John Gielgud
Birthday: Born in 1904-04-14 in South Kensington, London, England, UK
Deathday: 2000-05-21
Sir Arthur John Gielgud, OM, CH (14 April 1904 – 21 May 2000) was an English actor, director, and producer. A descendant of the renowned Terry acting family, he achieved early international acclaim for his youthful, emotionally expressive Hamlet which broke box office records on Broadway in 1937. He was known for his beautiful speaking of verse and particularly for his warm and expressive voice, which his colleague Sir Alec Guinness likened to "a silver trumpet muffled in silk". Gielgud is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Award. Description above from the Wikipedia article John Gielgud, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
TV Credits
Tales of the Unexpected
Character: Jelks
A British television anthology of stories, often with sinister and wryly comedic undertones, and a twist at the end. With early episodes written and presented by Roald Dahl, the series featured a plethora of big name guest stars....
Second City Television
Character: Self - Special Guest Star
Second City Television is a Canadian television sketch comedy show offshoot from Toronto's Second City troupe that ran between 1976 and 1984....
Inspector Morse
Character: Lord Hinksey
Inspector Morse is a detective drama based on Colin Dexter's series of Chief Inspector Morse novels. The series starred John Thaw as Chief Inspector Morse and Kevin Whately as Sergeant Lewis, as well as a large cast of notable actors and actresses....
Frankenstein: The True Story
Character: Chief Constable
Victor Frankenstein witnesses his creation turn uncontrollable after he's duped by his associate, Dr. Polidori....
Hallmark Hall of Fame
Character: The Ghost
Hallmark Hall of Fame is an anthology program on American television, sponsored by Hallmark Cards, a Kansas City based greeting card company. The longest-running primetime series in the history of television, it has a historically long run, beginning during 1951 and continuing into 2013. From 1954 onward, all of its productions have been shown in color, although color television video productions were extremely rare in 1954. Many television movies have been shown on the program since its debut, ...
QB VII
Character: Clinton-Meek
A physician sues a novelist for publishing statements implicating the doctor in Nazi war crimes....
Brideshead Revisited
Character: Edward 'Ned' Ryder
Charles Ryder, an agnostic man, becomes involved with members of the Flytes, a Catholic family of aristocrats, over the course of several years between the two world wars....
Play for Today
Character: Harry
Play for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted. The individual episodes were between fifty and a hundred minutes in duration....
Gulliver's Travels
Character: Professor of Light
Dr. Gulliver has returned from his journey to his family after a long absence - and tells them the story of his travels....
ABC Stage 67
Character: Rich Man
ABC Stage 67 is the umbrella title for a series of 26 weekly shows that included dramas, variety shows, documentaries, and original musicals. It premiered on American Broadcasting Company on September 14, 1966 with Murray Schisgal's The Love Song of Barney Kempinksi, directed by Stanley Prager and starring Alan Arkin as a man enjoying the sights and sounds of New York City in his last remaining hours of bachelorhood. Arkin was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Single Performance By An...
Scarlett
Character:
Scarlett O’Hara’s flight from the scrutiny of Atlanta society takes her on a journey to Savannah and Charleston, to England, and to Ireland, where she discovers her family's roots....
A Dance to the Music of Time
Character: St. John Clarke
A Dance to the Music of Time is a four-part adaptation of Anthony Powell's 12-volume novel sequence that aired on Channel 4 in 1997. The series is a sharp, comic portrait of upper-class and bohemian England, spanning almost a century, from the early 1920s to modern times....
BBC Play of the Month
Character: Captain Shotover
Play of the Month is a BBC television anthology series featuring productions of classic and contemporary stage plays which were usually broadcast on BBC1. Each production featured a different work, often using prominent British stage actors in the leading roles. The series was transmitted from October 1965 to September 1983; the producer most associated with the Play of the Month was Cedric Messina. Some of the 121 episodes are missing from the archives, having been junked in the 1960s and 1970...
Summer's Lease
Character: Haverford Downs
Molly Pargeter is a forty-something wife and mother of three girls, who leads a stable but dull life in 1980s West London. She feels overweight and there is no passion in her relationship with her husband Hugh, who is secretly seeing another woman. For most of her life she has found escape in detective novels and books on art, especially about the fifteenth century Italian fresco painter Piero Della Francesca. Then in a newspaper's small ads Molly sees the details of a villa in Tuscany, Italy to...
ABC Afterschool Special
Character: Various Roles
Dramatically presented situations, often controversial, of interest to children and teenagers. Several episodes were either in animated form or presented as documentaries. Topics included illiteracy, substance abuse and teenage pregnancy....
The BBC Television Shakespeare
Character: Chorus
The BBC Television Shakespeare is a series of British television adaptations of the plays of William Shakespeare, created by Cedric Messina and produced by BBC Television. It was transmitted in the UK from 3 December 1978 to 27 April 1985 and spanned seven series. Development of the series began in 1975 when Messina saw that Glamis Castle would make a perfect location for an adaptation of Shakespeare's play As You Like It. On returning to London, he envisioned an entire series devoted exclusivel...
War and Remembrance
Character: Aaron Jastrow
War and Remembrance is an American miniseries based on the novel of the same name by Herman Wouk. It is the sequel to highly successful The Winds of War....
Merlin
Character: King Constant
A retelling of the legend of King Arthur from the perspective of the wizard Merlin. Sam Neill stars in the title role in a story that covers not only the rise and fall of Camelot but also the phase in the legendary history of Britain that precedes it....
