gield, an intimid, accepted the position of understudy with the promise that he would take over Coward's lead when the former, who disliked playing in long runs, was to leave. Coward, who had been overworking, died three weeks after the opening night, and Gielgud took the lead for the remainder of the game. The play ran in London for almost a year and then went on tour.

By this time, Gield was earning enough money to leave the family's house and take a small apartment in the West End. He had his first serious romantic relationship, working with John Perry, an unsuccessful actor, later a writer, who stayed a lifelong friend after their affair ended. Morley makes the point that Gield's most significant passion, as well as Coward, was the stage; both men had casual dalliances, but were more comfortable with "low-maintenance" long-term relationships that did not impede their artistic ambitions and aspirations.

In 1928 Gielman's The Patriot, he made his Broadway debut as Grand Duke Alexander. The play was a failure, closing after a week, but Gielman liked New York and received favorable feedback from critics, including Alexander Woollcott and Brooks Atkinson. He appeared in a number of short runs, including Ibsen's Ghosts with Mrs Patrick Campbell (1928), and Reginald Berkeley's The Lady with a Lamp (1929) with Edith Evans and Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies, but not returning to London. He made The Clue of the New Pin, his second film, in 1928. This, dubbed "the first British full-length talkie," is an Edgar Wallace mystery tale about a young scoundrel who commits two murders and a third before he's killed.

Harcourt Williams, the company's newly elected director of productions, invited Gielgud to join the company for the forthcoming season in 1929. Lilian Baylis founded the Old Vic in an unpopular London suburb south of the Thames to bring plays and operas to a mostly working-class audience at low ticket prices. She paid her actors very little, but the theatre was known for its unrivalled repertory of classics, mainly Shakespeare, and Gield was not the first West End star to work there on a large salary cut. In Morley's words, it was the time to learn Shakespearean technique and try new ideas.

Gield starred in The Merchant of Venice, a musical interpretation of Richard II and Oberon in A Midsummer Night's Dream in his first season at the Old Vic. His Romeo was not well reviewed, but critics identified Richard II Gield as a Shakespearean actor of undoubted authority. The Times' reviewer focused on his intelligence, power, and stability, and called his result "work of genuine distinction," not only in terms of its character, but also in its use of words. He appeared in As You Like It, Caesar, Orlando, The Emperor in Androcles and the Lion, and Pirandello's The Man with the Flower in His Mouth later this season.

Gield's season came to an end in April 1930 when he played Hamlet. Williams' performance included complete text of the play. This was deemed a breakthrough in technology; earlier productions had been characterized by significant layoffs; A running time of nearly five hours did not dampen the public's, analysts, or the acting profession. "I never hoped to see Hamlet perform as in one's hopes," Sybil Thorndike said. I've been whisked right off my feet into another life for the evening -- much more real than the one I live in, and the words have flown." The production attracted such a following that the Old Vic began to attract a large audience of West End theatregoers. The demand was so high that the cast was moved to the Queen's Theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue, where Williams had the text marginally reduced. The result of the layoffs was to make the title role even more prominent. The critics applauded Giel's Hamlet. "Ivor Brown called it "a superb performance... the best Hamlet of [my] life." "I have no hesitation whatsoever in claiming that this is the high water mark of English Shakespearean acting of our time," James Agate said.

Hamlet was a part of Gield's last decade and more. After the queen's demise, he changed to John Worthing's book The Importance of Being Earnest. Jonathan Croall, Giel's biographer, claims that the two roles exemplified two aspects of the actor's personality: on the one hand, the romantic and soulful Hamlet, and the other, the sly and superficial Worthing. Mabel Terry-Lewis, his uncle, played Lady Bracknell. "Mr Giel and Miss Terry-Lewis together are brilliant, and they have the incredible ability of allowing Wilde to speak out in his own voice," the Times reported.

