Shakespeare experts Sir John Gielgud and Kenneth Branagh consider the definitive rendition of the Bard's tragic tale to be the 1964 Russian film Gamlet () based on a translation by Boris Pasternak and directed by Grigori Kozintsev, with a score by Dmitri Shostakovich.

John Gielgud directed Richard Burton in a Broadway production at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre in 1964 – 5, the longest-running Hamlet in the U. S. to date.

Gielgud also directed, produced and acted in the 1948 Broadway production whose cast won a special Tony Award for " Outstanding Foreign Company ".

John Gielgud directed Twelfth Night and wrote, "... perhaps I will still make a good thing of that divine play, especially if he will let me pull her little ladyship ( who is brainier than he but not a born actress ) out of her timidity and safeness.

* Secret Agent ( 1936 ) with John Gielgud, Peter Lorre, Madeleine Carroll, and Robert Young, directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

In 1980 he directed Lion of the Desert, in which Quinn and Irene Papas were joined by Oliver Reed, Rod Steiger, and John Gielgud.

* Beckett's Catastrophe – dedicated to then-imprisoned Czech dissident playwright Václav Havel, who became president of Czechoslovakia after the 1989 Velvet Revolution – was first performed at the Avignon Festival on July 21, 1982 ; the film version ( in Beckett on Film ) was directed by David Mamet and performed by Harold Pinter, Sir John Gielgud, and Rebecca Pidgeon.

After touring Britain as Viola in Twelfth Night ( 1943 ) she returned to the West End to be directed by John Gielgud as Sister Joanna in The Cradle Song ( Apollo, 1944 ).

After leaving the Rank Organisation in the early 1960s, Bogarde abandoned his heart-throb image for more challenging parts, such as barrister Melville Farr in Victim ( 1961 ), directed by Basil Dearden ; decadent valet Hugo Barrett in The Servant ( 1963 ), which garnered him a BAFTA Award, directed by Joseph Losey and written by Harold Pinter ; The Mind Benders ( 1963 ), a film ahead of its times in which Bogarde plays an Oxford professor conducting sensory deprivation experiments at Oxford University ( precursor to Altered States ( 1980 )); the anti-war film King & Country ( 1964 ), playing an army lawyer reluctantly defending deserter Tom Courtenay, directed by Joseph Losey ; a television broadcaster-writer Robert Gold in Darling ( 1965 ), for which Bogarde won a second BAFTA Award, directed by John Schlesinger ; Stephen, a bored Oxford University professor, in Losey's Accident, ( 1967 ) also written by Pinter ; Our Mother's House ( 1967 ), an off-beat film-noir directed by Jack Clayton in which Bogarde plays an n ' er do well father who descends upon " his " seven children on the death of their mother, British entry at the Venice Film Festival ; German industrialist Frederick Bruckmann in Luchino Visconti's La Caduta degli dei, The Damned ( 1969 ) co-starring Ingrid Thulin ; as ex-Nazi, Max Aldorfer, in the chilling and controversial Il Portiere di notte, The Night Porter ( 1974 ), co-starring Charlotte Rampling, directed by Liliana Cavani ; and most notably, as Gustav von Aschenbach in Morte a Venezia, Death in Venice ( 1971 ), also directed by Visconti ; as Claude, the lawyer son of a dying, drunken writer ( John Gielgud ) in the well-received, multi-dimensional French film Providence ( 1977 ), directed by Alain Resnais ; as industrialist Hermann Hermann who descends into madness in Despair ( 1978 ) directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder ; and as Daddy in Bertrand Tavernier's Daddy Nostalgie, ( aka These Foolish Things ) ( 1991 ), co-starring Jane Birkin as his daughter, Bogarde's final film role.

) ( 1962 ), playing sadistic Lieutenant Scott-Padget, co-starring Sir Alec Guinness ; I Could Go On Singing ( 1963 ), co-starring Judy Garland in her final screen role ; Hot Enough for June, ( aka " Agent 8¾ ") ( 1964 ), a James Bond-type spy spoof co-starring Robert Morley ; Modesty Blaise ( 1966 ), a campy spy send-up playing archvillain Gabriel opposite Monica Vitti and Terence Stamp and directed by Joseph Losey ; The Fixer ( 1968 ), based on Bernard Malamud's novel, co-starring Alan Bates ; Sebastian ( 1968 ), as Sebastian, a mathematician working on code decryption, who falls in love with Susannah York, a decrypter in the all-female decoding office he heads for British Intelligence, also co-starring Sir John Gielgud, and Lilli Palmer, co-produced by Michael Powell ; Oh!

What a Lovely War ( 1969 ), co-starring Sir John Gielgud and Sir Laurence Olivier and directed by Richard Attenborough ; Justine ( 1969 ), directed by George Cukor ; Le Serpent ( 1973 ), co-starring Henry Fonda and Yul Brynner ; A Bridge Too Far ( 1977 ), in a controversial performance as Lieutenant General Frederick " Boy " Browning, also starring Sean Connery and an all-star cast and again directed by Richard Attenborough.