BBC Play of the Month
Character: Lord Burleigh
Play of the Month is a BBC television anthology series featuring productions of classic and contemporary stage plays which were usually broadcast on BBC1. Each production featured a different work, often using prominent British stage actors in the leading roles. The series was transmitted from October 1965 to September 1983; the producer most associated with the Play of the Month was Cedric Messina. Some of the 121 episodes are missing from the archives, having been junked in the 1960s and 1970...
Screen Two
Character:
Series of single made-for-television dramas....
Wagner
Character: Pfistermeister
A huge panorama of Wagner's life and work, from before the 1848 Revolution, through his exile in Switzerland, his rescue by the besotted King Ludwig II of Bavaria to the final triumph at Bayreuth....
Lovejoy
Character: Lord Wakering
The adventures of the eponymous Lovejoy, a likeable but roguish antiques dealer based in East Anglia. Within the trade, he has a reputation as a “divvie”, a person with an almost supernatural powers for recognising exceptional items as well as distinguishing genuine antique from clever fakes or forgeries....
The BBC Television Shakespeare
Character: John of Gaunt
The BBC Television Shakespeare is a series of British television adaptations of the plays of William Shakespeare, created by Cedric Messina and produced by BBC Television. It was transmitted in the UK from 3 December 1978 to 27 April 1985 and spanned seven series. Development of the series began in 1975 when Messina saw that Glamis Castle would make a perfect location for an adaptation of Shakespeare's play As You Like It. On returning to London, he envisioned an entire series devoted exclusivel...
The Ed Sullivan Show
Character: Self
The Ed Sullivan Show is an American TV variety show that originally ran on CBS from Sunday June 20, 1948 to Sunday June 6, 1971, and was hosted by New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan. It was replaced in September 1971 by the CBS Sunday Night Movie, which ran only one season and was eventually replaced by other shows. In 2002, The Ed Sullivan Show was ranked #15 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time....
Hollywood U.K.: British Cinema in the Sixties
Character: Self
Five programmes that trace a remarkable decade in British film-making through interviews with its stars and directors....
Strauss Dynasty
Character: Drechsler
...
Hallmark Hall of Fame
Character: Charmolue
Hallmark Hall of Fame is an anthology program on American television, sponsored by Hallmark Cards, a Kansas City based greeting card company. The longest-running primetime series in the history of television, it has a historically long run, beginning during 1951 and continuing into 2013. From 1954 onward, all of its productions have been shown in color, although color television video productions were extremely rare in 1954. Many television movies have been shown on the program since its debut, ...
Hallmark Hall of Fame
Character: Lord Durrisdeer
Hallmark Hall of Fame is an anthology program on American television, sponsored by Hallmark Cards, a Kansas City based greeting card company. The longest-running primetime series in the history of television, it has a historically long run, beginning during 1951 and continuing into 2013. From 1954 onward, all of its productions have been shown in color, although color television video productions were extremely rare in 1954. Many television movies have been shown on the program since its debut, ...
Hallmark Hall of Fame
Character: Duke
Hallmark Hall of Fame is an anthology program on American television, sponsored by Hallmark Cards, a Kansas City based greeting card company. The longest-running primetime series in the history of television, it has a historically long run, beginning during 1951 and continuing into 2013. From 1954 onward, all of its productions have been shown in color, although color television video productions were extremely rare in 1954. Many television movies have been shown on the program since its debut, ...
BBC Play of the Month
Character: Chorus
Play of the Month is a BBC television anthology series featuring productions of classic and contemporary stage plays which were usually broadcast on BBC1. Each production featured a different work, often using prominent British stage actors in the leading roles. The series was transmitted from October 1965 to September 1983; the producer most associated with the Play of the Month was Cedric Messina. Some of the 121 episodes are missing from the archives, having been junked in the 1960s and 1970...
Omnibus
Character: Self
Omnibus was an arts-based BBC television documentary series, broadcast mainly on BBC1 in the United Kingdom. The programme was the successor to the long-running arts-based series 'Monitor'. It ran from 1967 until 2003, usually being transmitted on Sunday evenings. During its 35-year history, the programme won 12 Bafta awards. Among the series' best remembered documentaries are Cracked Actor, a profile of David Bowie, and Rene Magritte, a graduate film by David Wheatley, 'Madonna: Behind the Am...
The Wednesday Play
Character: Gabriel Quantara
The Wednesday Play is an anthology series of British television plays which ran on BBC1 from October 1964 to May 1970. The plays were usually written for television, although adaptations from other sources also featured. The series gained a reputation for presenting contemporary social dramas, and for bringing issues to the attention of a mass audience that would not otherwise have been discussed on screen....
The Dick Cavett Show
Character: Self - Guest
The Dick Cavett Show has been the title of several talk shows hosted by Dick Cavett on various television networks....
Marco Polo
Character: Doge di Venezia
The life of the 13th-century Venetian explorer who sought to connect the civilizations of China and Europe through trade....
The Far Pavilions
Character: Cavagnari
Adapted from M.M. Kaye's best-selling novel, this dramatic HBO miniseries follows two star-crossed lovers -- the young British officer Ash (Ben Cross) and the betrothed princess Anjuli (Amy Irving) -- as they face daunting odds in their quest to be together. Set in India during the time of the British Raj, this haunting (and BAFTA-nominated) love story features spectacular scenery and an epic saga of battle, treachery and intrigue....
Great Performances
Character: Self
The best in the performing arts from across America and around the world including a diverse programming portfolio of classical music, opera, popular song, musical theater, dance, drama, and performance documentaries....
Tales of the Unexpected
Character: Cyril Boggis
A British television anthology of stories, often with sinister and wryly comedic undertones, and a twist at the end. With early episodes written and presented by Roald Dahl, the series featured a plethora of big name guest stars....