Gield made some changes to the company during the 1930-31 season. Donald Wolfit, who loathed him and was feared by his coworkers, was fired, as had Adele Dixon. Gield was uncertain about the suitability of Ralph Richardson, the country's most popular new recruit, but Williams was confident that Gielson would move forward; after this season, the Gielson was deemed a potential replacement. They had nothing in common. "He was a brilliant butterfly, while I was a gloomy child," Richardson said, "I found his clothing extravagant, I found his conversation flippant." He was the New Young Man of his day, and I didn't like him." Henry IV, Part 1, in which Gielm as Hotspur had the best of the reviews, was the first performance of the season. Richardson's observations, as well as the two leading men's friendship, increased dramatically when Gielson, who was playing Protest in The Tempest, aided Richardson in his triumph as Caliban:

Richardson's life and profession brought more than 50 years together, until he died. Lord Trinket played in several roles in this season, including Lord Trinket in The Jealous Wife, Richard II, Antony and Cleopatra, Benedick in Twelfth Night, Sergius in Arms, and Man in Much Ado About Nothing, another role for which he was honoured, and King Lear was one of the season's remaining performances. His results divided opinion. In The Manchester Guardian, Brown said that Gield "is a match for the thunder" and that at the end of the evening, it remains unscaled; however, every word of the King's agony is equally poignant."

Gield, who is returning to the West End, appeared in J. The Good Companions of B. Priestley, author and Edward Knoblock, edited for the stage. Gield described it as his first real glimpse of commercial success in May 1931 for 331 performances. Inigo Jollifant, a young schoolmaster who has left teaching to join a touring theatre company, performed in Inigo Jollifant, a young schoolmaster who abandons teaching to join a traveling theatre troupe. This crowd pleaser disapproved the more conservative reviewers, who felt Giel's job should be more demanding, but Giel's traditional juvenile lead had challenges of its own and helped him improve his technique. During the production, he made Insult (1932), a melodrama about the French Foreign Legion, and he appeared in a cinema version of The Good Companions in 1933 with Jessie Matthews. Gield's film acting viewpoint is revealed by a letter from a friend: "There is talk of my Inigo in the film of The Good Companions, which soothes my soul but attracts my wallet." Gield's first collection of memoirs, published in 1939, devoted two pages to talking about the things about filming that he disliked. Unlike his contemporaries Richardson and Laurence Olivier, he made few films before the Second World War, but did not establish himself as a popular film actor until many years after that. "I was foolish enough to toss my head and stick to the stage while watching Larry and Ralph sign lucrative Korda contracts," the author said in 1994.

Gield's career began in 1932 with the act of directing. Gield was given the opportunity to direct a production of Romeo and Juliet by the society, starring two guest stars: Peggy Ashcroft as Juliet and Edith Evans as Nurse. The majority of the cast members were students, led by Christopher Hassall as Romeo, and featured Devine, William Devlin, and Terence Rattigan. Gield's stay was enjoyable: he loved the attention of the undergraduates, had a brief chat with one of them, James Lees-Milne, and was lauded for his teaching and his protégés' success with the play. In a speech after Ashcroft and Evans' final appearance, he referred to them as "two leading ladies, the like of whom I hope I will never see again."

During the remainder of 1932, Gieland performed in a new piece, Musical Chairs by Ronald Mackenzie, and produced one new and one classic play, Strange Orchestra by Rodney Ackland, and The Merchant of Venice, with Malcolm Keen as Portia, with Shylock and Ashcroft as Portia. Elizabeth MacKintosh played Richard of Bordeaux in 1932. This, a modern interpretation of Richard II's events, was praised as the most successful historical performance since Shaw's Saint Joan nine years ago, and it was more faithful to the events than Shakespeare had been. It was off to a promising start in the West End and performed in London and on tour for the next three years.

Gield performed in 1934-34, and he was back to Hamlet in London and on tour, directing and playing the title role. The production was a box-office smash, and the commentators were generous in their praise. "I've never before heard the rhyme and verse, as well as the naturalness of speech so delicately mixed in The New York Times." ... It would be a miracle if I see a better version of this play than this before I die. Junior members of the cast, including Alec Guinness and Frith Banbury, would gather in the wings every night "to see what they seemed to be the Hamlet of their time," Morley writes.

Gield's following year produced perhaps his most popular Shakespeare performance, a Romeo and Juliet in which he co-starred with Ashcroft and Olivier. Gielbert had spotted Olivier's potential and gave him a major boost in his career. Gielld's first weeks of the season featured Mercutio and Olivier, after which the two actors swapped roles. Juliet and the nurse were both at Oxford, Ashcroft, and Evans. The play ran at the New Theatre for 189 performances, smashing all box office records for the performance. After the first night, Olivier was enraged at the notices, who praised the virility of his appearance but slammed Shakespeare's word, comparing it to his co-star's mastery of the poetry. For the remainder of his life, the two men's friendship was prickly, on Olivier's side.