In 1952 he appeared at the Stratford-upon-Avon Festival at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre ( forerunner of the Royal Shakespeare Company ) but had mixed reviews: his Prospero in The Tempest was judged too prosaic, and his Macbeth, directed by Gielgud, was thought unconvincingly villainous (" Richardson's playing of Macbeth suggests a fatal disparity between his temperament and the part ").

* Oedipus by Seneca translated by Ted Hughes, directed by Peter Brook, with John Gielgud as Oedipus, Irene Worth as Jocasta ( 1968 ).

* The Tempest with John Gielgud as Prospero, directed by Peter Hall ( 1974 ).

* No Man's Land by Harold Pinter, directed by Peter Hall, with Ralph Richardson and John Gielgud ( 1975 )

He also starred with Christopher Plummer, John Gielgud, and Barbara Bouchet in the television film The Scarlet and The Black, about Monsignor Hugh O ' Flaherty, a real-life Roman Catholic priest in the Vatican who smuggled Jews and other refugees away from the Nazis during World War II.

Gielgud had triumphs in many other plays, notably his greatest popular success Richard of Bordeaux ( 1933 ) ( a romantic version of the story of Richard II ), The Importance of Being Earnest which he first performed at the Lyric Hammersmith in 1930 and which remained in his repertory until 1947, and a legendary production of Romeo and Juliet ( 1935 ) which Gielgud directed and alternated the roles of Romeo and Mercutio with a young Laurence Olivier in his first professional Shakespearean leading role.

There's A Girl In My Soup was a long-running comedy opening in 1966 at the Globe Theatre ( now called the Gielgud Theatre ) and running for over 1, 000 performances, then becoming a worldwide smash hit with long runs on Broadway, Paris, Berlin, Stockholm, Sydney, Rome ( starring the famous Italian singer-songwriter-actor Domenico Modugno ), Vienna, Prague and many other places.

Other greats turned down the producers ' overtures for other reasons, e. g., Joel McCrea, Frances Dee, Katharine Hepburn, John Gielgud.

Pacino also features other actors famous for performing Shakespeare, such as Vanessa Redgrave, Kenneth Branagh, John Gielgud, Derek Jacobi, James Earl Jones, and Kevin Kline.

Since Burton disliked wearing period clothing, Gielgud conceived a production in a " rehearsal " setting with a half-finished set and actors wearing their street clothes ( carefully selected while the production really was in rehearsal ).

Many of Britain's top actors, including John Gielgud, Robert Morley and Joyce Grenfell, paid tribute at a memorial service, where 90-year-old Sybil Thorndike praised her friend's enormous talent and recalled that Rutherford had " never said anything horrid about anyone ".

Although not always acknowledged for this achievement, Gielgud set a precedent in establishing a company of actors gathered together to present classics.

The UK has had a large impact on modern cinema, producing some of the greatest actors, directors and motion pictures of all time including, Sir Alfred Hitchcock, Charlie Chaplin, David Lean, Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh, Audrey Hepburn, John Gielgud, Sean Connery, Richard Burton, Vanessa Redgrave, Michael Caine, Anthony Hopkins and Daniel Day-Lewis.

Notable actors who have portrayed Shylock include Richard Burbage in the 16th century, Charles Macklin in 1741, Edmund Kean in 1814, William Charles Macready in 1840, Edwin Booth in 1861, Henry Irving in 1880, George Arliss in 1928, John Gielgud in 1937, Laurence Olivier at the Royal National Theatre in 1972 and on TV in 1973, Patrick Stewart in 1965 at the Theatre Royal, Bristol and 1978, plus ( as Shylock ) in a one-man stage show Mr. Stewart developed entitled " Shylock: Shakespeare's Alien " in 1987 and 2001, Al Pacino in a 2004 feature film version as well as in Central Park in 2010, and F. Murray Abraham at the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2006.

For BBC Radio 3 he wrote a series of monologues entitled Barnes's People, for which he attracted a large number of well known actors: Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud, Alec Guinness, Peggy Ashcroft, Judi Dench, and Ian McKellen.

He has worked with distinguished actors including Anthony Hopkins, Claire Bloom, John Gielgud, Nigel Hawthorne, Michael Gambon, Judi Dench and Ben Kingsley on the adaptation of another George Eliot work Silas Marner in 1986.

" Other actors famed for their performance of Malvolio include Sir Alec Guinness, Henry Irving, E. H. Sothern, Herbert Beerbohm Tree, Henry Ainley, John Gielgud, Simon Russell Beale, Maurice Evans, Ken Dodd, Richard Briers, Sir Nigel Hawthorne and Sir Derek Jacobi.

He spent his youth in New York City, working on Broadway in theater productions with actors such as Richard Burton, John Gielgud, Laurence Olivier and Anthony Quinn.

Well-known actors who have appeared on the stage at the Playhouse include Rowan Atkinson, Ronnie Barker, Dirk Bogarde, Judi Dench, John Gielgud, Ian McKellen, Dudley Moore, Bill Hicks and Maggie Smith.

Gielgud played the central role many times: his 1936 New York production ran for 136 performances, leading to the accolade that he was " the finest interpreter of the role since Barrymore ".