Movie Credits
Chimes at Midnight
Character: Henry IV
Henry IV usurps the English throne, sets in motion the factious War of the Roses and now faces a rebellion led by Northumberland scion Hotspur. Henry's heir, Prince Hal, is a ne'er-do-well carouser who drinks and causes mischief with his low-class friends, especially his rotund father figure, John Falstaff. To redeem his title, Hal may have to choose between allegiance to his real father and loyalty to his friend....
Gandhi
Character: Lord Irwin
In the early years of the 20th century, Mohandas K. Gandhi, a British-trained lawyer, forsakes all worldly possessions to take up the cause of Indian independence. Faced with armed resistance from the British government, Gandhi adopts a policy of 'passive resistance', endeavouring to win freedom for his people without resorting to bloodshed....
Frankenstein
Character: De Lacey
A scientist who is obsessed with creating life finally does it, with tragic results....
Frankenstein: The True Story
Character: Chief Constable
Victor Frankenstein witnesses his creation turn uncontrollable after he's duped by his associate, Dr. Polidori....
To Be Hamlet
Character: Self
Documentary examination of the role of Hamlet, in which ten prominent actors who have played the part discuss Hamlet's personality, Shakespeare's play, and the enduring popular fascination it has inspired. The actors interviewed are Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud, Richard Burton, Nicol Williamson, Ben Kingsley, Jean Louis Barrault, Vittorio Gassman, Maximilian Schell, Innocenti Smoktunovsky, and Mandy Patinkin. Includes excerpts from various film and television versions of Hamlet, featuring thes...
Hamlet: The Actor's View
Character: Self
One of the greatest Hamlets of the 20th century Sir John Gielgud reflects on the play and its title character with which he used to be intimately associated for ever since 1929....
The Elephant Man
Character: Carr Gomm
A Victorian surgeon rescues a heavily disfigured man being mistreated by his "owner" as a side-show freak. Behind his monstrous façade, there is revealed a person of great intelligence and sensitivity. Based on the true story of Joseph Merrick (called John Merrick in the film), a severely deformed man in 19th century London....
David
Character: Stimme Gottes
A distinguished military leader whose reign was touched by great scandal, shocking betrayals and rousing victories. A simple shepherd boy chosen to be king, under the watchful eyes of prophet Samuel....
Secret Agent
Character: Richard Ashenden / Edgar Brodie
After three British agents are assigned to assassinate a mysterious German spy during World War I, two of them become ambivalent when their duty to the mission conflicts with their consciences....
Murder on the Orient Express
Character: Mr. Beddoes
In 1935, when his train is stopped by deep snow, detective Hercule Poirot is called on to solve a murder that occurred in his car the night before....
Appointment with Death
Character: Colonel Carbury
Emily Boynton, the stepmother to three children, blackmails the family lawyer into destroying a second will of her late husband that would have freed the children from her dominating influence. She takes herself, the children, and her daughter-in-law on holiday to Europe and the Holy Land. At a dig, Emily is found dead and Hercule Poirot investigates....
Les Misérables
Character: Gillenormand
In 19th century France, Jean Valjean, a man imprisoned for stealing bread, must flee a relentless policeman named Javert. The pursuit consumes both men's lives, and soon Valjean finds himself in the midst of the student revolutions in France....
Elizabeth
Character: The Pope
The story of the ascension to the throne and the early reign of Queen Elizabeth the First, the endless attempts by her council to marry her off, the Catholic hatred of her and her romance with Lord Robert Dudley....
Prospero's Books
Character: Prospero
An exiled magician finds an opportunity for revenge against his enemies muted when his daughter and the son of his chief enemy fall in love in this uniquely structured retelling of the 'The Tempest'....
Oh! What a Lovely War
Character: Count Leopold Von Berchtold
The working-class Smiths change their initially sunny views on World War I after the three boys of the family witness the harsh reality of trench warfare....
First Knight
Character: Oswald
The timeless tale of King Arthur and the legend of Camelot are retold in this passionate period drama. Arthur is reluctant to hand the crown to Lancelot, and Guinevere is torn between her loyalty to her husband and her growing love for his rival. But Lancelot must balance his loyalty to the throne with the rewards of true love....
James Mason: The Star They Loved to Hate
Character: Self - on the set of 'The Shooting Party' (uncredited)
Retrospective of the life and movie work of British actor James Mason. The documentary presents interview footage interspersed with some movie excerpts, mainly from his pre-hollywood period....
The Formula
Character: Dr. Abraham Esau
While investigating the death of a friend and fellow cop, Los Angeles police officer Barney Caine stumbles across evidence that Nazis created a synthetic alternative to gasoline during World War II. This revelation has the potential to end the established global oil industry, making the formula a very valuable and dangerous piece of information. Eventually, Caine must contend with oil tycoon Adam Steiffel, who clearly has his own agenda regarding the formula....
Shining Through
Character: Sunflower
Spirited New Yorker Linda Voss goes to work for international lawyer and secret Office of Strategic Services operative Ed Leland just before World War II. As they fall in love, the United States enters the fight against Hitler, and Linda volunteers to work for Ed spying undercover behind Nazi lines. Assigned to uncover information about a German bomb, Linda also has personal motives to fulfill: discovering the fate of her Jewish family members in Berlin....
DragonHeart
Character: King Arthur (voice) (uncredited)
In an ancient time when majestic fire-breathers soared through the skies, a knight named Bowen comes face to face and heart to heart with the last dragon on Earth, Draco. Taking up arms to suppress a tyrant king, Bowen soon realizes his task will be harder than he'd imagined: If he kills the king, Draco will die as well....