Gield played Trigorin in The Seagull in 1936, with Evans as Arkadina and Ashcroft as Nina. Komisarjevsky directed, making rehearsals more difficult because Ashcroft, with whom he had been working, had just left him. Nevertheless, Morley writes that the critical reception was ecstatic. Gield made his last pre-war film co-starring Madeleine Carroll in Alfred Hitchcock's Secret Agent last year. Gield was made jittery by the director's insensitivity to actors, which made him even more uncomfortable with filming. Both actors were praised for their appearances, but critics wanted to make the leading roles one-dimensional, and the laurels were directed to Peter Lorre as Gield's deranged assistant.

Gield played Hamlet in North America from September 1936 to February 1937, beginning in Toronto before heading to New York and Boston. He was concerned about appearing on Broadway for the first time, particularly because it was revealed that Leslie Howard, a well-known actor, would appear in a rival production of the play. The audience reaction to Gielland's opening at the Empire Theatre in October was mixed, but the actor wrote to his mother that it was extraordinary. "They sit down and yell every night, and the stage door is beset by fans." Howard's debut in November was a debâcle in Gield's words, and the "battle of the Hamlets" heralded in the New York press was over nearly as soon as it had began. Howard's version lasted less than a month; Gield's performance set Broadway records for the play.

Gield was cast in He Was Born Gay by Emlyn Williams after returning from America in February 1937. During its pre-London tour, this romantic tragedy about French monarchs following the Revolution was well received, but critics in the West End were savaged. "This is one of those rare instances on which criticism does not understand speaking, but it does rub its eyes and retreats with an embarrassed, incredulous, and uncompromescent smile. Mr Emlyn Williams' script or Mr Gieln Williams' appearance in it is unclear. After twelve performances, the performance was over. Its failure, so soon after Shakespeare's triumphs, has prompted Gielman to rethink his work and his life. Perry's domestic relationship was positive but he had no ambitions in a film career, and the Old Vic couldn't afford to stage the classics on the large scale to which he aspired. He has determined that he must form his own company to perform Shakespeare and other classic plays in the West End.

Gield invested £5,000, the bulk of his earnings from the American Hamlet, and Perry, who had family wealth, contributed in the same amount. Gielborg was the tenant of the Queen's Theatre from 1937 to 1938, where he portrayed Richard II, The School of Scandal, Three Sisters, and The Merchant of Venice. Harry Andrews, Peggy Ashcroft, Glen Byam Shaw, George Devine, Michael Redgrave, Michael Redgrave, and Harcourt Williams appeared as guests, as well as Angela Baddeley and Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies. King Richard, Joseph Surface, Vershinin, and Shylock were among his own roles. Reviewers and coworkers applauded Giel's results. Richard II, "probably the best piece of Shakespearean acting on the English stage today," Agate said. Joseph Surface of Gielo was "the best light comedy performance I've ever seen or ever will see," Olivier said.

It's all delightful!"

Gielgud, a young man who had signed up for active service, was informed that men of his age, thirty-five, would not be eligible for at least six months. The government quickly came to the conclusion that most actors would do more to entertain the troops and the general public than serving in the armed forces, whether competent or not.

Michael Redgrave was director of The Beggar's Opera in London in 1940, which was performed at the Glyndebourne Festival. This was a tumultuous affair: Gield's direction confused his actor, and when Redgrave lost his voice, Gield had to step in and perform the role as best he could. Gielgn found that something serious or even solemn was required for wartime London, where the majority of entertainment was light-hearted. He revived the Old Vic with Shakespeare, along with Harley Granville-Barker and Guthrie. His King Lear had a tumultuous break with the critics once more, but Pro Prosecutors were also a hit. According to Brown, he carried out his Prosecution campaign quite differently from his 1930 appearance: in place of the "manic conjurer" and the President of the Magicians' Union, a vivid, arresting picture of a virile Renaissance great. The critics were chosen from among the many others, Jack Hawkins as Caliban, Marius Goring as Ariel, Jessica Tandy as Miranda and Alec Guinness as Ferdinand.