Hamlet was a challenge that both terrified and attracted him, as it was a role many of his peers in the British theatre had undertaken, including John Gielgud and Laurence Olivier.

Gielgud is often praised with inventing many of the techniques of radio drama still common in the form today.

Throughout the war, many well-known artists performed in the Royal Court, including Ivor Novello, Margot Fonteyn, John Gielgud and Richard Burton who appeared in an Emlyn Williams production.

A man of many talents, he recorded a record album entitled Great Voices Read Poetry ( 1954-1955 ) along with Richard Burton, Dame Peggy Ashcroft, John Gielgud, Robert Hardy, and Anthony Quayle.

* 1977: John Gielgud made his final appearance in a Shakespearean role on stage as Julius Caesar in John Schlesinger's production at the Royal National Theatre.

It has always been, however, for his Shakespearean work that Gielgud has been best known.

Gielgud made his final Shakespearean appearance on stage in 1977 in the title role of John Schlesinger's production of Julius Caesar at the Royal National Theatre.

Of his Shakespearean roles on Broadway, Cromwell played Paris, kinsman to the prince, in Romeo and Juliet ( 1935 ) starring Katharine Cornell, who also produced the play, and Maurice Evans, in the title roles ; Rosencrantz in Hamlet ( 1936 ), which was staged and produced by Guthrie McClintic ( Cornell's husband, who had been married to Estelle Winwood ), starring John Gielgud in the title role, Judith Anderson as Gertrude, and Lillian Gish as Ophelia ; and Lennox in the revival of Macbeth ( 1948 ) starring Michael Redgrave in the title role and Flora Robson as Lady Macbeth, with Julie Harris as a witch, Martin Balsam as one of the three murderers, and Beatrice Straight as Lady MacDuff.

After ITMA, Guyler worked in varied roles from BBC Children's Hour to classical parts, including with John Gielgud in King Lear.

His Old Vic roles included Caliban to the Prospero of John Gielgud, and Prince Hal to Gielgud's Hotspur, beginning a professional association and friendship that lasted for five decades.

Gielgud engaged Peggy Ashcroft as Juliet and Edith Evans as the nurse, who played the same roles three years later in his legendary production of the play at the New Theatre.

This was followed by roles opposite Clive Brook in Freedom Radio, John Gielgud in The Prime Minister and Michael Redgrave in Kipps ( all 1941 ), directed by Carol Reed to whom she was later briefly married.

With her debut in talkies only moderately successful, she acted on the stage for the most part in the 1930s and early 1940s, appearing in roles as varied as Ophelia in Guthrie McClintic's landmark 1936 production of Hamlet ( with John Gielgud and Judith Anderson ) and Marguerite in a limited run of La Dame aux Camélias.

Gielgud followed up this triumph with a legendary production of Hamlet in which he both played the title role and directed a company that included Jessica Tandy, Jack Hawkins and a young Alec Guinness in one of his first professional roles as Osric.

** In 1935, Laurence Olivier and John Gielgud alternated the roles of Romeo and Mercutio in a London stage production directed by Gielgud.

However, her time there was more noted for a succession of Shakespearian roles ( the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet, Portia in The Merchant of Venice, the Queen in Richard II, Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Portia in Julius Caesar ), including some alongside John Gielgud ( Rosalind in As You Like It, Lady Macbeth in Macbeth, and Queen Gertrude in Hamlet ).

On film, her roles have included: Sheila McVicar ( to Roger Daltrey's John McVicar ) in 1980's McVicar ; Jennie Liddell in 1981's Oscar-winning Chariots of Fire ; Lady Aline Hartlip in 1984's The Shooting Party ( with Dorothy Tutin, James Mason and John Gielgud ); and Lady Alice Clayton ( Tarzan's mother ) in 1984's Greystoke-The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes.

His theatre roles included Yasha in The Cherry Orchard and Henry Percy ( Hotspur ) in Richard II both for John Gielgud, Exton in Richard II and Volscian Senator in Coriolanus ( Almeida Theatre ), Marley's Ghost in A Christmas Carol ( Royal Shakespeare Company ) and Uncle in Inner Voices ( Royal National Theatre ), as well as working extensively at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester.

Byam Shaw continued to work with Gielgud, playing Laertes to his Hamlet in 1934, and Benvolio in the celebrated 1935 Old Vic production of Romeo and Juliet with Peggy Ashcroft as Juliet and Gielgud and Olivier alternating the roles of Romeo and Mercutio.

She is best known for her roles as Lorraine Prescott on the CBS soap opera Falcon Crest from ( 1984 – 1985 ), the stuck-up and popular Benny Hanson in the comedy film Pretty in Pink ( 1986 ), Mary-John Lovejoy in ' The Lost Colony ' episode of Lovejoy ( co-starring with John Gielgud and Ian McShane ), and Ellen Tigh on the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica.

During World War II, Carey toured with John Gielgud for the Entertainments National Service Association ( ENSA ) bringing theatre to members of the armed forces at home and abroad, recreating some of her roles from Tonight at 8: 30.