Chariots of Fire
Character: Master of Trinity
In the class-obsessed and religiously divided UK of the early 1920s, two determined young runners train for the 1924 Paris Olympics. Eric Liddell, a devout Christian born to Scottish missionaries in China, sees running as part of his worship of God's glory and refuses to train or compete on the Sabbath. Harold Abrahams overcomes anti-Semitism and class bias, but neglects his beloved sweetheart in his single-minded quest....
Caligula
Character: Nerva
After the death of the paranoid emperor Tiberius, Caligula, his heir, seizes power and plunges the empire into a bloody spiral of madness and depravity....
The Whistle Blower
Character: Sir Adrian Chappie
A war veteran tries to investigate the murder of his son who was working as a Russian translator for the British intelligence service during the Cold War. He meets a web of deception and paranoia that seems impenetrable......
Arthur 2: On the Rocks
Character: Hobson
Arthur loses his fortune for staying with Linda, right as the two were preparing to adopt a child. As their marriage suffers, Arthur plans for a way to get his money back, but first he must sober up and get a real job....
Lion of the Desert
Character: Sharif El Gariani
This movie tells the story of Omar Mukhtar, an Arab Muslim rebel who fought against the Italian conquest of Libya in WWII. It gives western viewers a glimpse into this little-known region and chapter of history, and exposes the savage means by which the conquering army attempted to subdue the natives....
Murder by Decree
Character: Prime Minister Lord Salisbury
Sherlock Holmes is drawn into the case of Jack the Ripper, who is killing prostitutes in London's East End. Assisted by Dr. Watson, and using information provided by a renowned psychic, Robert Lees, Holmes finds that the murders may have their roots in a Royal indiscretion and that a cover-up is being managed by politicians at the highest level, all of whom happen to be Masons....
Arthur
Character: Hobson
Arthur is a 30-year-old child who will inherit $750 million if he complies with his family's demands and marries the woman of their choosing....
The Power of One
Character: St. John
PK, an English orphan terrorized for his family's political beliefs in Africa, turns to his only friend, a kindly world-wise prisoner, Geel Piet. Geel teaches him how to box with the motto “fight with your fists and lead with your heart”. As he grows to manhood, PK uses these words to take on the system and the injustices he sees around him - and finds that one person really can make a difference....
Alice in Wonderland
Character: Mock Turtle
Alice in Wonderland (1966) is a BBC television play based on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. It was directed by Jonathan Miller, then most widely known for his appearance in the long-running satirical revue Beyond the Fringe....
Plenty
Character: Sir Leonard Darwin
David Hare's account of a one-time French freedom fighter who gradually realizes that her post-war life is not meeting her expectations....
The Charge of the Light Brigade
Character: Lord Raglan
During the Crimean War between Britain and Russia in the 1850s, a British cavalry division, led by the overbearing Lord Cardigan, engages in an infamously reckless strategic debacle against a Russian artillery battery....
Julius Caesar
Character: Julius Caesar
All-star cast glamorizes this lavish 1970 remake of the classic William Shakespeare play, which portrays the assassination of Julius Caesar on the Ides of March, and the resulting war between the faction led by the assassins and the faction led by Mark Anthony....
Richard III
Character: George, Duke of Clarence
Having helped his brother King Edward IV take the throne of England, the jealous hunchback Richard, Duke of Gloucester, plots to seize power for himself. Masterfully deceiving and plotting against nearly everyone in the royal court, including his eventual wife, Lady Anne, and his brother George, Duke of Clarence, Richard orchestrates a bloody rise to power before finding all his gains jeopardized by those he betrayed....
Becket
Character: King Louis VII of France
Thomas Becket, Henry II's longtime advisor, finds his friendship with the debauched king corroding when he is unwillingly appointed as Archbishop of Canterbury in an attempt to gain absolute loyalty from the Church....
Aces High
Character: Headmaster
The first World War is in its third year and aerial combat above the Western Front is consuming the nation's favored children at an appalling rate. By early 1917, the average life-span of a British pilot is less than a fortnight. Such losses place a fearsome strain on Gresham, commanding officer of the squadron. Aces High recreates the early days of the Royal Flying Corps with some magnificently staged aerial battles, and sensitive direction presents a moving portrayal of the futilities of war....
The Scarlet and the Black
Character: Pope Pius XII
Fr. Hugh O'Flaherty is a Vatican official in 1943-45 who has been hiding downed pilots, escaped prisoners of war, and Italian resistance families. His activities become so large that the Nazis decide to assassinate him the next time he leaves the Vatican....
The Loved One
Character: Sir Francis Hinsley
Newly arrived in Hollywood from England, Dennis Barlow finds he has to arrange his uncle's interment at the highly-organised and very profitable Whispering Glades funeral parlour. His fancy is caught by one of their cosmeticians, Aimee Thanatogenos. But he has three problems - the strict rules of owner Blessed Reverand Glenworthy, the rivalry of embalmer Mr Joyboy, and the shame of now working himself at The Happy Hunting Ground pets' memorial home....
Time After Time
Character: Jasper Swift
'Oh I was naughty. And I'm still naughty so take care.' And so Leda was, all those years ago when she was the childhood friend of Jasper and his three sisters April, May and June. Now she returns to add a little spice to life in their crumbling Irish country house....
Sphinx
Character: Abdu-Hamdi
Egyptologist Erica Baron finds more than she bargained for during her long-planned trip to The Land of the Pharoahs - murder, theft, betrayal, love, and a mummy's curse!...
The Canterville Ghost
Character: Sir Simon de Canterville
A young American couple inherits an English castle, only to find that it is haunted by the spirit of a disgraced ancestor, doomed to stay on the estate because of his cowardice. The only way he can escape is if one of his descendants performs an heroic act, something he intends to get the husband to do....