Gield joined tours of military camps after following the example of several of his stage colleagues. He gave recitals of prose and poetry, as well as two from Coward's Tonight at 8.30, but he discovered at first that less highbrow performers such as Beatrice Lillie were more effective than entertaining the troops. In Thorold Dickinson's The Prime Minister, he appeared in 1940 as Disraeli. In this morale-boosting film, he portrayed the politician from ages thirty to seventy; in Morley's view, it was the first time he appeared at home before the camera. Gield produced no more films for the next ten years; he shrank Julius Caesar in the 1945 film of Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra with Vivien Leigh. Shaw tried to convince him to audition, but Giel grew a huge dislike for director Gabriel Pascal. Caesar was finally played by Gieland's former teacher, Claude Rains.

Gield performed regularly in Barrie's Dear Brutus, another Importance of Being Earnest in the West End, and Macbeth on tour. He has returned to entertain the troops with more confidence than ever before, but not so much as to join Lillie and Michael Wilding as a comedy trio. Reviewers applauded William Congreve's Love for Love on tour and then in London. Ralph Richardson, who had been commissioned by the governors of the Old Vic to form a new company, approached him in 1944. Richardson suggested a triumvirate of Gield, Olivier, and himself, but Unwilling to take sole responsibility. "It would be a disaster" if you were to spend your entire time as referee between Larry and me," Gield said.

A Hamlet that many consider his finest in the Haymarket for Beaumont's 1944-1945 season. "Mr Gield is now entirely and authoritatively master of this important role," Agate wrote. ... This is, and is likely to remain, the best Hamlet of our time, according to me. A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Duchess of Malfi, and Lady Windermere's Fan (1945) were among the season's highlights. These productions received a lot of praise, but Gield's career was somewhat influenced by his older colleagues at this point. According to historian Harold Hobson, Olivier was recognized for his latest film, Henry V, and the Old Vic was produced "the most important theatre in the Anglo-Saxon world" by Richardson and John Burrell in Giel's stead.

Gield, a young boy from 1945, toured ENSA in the Middle and Far East, as both Hamlet and Coward's Blithe Spirit appeared. For the final time on this tour, he appeared on stage for the last time. In 1946, he appeared onstage as Raskolnikoff in a stage adaptation of Crime and Punishment, as well as on Broadway the following year. Other than Hamlet, Agate considered it the best thing Gield had done so far. Gield toured North America in The Importance of Being Earnest and Love for Love. Edith Evans grew tired of Lady Bracknell's role and refused to join him; Margaret Rutherford played the part with a great deal of fame. Gield was in demand as a director with six productions from 1948 to 1949. They included The Heiress in 1949, when he was brought in at the last moment to direct Richardson and Ashcroft; it was a doomed affair; it was running for 644 performances. Thomas Mendip, who also supervised, was his last big hit of the 1940s. The London cast included teenager Claire Bloom and Richard Burton, who went with Gield when he took the piece to the United States the following year.

Gield performed well at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, reclaiming his position as a leading Shakespearean. Measure for Measure (1950), Peter Brook's cold, sympathetic Angelo, displayed the public a new, naturalistic style in his playing. He followed this with three other Shakespeare performances with Brook, which were well received. Poor publicity for the actor and worse ones for the director made his own attempt in Stratford, Richardson's Macbeth's 1952, much less fruitful.

Gield made his first Hollywood film in 1953, the sole classical actor in Joseph L. Mankiewicz's Julius Caesar's Julius Caesar's Cassius Caesar. Marlon Brando (Mark Antony) was in awe of him, while James Mason (Brutus) was disheartened by Gielon Brando's seemingly effortless technique. Gield, who appeared in the film version, said he learned a lot about film technique from Mason. Gield enjoyed his four-month stay in California, not least for the changed attitude to homosexuality that Morley praised.

Gield took over the Lyric Hammersmiths' Classic Season of the World, as well as Thomas Otway's Venice Preserv'd, directing the first and doing both in the second, returning to London later this year. He was too old for Richard, he portrayed young Paul Scofield; both actor and production were a critical and commercial success. In the 1953 Coronation Honours, Gield was knighted.

