Donald Wolfit

Donald Wolfit (April 20, 1902 – February 17, 1968) was an English actor-manager, knighted in 1957 for his services to the theatre.

Wolfit was born in Newark, Nottinghamshire, and attended the Magnus Grammar School (now Magnus Church of England School) and made his stage début in 1920. He first appeared in the West End in 1924, playing The Wandering Jew but had limited success afterwards, though he did play some major supporting roles at the Old Vic Theatre in 1930 (including Claudius to John Gielgud's first Hamlet, starting a life-long rivalry between the two^[1]) and appeared in the smash hit Richard of Bordeaux (again in support of Gielgud). Wolfit finally made a name for himself at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in 1936 as Hamlet, and he tried to persuade the management to finance him on a tour of the provinces. They declined the invitation, so he withdrew his savings and started his own touring company in 1937^[2], which he would lead for the remainder of his life.

Wolfit's speciality was Shakespeare, known especially for his performances as King Lear and Richard III as well as Oedipus, Volpone and Christopher Marlowe's Tamburlaine. His touring company performed in London during the Battle of Britain in 1940 and Wolfit staged a very successful series of abridged versions of Shakespeare's plays in London during World War II in the early afternoon for lunchtime audiences, but he was very unpopular with American critics when he took the company to Broadway in 1947. He appeared at the Royal Shakespeare Company during the 1950s in his signature role of King Lear, and was invited to play Falstaff at the RSC in 1962 but angrily turned the offer down when he discovered that Paul Scofield would be playing Lear there at the same time, saying "Lear is still the brightest jewel in my crown!"^[3].

Wolfit was primarily a stage actor, although he appeared in over thirty films (most notably Blood of the Vampire, Becket, and Lawrence of Arabia). He was nominated for BAFTA Awards for his performances in Svengali (1954) and Room at the Top (1959).

At one time, Ronald Harwood was his dresser and he based his play and film The Dresser on his relationship with Wolfit. Harwood also wrote his biography.

Donald Wolfit died from cardiovascular disease at the age of 66.

References

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