The Human Factor
Character: Brigadier Tomlinson
A low-ranking Secret Service agent is conned into supplying information to Eastern Bloc countries. Although he is not a suspect due to his unimportant position, when his office partner is hauled in as a suspect he realises he has got himself into very deep water....
The Leopard Son
Character: Narrator
The true story of the birth, growth and coming of age of a leopard cub in Africa's Serengeti plain. The journey of "The Leopard Son" begins at his mother's side where he discovers, through play, essential skills for survival in the wild. As it is with humans, there inevitably comes the day when a child must leave his mother to go out on his own....
Julius Caesar
Character: Cassius
The assassination of the would be ruler of Rome at the hands of Brutus and company has tragic consequences for the idealist and the republic....
Gold
Character: Farrell
Rod Slater is the newly appointed general manager of the Sonderditch gold mine, but he stumbles across an ingenious plot to flood the mine, by drilling into an underground lake, so the unscrupulous owners can make a killing in the international gold market....
Haunted
Character: Doctor Doyle
Professor David Ash exposes false spiritulists and mediums. He is invited to Edbrook to resolve the fears and torments within its secretive family. Soon after arriving Ash begins to doubt his own senses, and watching the strange behaviour of its residents does not make his task any easier. In time, he finds there's more to Edbrook than even he can debunk....
Priest of Love
Character: Herbert G. Muskett
Following the banning and burning of his novel, "The Rainbow," D.H. Lawrence and his wife, Frieda, move to the United States, and then to Mexico. When Lawrence contracts tuberculosis, they return to England for a short time, then to Italy, where Lawrence writes "Lady Chatterley's Lover."...
Quest for Camelot
Character: Merlin (voice)
During the times of King Arthur, Kayley is a brave girl who dreams of following her late father as a Knight of the Round Table. The evil Ruber wants to invade Camelot and take the throne of King Arthur, and Kayley has to stop him....
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Character: Charmolue
Quasimodo, the hunchback bellringer of Notre Dame's cathedral, meets a beautiful gypsy dancer, Esmeralda, and falls in love with her. So does Quasimodo's guardian, the archdeacon of the cathedral, and a poor street poet. But Esmeralda's in love with a handsome soldier. When a mob mistakes her for a witch, it's up to Quasimodo to rescue her and claim sanctuary for her in the cathedral....
Catastrophe
Character: The Protagonist
An autocratic Director (Harold Pinter) and his Assistant (Rebecca Pidgeon) put the final touches to the last scene of some kind of dramatic presentation, which consists entirely of a man (John Gielgud) standing still onstage....
Providence
Character: Clive Langham
On the eve of his 78th birthday, the ailing, alcoholic writer Clive Langham spends a painful and sleepless night mentally composing and recomposing scenes for a novel in which characters based on his own family are shaped by his fantasies and memories, alongside his caustic commentary on their behaviour....
Agatha Christie's Seven Dials Mystery
Character: Marquis of Caterhan
When two mysterious deaths mar an otherwise pleasant weekend in the English countryside, unflappable flapper Lady Eileen Brent teams up with the dashing Jimmy Thesinger to solve the dastardly deeds. Their sleuthing leads them into a world of espionage and international intrigue as they discover a secret society known as "The Seven Dials" and the attempted theft of top-secret government documents....
William: The Life, Works and Times of William Shakespeare
Character: Various
Special introducing William Shakespeare to young people through sketches, readings and music....
Romeo and Juliet
Character: Chorus
In Shakespeare's classic play, the Montagues and Capulets, two families of Renaissance Italy, have hated each other for years, but the son of one family and the daughter of the other fall desperately in love and secretly marry....
The Shooting Party
Character: Cornelius Cardew
1913, shortly before the outbreak of WWI. A group of aristocrats gathers at the estate of Sir Randolph Nettleby for a weekend shoot. As the terminal decrepitude of a dying class is reflected in the social interactions and hypocrisy of its members, only world weary Sir Randolph seems to realise that the sun is setting....
Lost Horizon
Character: Chang
While escaping war-torn China, a group of Europeans crash in the Himalayas, where they are rescued and taken to the mysterious Valley of the Blue Moon, Shangri-La....
The Good Companions
Character: Inigo Jollifant
Film musical taken from JB Priestley's novel about three musicians joining together to save a failing concert party, the Dinky Doos....
Quartermaine's Terms
Character: Eddie Loomis
TV adaptation of the play set in a Cambridge School of English for Foreigners in 1962. St John Quartermaine is a rather ineffective but kindly teacher at the school who, becuase of his gentle character, has hardly any enemies - in fact, the rest of the staff confide in him or generally pplay on his good nature. Then Derek Meadle arrives on the scene. He is a new part-time teacher who really wants to be full-time, but people like Quartermaine are in the way....
The Cherry Orchard
Character: Gaev
Madame Ranevsky and her daughter Anya return home from Paris to find that their beloved family estate and cherry orchard are to be auctioned off to pay debts. Lopahin, a former serf on the estate who is now a wealthy landowner, proposes razing the home and cherry orchard and dividing the estate into plots that could be leased at great profit. The family, however, continues to hold out hope that their beloved home can somehow be saved from destruction....
Why Didn't They Ask Evans?
Character: Reverend Jones
This intriguing story is set in the 1930s at a country house, where two amateur sleuths, Bobby Jones and Lady Frankie Derwent, try to unravel the mystery behind a tale of murder, suspense and false identities. And the only clues the two have to go on are the puzzling last words of a dying man. Featuring characters created by Agatha Christie, Why Didn't They Ask Evans is a classic crime thriller sure to please murder-mystery fans....
Saint Joan
Character: Earl of Warwick
Young Joan of Arc comes to the palace in France to make The Dauphin King of France and is appointed to head the French Army. After winning many battles she is not needed any longer and soon she is thought of as a witch....