Gield, who is usually very discreet about casual sex, was arrested in Chelsea on the evening of 20 October 1953 for cottaging (i.e. In a public lavatory, cruising for sex. Any form of male sexual relations in the UK was outlawed until the 1960s. David Maxwell Fyfe, the day's Home Secretary, was vehemently anti-gay, ordering the police to arrest anyone who violated Victorian law against homosexuality. Gield was fined; when the news broke, he felt his disgrace would have ended his career. When the news broke, he was in Liverpool on the pre-London tour of a new play, A Day by the Sea. Gield was so ill that the thought of going onstage as normal seemed impossible, but his fellow players, led by Sybil Thorndike, encouraged him:

His work was stable, but Gield's health was temporarily harmed by the incident; he had a nervous breakdown a few months later. He never spoke openly about the incident, and journalists were immediately dismissed by the media and politely ignored by writers throughout his lifetime. He made private contributions to gay advocacy organizations but did not endorse them in public. "I do respect people like you and Ian McKellen for coming out," he said in his later years, but he can't be doing it myself."

Gield spent most of his time between December 1953 and 1956, concentrating on scripting rather than appearing on stage. His performances ranged from a revived version of Charley's Aunt to John Mills, to the Ffrangcon-Davies, and Twelfth Night with Olivier. His return to the stage was in a King Lear production that was greatly hampered by costumes and scenery by Isamu Noguchi, which the critics found ridiculous. Much Ado About Nothing with Ashcroft in 1955 was much better received; Philip Hope-Wallace wrote it "Shakespearean comedy for the first time fully realized" in The Manchester Guardian. Gield made his second appearance in a Shakespeare film in 1955, portraying Clarence in Olivier's Richard III.

Gield's career was in the second half of the 1950s as far as new plays were concerned. Beaumont's productions were being replaced by more avant-garde performances. Olivier's debut in John Osborne's The Entertainer in 1957 was a hit, but Gield's writer was not up to date with the new wave of writers. He remained in demand as a Shakespearean, but there were no new scripts suitable for him. He supervised and played the lead in Coward's Nude with Violin's 1956, which was dismissed by the critics as old-fashioned, but it lasted for more than a year. He appeared in two films, playing a cameo comedian with Coward in Michael Anderson's Around the World in 80 Days (1956), and as the father of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's 1957 film adaptation of The Barretts of Wimpole Street. He did not find his role as the tyrannical father convincing, and admitted that he undertook it for the large fee ("it will take me a few years") and to keep him out of the public eye in the United States, where he had not appeared in over four years.

Gielioz supervised The Trojans at Covent Garden in 1957 and appeared at Drury Lane as a member of the Doctoroved community, but his one-man performance The Ages of Man was a pivotal to his career from the 1950s to the 1960s. He first appeared in this in 1956 and then resumed it every year until 1967. It was an anthology of Shakespearean speeches and sonnets, compiled by George Rylands, in which Gield recited the verses in modern evening attire on a plain stage with his own linking commentary. Including a performance at the White House in 1965, he did an outstanding job over Britain, mainland Europe, Australasia, and the United States. He discovered that performing alone has many benefits: "You've no idea how much simpler it is to have a Juliet." Naturally, the audience is keeping an eye on her every time, or laying on a tomb with candles around her. His appearance on Broadway earned him a Special Tony Award in 1959, and an audio recording in 1979 received a Grammy Award. He made several other recordings, many before and after this one, including ten Shakespeare plays.

Gield went on to find new plays that suited him as an actor, but Peter Shaffer's first play, Five Finger Exercise (1958), received acclaim. Gield revisited Much Ado About Nothing, this time with Margaret Leighton as his Beatrice, when he was in the United States for the Shaffer play. The bulk of the New York critics praised the movie, and they all praised the co-stars. In Rattigan's The Browning Version for CBS and N. C. Hunter's A Day by the Sea for ITV, he appeared on television in 1959. Over the course of the next four decades, he appeared in more than fifty plays on television.

Gield had more success as a director than as an actor during the early 1960s. He supervised the first London performance of Britten's Dream (1961) at Covent Garden and Hugh Wheeler's Big Fish, Little Fish, the former champion of a Play in 1961, winning him a Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play. Franco Zeffirelli's production at Stratford in the same year was less fruitful, and Gieln's "singularly unvehement" was described as ponderous, despite his ferocious debut. Gaev in The Cherry Orchard to Ashcroft's Ranevskaya had the highest of the notices; his co-star and the film received mixed praise. Richardson was in charge of Scandal for the first year, first at the Haymarket and then on a North American tour, which he attended as "the oldest Joseph Surface in the industry" later this year.