Hamlet from the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre
Character: Ghost (voice)
A stage production of Hamlet filmed at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre in New York....
The Wicked Lady
Character: Hogarth
Caroline is to be wed to Sir Ralph and invites her sister Barbara to be her bridesmaid. Barbara seduces Ralph, however, and she becomes the new Lady, but despite her new wealthy situation, she gets bored and turns to highway robbery for thrills. While on the road she meets a famous highwayman, and they continue as a team, but some people begin suspecting her identity, and she risks death if she continues her nefarious activities....
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Character: The Preacher
Bosco Hogan plays Joyce's alter-ego, Stephen Daedelus, growing up in Ireland in the early part of the 20th century, and at odds with the strictures of his Catholic home and family. The film charts his search for knowledge and understanding, during a decline in his family's circumstances, that leads him to revelations on the nature of art, beauty and politics. However his personal renaissance makes him feel unwelcome in his own country, and forces him to make a choice between exile as artist or s...
A Diary for Timothy
Character: Hamlet
A narrator recounts the state of Great Britain near the end of WWII via a visual diary for the titular baby boy born in September 1944....
To Die in Madrid
Character: Narrator (English version) (voice)
Morir en Madrid brings together several papers on the Spanish Civil War and integrates capturing different points of view, intended to represent the continuity of the suffering of the Spanish during the Franco regime. The death of Federico Garcia Lorca, Guernica, the defense of Madrid, the International Brigades, are some of the items comprised in this document....
Assignment to Kill
Character: Curt Valayan
A private eye is hired by an insurance company to investigate a shipping magnate suspected of deliberately sinking his own ships for the insurance money. He finds himself involved in a web of deception, double-crossing and murder....
The Master of Ballantrae
Character: Lord Durrisdeer
The Master of Ballantrae is a 1984 TV movie based on the 1889 novel by Robert Louis Stevenson.[2] It was a co production between the US and England for the Hallmark Hall of Fame...
A Man for All Seasons
Character: Cardinal Wolsey
Story of Sir Thomas More, who refused to accept the spiritual leadership of Henry VIII, and faces death as he struggles to remain loyal to his integrity....
Scandalous
Character: Uncle Willie
An investigative reporter following an espionage story goes to London and gets involved with murder, scam artists and rock concerts....
No Man's Land
Character: Spooner
'No Man's Land' is a play by Harold Pinter written in 1974 and first performed in 1975. In this 1978, TV adaptation, a seedy poet shows up at the home of a rich writer and they start reminiscing about the 'past,' in a menacing, Pinteresque fashion....
The Barretts of Wimpole Street
Character: Edward Moulton-Barrett
Director Sidney Franklin's 1957 remake of his own 1934 film, about the romance of poets Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning....
Galileo
Character: The Old Cardinal
Challenged by a new student, tutor and theorist Galileo co-opts emerging telescope technology and discovers irrefutable proof of the heretical notion that the earth is not the center of the universe. But in a rigid society ruled by an uneasy alliance of aristocracy and clergy already undermined by the Plague and the Reformation, science is a threat and enlightenment is a luxury. Faced with either death at the hands of the Inquisition or recantation to a hypocritical but all-powerful Papacy, Gali...
Camille
Character: Duke de Charles
Camille is a courtesan in Paris. She falls deeply in love with a young man of promise, Armand Duval. When Armand's father begs her not to ruin his hope of a career and position by marrying Armand, she acquiesces and leaves her lover. However, when poverty and terminal illness overwhelm her, Camille discovers that Armand has not lost his love for her....
Eagle in a Cage
Character: Lord Sissal
1815. A soldier becomes the governor of St. Helena and jailer of Napoleon...
Probe
Character: Harold L. Streeter
That hipster ring that special agent Hugh Lockwood wears? It's a camera, transmitting image and sound of his surroundings. It's also a scanner, detecting telltale changes in pulse or other biometric readings of himself and the people around him. This ring and more electronic devices -- some embedded -- keep Lockwood linked with Probe Control, where experts and banks of computers provide instant mission-critical warnings, intel, even language translations. In this pilot film for the short-lived s...
Joseph Andrews
Character: The Doctor
Lady Booby alias 'Belle', the lively wife of the fat landed squire Sir Thomas Booby, has a lusty eye on the attractive, intelligent villager Joseph Andrews, a Latin pupil and protégé of parson Adams, and makes him their footman. Joseph's heart belongs to a country girl, foundling Fanny Goodwill, but his masters take him on a fashionable trip to Bath, where the spoiled society comes mainly to see and be seen, but drowns in the famous Roman baths. When the all but grieving lady finds Joseph's Chri...
Discovering Hamlet
Character: King Hamlet's Ghost (archive footage)
Journey into "Hamlet"-the play and the man-through the experiences of some of the major actors and directors who have brought Shakespeare's great tragedy to life. Christopher Plummer, David Tennant, John Nettles, John Simm, Sir Trevor Nunn, Franco Zeffirelli, Philip Saville, and others explore the enduring appeal of the Prince of Denmark more than 400 years after his stage debut....
The Love Song of Barney Kempinski
Character: Rich Man
On his wedding day, in the few remaining hours of his bachelorhood, Barney Kempinski goes off to tour the city and sing his song to life, love and the city of New York....
Revisiting Brideshead
Character: Self (archive footage)
Documentary with an affectionate look back at the classic Granada TV dramatisation of Evelyn Waugh's famous novel "Brideshead Revisited"....
Ages of Man
Character:
Performance of extracts from The Ages of Man is a one-man show performed by John Gielgud featuring a collection of speeches in Shakespeare's plays. When the genius of Shakespeare is wedded to the unsurpassed skills of one of the finest actors of this, or any other, age, something extraordinary happens....
The Best of Friends
Character: Sydney Cockerell
Adapted from their letters and journals, this is a portrayal of the unique 25-year friendship shared by Dame Laurentia McLachlan (Benedictine nun), Sir Sydney Cockerell (museum curator), and George Bernard Shaw (playwright/critic)....
Invitation to the Wedding
Character:
An American student arrives in England for the wedding of his room-mate's sister....
11 Harrowhouse
Character: Meecham
A small time diamond merchant jumps at the chance to supervise the purchase and cutting of a large first class diamond. But when the diamond is stolen from him, he is blackmailed into pulling off a major heist at the Diamond Exchange, located at 11 Harrowhouse....
Richard II
Character: John of Gaunt
Richard II, who ascended the throne as a child, is a regal and stately monarch. He believes he is the rightful ruler of England, ordained by God, yet he is a weak and ineffective king - wasteful in his spending habits, unwise in his choise of chansellors, and detached from his country and its people. When he seizes the land of his cousin Henry Bolingbroke, both the commoners and the barons decide that their king has gone too far......
Romance on the Orient Express
Character: Theodore Woodward
Lily, an American travelling on the famous Orient Express train from Venice, Italy to Paris, France, suddenly runs into her former lover, Alex, who met and had a tender romance ten years earlier while vacationing in France, which ended abruptly when he walked out on her without saying a word. Now Alex tries to make up for lost time with Lily while she digs into his past to find out what haunting secrets that he has which led to their abrupt break-up....
Looking for Richard
Character: Self - Interviewee
Al Pacino's deeply-felt rumination on Shakespeare's significance and relevance to the modern world through interviews and an in-depth analysis of "Richard III."...
Hamlet
Character: Priam
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, returns home to find his father murdered and his mother now marrying the murderer... his uncle. Meanwhile, war is brewing....
Home
Character: Harry
David Storey's adaptation of his award winning play for the BBC's Play for Today series....
Sebastian
Character: Head of Intelligence
Sebastian is an undisciplined mathematics genius who works in the "cipher bureau" of the British Intelligence. While cracking enemy codes, Sebastian finds time to romance co-worker Rebecca Howard....
The Prime Minister
Character: Disraeli
Directed by Thorold Dickinson....
The Strauss Dynasty
Character: Drechsler
...
Getting It Right
Character: Sir Gordon Munday
Gavin is 31 years old and still lives with his parents. He is awfully shy but before he knows it there are three women interested in him. Lady Minerva Munday has a casual way of life and lives in a basement, Joan is an over-sexed millionairess, married to a Greek architect. But Gavin prefers the ugly assistant in the barbershop....
The Portrait of a Lady
Character: Mr. Touchett
Ms. Isabel Archer isn't afraid to challenge societal norms. Impressed by her free spirit, her kindhearted cousin writes her into his fatally ill father's will. Suddenly rich and independent, Isabelle ventures into the world, along the way befriending a cynical intellectual and romancing an art enthusiast. However, the advantage of her affluence is called into question when she realizes the extent to which her money colors her relationships....
Insult
Character: Henri Dubois
'Africa. Half-caste Legionnaire dies to save governor, the son of major who hates him.' (British Film Catalogue)...
Shine
Character: Cecil Parkes
Pianist David Helfgott, driven by his father and teachers, has a breakdown. Years later he returns to the piano, to popular if not critical acclaim....
Inside the Third Reich
Character: Albert Speer Sr.
A dramatization of the life of Albert Speer, Hitler's young architect and onetime confidant, and his meteoric rise into the Nazi hierarchy. Based upon Speer's own monograph of the same title....
The Conductor
Character: John Lasocki
A violinist in a provincial Polish orchestra, whose husband is the director of the ensemble, on a visit to the US ties up with the world- renowned symphony conductor. As it turns out he was once in love with violinist's mother. The conductor, a slightly unstable hypochondriac, returns to Poland to lead the provincial orchestra. He also tries to revive old love affair using the violinist as a surrogate of her mother. Her husband is resentful of the conductor for both personal and professional rea...
Heredity in Man
Character: Self
A study of heredity in man, showing how both good and bad characteristics are passed on from one generation to the next....
A TV Dante
Character: Virgil
A TV Dante is an experimental mini-series directed by Tom Phillips and legendary filmmaker Peter Greenaway. It covers eight of the thirty-four cantos in Dante Alighieri's Inferno, part of his 14th century epic poem The Divine Comedy. The eight cantos of the film are not conventionally dramatised, rather they are illuminated with layered and juxtaposed imagery while the text is read entirely in "talking head" fashion, and punctuated with a kaleidoscopic blend of both newly shot and archival foota...
Leave All Fair
Character: John Middleton Murry
John Middleton Murry visits France to finalize the publication of a collection of his late wife, Katherine Mansfield's, letters and journals. The publisher's girlfriend Marie (who physically resembles Mansfield) and Murry become friends. Marie gradually learns that Murry not only profited greatly from his publication of Mansfield's writings, but that as her editor he sacrificed the real Mansfield to his own romantic dream, and even that he published her letters and journals against her expr...
The Shoes of the Fisherman
Character: The Elder pope
All eyes focus on the Vatican, watching for the traditional puffs of white smoke that signal the election of the next Pope. This time much more is at stake. The new pontiff may be the only person who can bring peace to a world on the brink of nuclear nightmare....
Around the World in Eighty Days
Character: Foster
Based on the famous book by Jules Verne the movie follows Phileas Fogg on his journey around the world. Which has to be completed within 80 days, a very short period for those days....