Gield met Martin Hensler (1932–99), a Budapest interior designer who had been exiled from Hungary, in 1962. He was temperamental, and Gield's people often found him difficult, but the two became a long-term couple and lived together until Hensler's death. Gield's main residence in central London has shifted from central London to Wotton Underwood's South Pavilion.

In Becket (1964), Gield received an Oscar nomination for his role as King Louis VII of France, with Richard Burton in the title role. "A minor but flashy role, this had a long and cherished presence; his unrivalled theatrical dignity could greatly enhance a film," Morley says. Burton in Hamlet on Broadway in 1964 directed Gield. Burton's appearance received praise from polite to hostile, but the execution was a box-office hit, and a film was made of it. Gield's theater finally began to be taken seriously, both for financial and occasionally artistic reasons. He advised his agent to accept any legitimate film bids. Morley's films of the mid-1960s were included in Tony Richardson's The Loved One (1965), which Croall described as a failure later in life, and Orson Welles' Falstaff film, Chimes at Midnight (1966), which was unsuccessful at the time but has since been regarded as "one of the finest, albeit most eccentric of all Shakespearean movies."

Gieldov's early 1960s drama appearances included Ivanov as a director, Chekhov's Ivanov at the Phoenix in London and the Shubert in New York, Peter Ustinov's Half Way Up the Tree at the Queen's and Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Coliseum. During the National Theatre in Seneca's Oedipus from 1967-68, one of the actor's potentially good acting roles, Ibsen's Bishop Nicholas, was seriously ill in 1967, but Gield, who was to co-star at the National Theatre in The Pretenders, was not well-prepared. Gielgd's first play, Forty Years On (1968), has found a modern role that suited him and in which he performed to acclaim: the Headmaster in Alan Bennett's first play, Forty Years On (1968). Both play and actress' notices were outstanding. "Giel dominates all with an unexpected caricature of a mincing pedant, with his noble features blurred to resemble a tense and fat egghead," John Barber wrote in The Daily Telegraph. A delectable comedic piece created by the great mandarin of the theatre.

Gield appeared in six films from 1967 to 1969, having officially adopted filmmaking. Lord Raglan's Most Significant Part in Tony Richardson's The Charge of the Light Brigade was his most significant contribution. In films starring Michael Anderson's The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968) as a fictional pope and Richard Attenborough's Oh! What a Lovely War (1969) as Count Leopold Berchtold, were cameo appearances in character roles.

Gield played another modern role in which he had a lot of success in 1970; he joined Ralph Richardson at the Royal Court in Chelsea in David Storey's Home. The play is being carried out in the gardens of a nursing home for mental health, although this is not clear at first. The two elderly men are joined and briefly enlivened by two more outspoken male patients, who are then left together, conversing even more emptily. Jeremy Kingston, a Punch critic, wrote: Jeremy Kingston: "Jeremy Kingston wrote: "I am a Punch critic."

The play was first staged in the West End and then to Broadway. "The two men, bleakly examining the little nothingness of their lives, are John Giel and Ralph Richardson's performances in two of the best English-speaking theater performances ever seen," Clive Barnes wrote in The New York Times. In 1972, the original cast filmed the play for television.

Giel filmed seven films and six television dramas in the first half of the decade. Morley's pick is indiscriminate, but he stands out for praise his appearances as the Old Cardinal in Joseph Losey's Galileo and the manservant Beddoes in Sidney Lumet's Murder on the Orient Express in 1974. Gieln's Hassan was portrayed in a 1971 BBC film comparing James Elroy Flecker's Hassan to Richardson's Hassan. "Shiver at a glorious performance by Gielh as a Caliph with all the purring beauty and ruthlessness of a great golden leopard," the Illustrated London News' critic predicted. Gield directed Coward's Private Lives and Somerset Maugham's The Constant Wife (both 1973, London and 1974, New York). The Gay Lord Quex (1975), Pinero's last film as a director, was his last film as a director.

In Harold Pinter's No Man's Land (1975), directed by Hall at the National, Gielson continued his long stage association with him. Richardson played Hirst, a wealthy yet fragile writer, and Gield was Spooner, a down-at-heel sponger and opportunist. The performance was "both funny and bleak," Hall said. The performance was a critical and box-office success, and it was on Broadway and television that it was staged at the Old Vic in the West End over a three-year period. Reviewers lauded Julian Mitchell's Half-Life (1977) at the National; he revived the role at the Duke of York's Theatre in the West End in 1978 and on tour the following year.