Strike It Rich
Character: Herbert Dreuther
A London accountant on his honeymoon gets swept away by gambling fever....
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Character: Lord Henry Wotton
In Victorian England, handsome Dorian Gray makes a Faustian deal that his portrait painted by Basil Hallward (Jeremy Brett) will age while he remains young. But his vain bargain eventually leads to murder and destroys Gray's life. This 1976 installment of the BBC's long-running "Play of the Month" television series co-stars Gwen Ffrangcon Davies, Judi Bowker and John Gielgud as Lord Henry Wotton....
Funny, You Don't Look 200: A Constitutional Vaudeville
Character: British Lord
An all-star cast lead by Richard Dreyfus perform sketches celebrating the bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution, including new animation done by Disney....
Romeo and Juliet
Character: Chorus
BBC Play of the Month adaptation of Shakespeare's tragic love story....
Romeo & Juliet
Character: Chorus
Two households, both alike in dignity, in fair Verona where we lay our scene, from ancient grudge break to new mutiny where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. From forth the fatal loins of these two foes a pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life whose misadventur'd piteous overthrows doth with their death bury their parents' strife....
The Tichborne Claimant
Character: Cockburn
Based on a true story, set in the late 19th century: Lord Tichborne, the ninth richest nobleman in England, disappears after a South American shipwreck. Some years later his erudite Afro-English valet, Bogle, is sent to investigate rumors that Tichborne survived and settled in Australia. An alcoholic ruffian answer's Bogle's inquiries claiming to be the lost heir. Bogle suspects fraud, but conspires with the claimant to split the inheritance should the latter succesfully pass himself off to frie...
Heartbreak House
Character: Captain Shotover
Captain Shotover, a retired seafarer, is reluctantly hosting a weekend house party for his two daughters and their bohemian friends. As they indulge in dangerous flirtations, will anyone notice their drift to destruction?...
Theban Plays: Oedipus the King
Character: Tieresias
Plagues are ravaging Thebes, and the blind fortune-teller Tieresias tells Oedipus, the King, that the gods are unhappy. The murder of the former king has gone unavenged, and Oedipus sets out to find the killer....
Theban Plays: Antigone
Character: Tiresias
In a final battle for the control of Thebes, Oedipus's two sons kill each other. Creon issues an order that no one is to bury Polynices upon pain of death. But Antigone is determined that her brother's body will have the proper rites of burial....
Peter Pan
Character: Narrator
Peter Pan is a 1976 musical adaptation of J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan, or the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, produced for television as part of the Hallmark Hall of Fame, starring Mia Farrow as Peter Pan and Danny Kaye as Captain Hook, and with Sir John Gielgud narrating. Julie Andrews sang one of the songs, "Once Upon a Bedtime", off-camera over the opening credits. It aired on NBC at 7:30pm on Sunday, December 12, 1976, capping off the program's 25th year on the air. The program did not use the score ...
October Revolution
Character: Narrator (voice)
French director Frederic Rossif presents this historical documentary that coincided with the 50th anniversary of the Russian Revolution. Stock footage from both World Wars are included with 30 minutes of new scenes filmed especially for the project. The historical timeline is traced from the time Czar Nicholas II is crowned. The emergence of Lenin, his death in 1924, and the later contributions of Trotsky and Stalin give the viewer a sense of death, betrayal, and ideological devotion to the comm...
Preminger: Anatomy of a Filmmaker
Character: Self (archive footage)
This documentary, hosted by actor Burgess Meredith, explores the life and career of movie director Otto Preminger, whose body of work includes such memorable films as Anatomy of a Murder, Exodus, Laura, Forever Amber, Advise and Consent, In Harm's Way, The Moon Is Blue, The Man with the Golden Arm, and many other movies made from the '30s through the '70s. Interviews with actors Frank Sinatra, Vincent Price, James Stewart, Michael Caine, and others who worked with the flamboyant and sometimes co...
The Thomas The Tank Engine Man
Character: Self (Voice)
Semi-Biographical film documenting the life of The Reverend Wilbert Awdry, creator of the beloved Thomas The tank Engine Stories...
Rachmaninoff: The Harvest of Sorrow
Character:
Tony Palmer tells the life story of Sergei Rachmaninoff through the use of home movies, concert footage, and interviews. John Gielgud reads from Rachmaninoff's diaries in a voiceover....
A TV Dante (Cantos 9 to 14)
Character: Virgil (voice)
These six video segments (10 minutes each) were originally developed for broadcast on Channel 4 as the second installment in the larger, never completed, series comissioned for Peter Greenaway and Tom Philips' A TV Dante (1989). But it was never aired. Ruiz's treatment of the six Cantos can be taken together as a bridge between his previous visions of hell in Mémoire des apparences AKA Life is a Dream (1986) and La Chouette aveugle (1987) and themore recent series of essay videos that he has ma...
In from the Cold? A Portrait of Richard Burton
Character: Self
Tony Palmer's award-winning feature-length documentary profile of Richard Burton....
Vivien Leigh: Scarlett and Beyond
Character: Self
The life and career of two-time Oscar winner Vivien Leigh, who battled tuberculosis and manic-depression but always remained a star....
Nothing Like a Dame
Character: Self (archive footage)
BBC Arena's documentary on the Dames of British Theatre and film featuring Maggie Smith, Elieen Atkins, Judi Dench and Joan Plowright on screen together for the first time as they reminisce over a long summer weekend in a house Joan once shared with Sir Laurence Olivier....
Ariel’s Song / Full Fathom Five
Character: Narrator
Len Lye made this experiment in animating poetry circa 1953 utilising a clip of Sir John Gielgud reciting a passage from The Tempest....
Caligula: The Ultimate Cut
Character: Nerva
...