Gield spent more time on film and television than on stage in the second decade. In Caligula (1979), Gore Vidal's story of Ancient Rome, spiced with pornographic scenes, Morley's film work included "his most embarrassing professional appearance." Clive Langham was his most prominent role in Gieln's ten other films from this period, including Clive Langham in Alain Resnais' Providence (1977). "By far the most exciting film I've ever made," Gield said. "Drunk half the time... throwing bottles around, and yelling a lot of very coarse conversation," he received a New York Film Critics Circle award for his work as a dying author. In Jack Gold's Aces High (1976) and Tomlinson in Otto Preminger's The Human Factor (1979), his other film roles included the Head Master of Eton (1976). Lord Henry Wotton appeared in The Picture of Dorian Gray (1976), John of Gaunt in Richard II (1978) and Chorus in Romeo and Juliet (1978).

Gielgud appeared in more than twenty films in the 1980s. Morley's Best Picture (1980), as the chairman of the Royal London Hospital, Chariots of Fire (1981), as the Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, Gandhi (1982), directed by David Lynch, Hugh Hudson, Richard Attenborough, Alan Bridges, and Fred Schepisi respectively. Wagner (1983) by Tony Palmer was the only film in which Gield, Richardson, and Olivier performed scenes together. Gield made cameo appearances in films of no merit, lending credibility while not damaging his own reputation. Why not, he told an interviewer, "They pay me extremely well for two or three days' work a month." It's great to travel all around the world at someone else's expense at my age.

Steve Gordon's Arthur (1981), which starred Dudley Moore as a self-indulgent playboy, was Gield's most successful film performance of the decade. Butler Gield played Hobson, Moore's butler. He turned the piece down twice before finally accepting it, being concerned about the acerbic Hobson's strong words. For his role, he received an Academy Award for his work as Best Supporting Actor and other categories. "I really loathe the mutual congratulation baloney and the invidious comparisons that they produce" he did not value on awards and skipped presentation ceremonies whenever he could:

Gield appeared in nineteen films during the 1980s, including Edward Ryder in an eleven-part revival of Waugh's Brideshead Revisited (1982). According to the Times, he played "a desolate and calculated malice" that leads almost singlehandedly [the] first two episodes. Gield was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for his role as Aaron Jastrow, a Jewish scholar murdered in the Holocaust, in the mini-series War and Remembrance. In John Mortimer's Summer's Lease, he played a rakish journalist, Haverford Downs, for which he received an Emmy Award after its 1991 American broadcast.

Hugh Whitemore's The Best of Friends (1988), Gieland's last West End play. In a representation of a childhood friendship between Cockerell, Bernard Shaw, and Laurentia McLachlan, a Benedictine nun, he played Sir Sydney Cockerell, director of the Fitzwilliam Museum. Gielt had trouble learning his lines at one point, becoming distracted by an 1938 copy of The Times, read by his character, a look at Vershinin's portrayal in Three Sisters fifty years ago.

Gield made his last film appearance in 1990, appearing in Prost's Books, Peter Greenaway's version of The Tempest. Critics were mixed on the film, but Gield's role in one of his signature roles was highly lauded. As he had done throughout his career, he continued to work on radio; Croall lists more than fifty BBC radio shows starring Gielgin between 1929 and 1994. For Lear's birthday, he appeared on Lear's children, including Judi Dench, Eileen Atkins, and Emma Thompson, as Lear's children, as well as actors such as Bob Hoskins, Derek Jacobi, and Simon Russell Beale in supporting roles. He continued to appear on television until 1994; his last work in the medium was in a BBC production that year of J. Summer Day's Dream by B. Priestley is seldom revived. He made further cameo appearances in films including Branagh's Hamlet (as King Arthur's 1996), Dragonheart (as King Arthur), and Shine (as Cecil Parkes, 1996). In Shekhar Kapur's Elizabeth (1998), his last film appearance was as Pope Pius V. In 2000, he appeared in a film starring Beckett's short play Catastrophe directed by David Mamet.

Martin Hensler, Giel's companion, died in 1999. Gield went into a physical and mental decline after this; he died at home on May 21st, the following year, at the age of 96. There was no memorial service at his request, and Wotton Underwood's funeral was private for families and close friends.

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