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Hamlet (1948 Film)
''Hamlet '' is a 1948 British film adaptation of William Shakespeare's play of the same name, adapted and directed by and starring Laurence Olivier. ''Hamlet'' was Olivier's second film as director and the second of the three Shakespeare films that he directed (the 1936 '' As You Like It'' had starred Olivier, but had been directed by Paul Czinner). ''Hamlet'' was the first British film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. It is the first sound film of the play in English. Olivier's ''Hamlet'' is the Shakespeare film that has received the most prestigious accolades, winning the Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Actor and the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. However, it proved controversial among Shakespearean purists, who felt that Olivier had made too many alterations and excisions to the four-hour play by cutting nearly two hours' worth of content. Milton Shulman wrote in ''The Evening Standard'': "To some it will be one of the greatest films ever made, t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laurence Olivier
Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier (; 22 May 1907 – 11 July 1989) was an English actor and director who, along with his contemporaries Ralph Richardson and John Gielgud, was one of a trio of male actors who dominated the British stage of the mid-20th century. He also worked in films throughout his career, playing more than fifty cinema roles. Late in his career, he had considerable success in television roles. His family had no theatrical connections, but Olivier's father, a clergyman, decided that his son should become an actor. After attending a drama school in London, Olivier learned his craft in a succession of acting jobs during the late 1920s. In 1930 he had his first important West End success in Noël Coward's '' Private Lives'', and he appeared in his first film. In 1935 he played in a celebrated production of ''Romeo and Juliet'' alongside Gielgud and Peggy Ashcroft, and by the end of the decade he was an established star. In the 1940s, together with Richa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Esmond Knight
Esmond Penington Knight (4 May 1906 – 23 February 1987) was an English actor. He had a successful stage and film career before World War II. For much of his later career Knight was half-blind. He had been badly wounded in 1941 while on active service on board HMS ''Prince of Wales'' when she fought the ''Bismarck'' at the Battle of the Denmark Strait, and remained totally blind for two years, though he later regained some sight in his right eye. Childhood Knight was born on 4 May 1906 in East Sheen Surrey, the third son of Francis and Bertha Knight. His father was involved in the family cigar import business. He was educated at Willington Preparatory School in Putney and then Westminster School. Early career He was an accomplished actor with a career spanning over half a century. He established himself in the 1920s on stage. In John Gielgud's 1930 production of ''Hamlet'' he played Rosencrantz. He also appeared in films. In ''Romany Love'' (1931) he played "a swaggering gyp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tapestry
Tapestry is a form of textile art, traditionally woven by hand on a loom. Tapestry is weft-faced weaving, in which all the warp threads are hidden in the completed work, unlike most woven textiles, where both the warp and the weft threads may be visible. In tapestry weaving, weft yarns are typically discontinuous; the artisan interlaces each coloured weft back and forth in its own small pattern area. It is a plain weft-faced weave having weft threads of different colours worked over portions of the warp to form the design. Tapestry is relatively fragile, and difficult to make, so most historical pieces are intended to hang vertically on a wall (or sometimes in tents), or sometimes horizontally over a piece of furniture such as a table or bed. Some periods made smaller pieces, often long and narrow and used as borders for other textiles. European tapestries are normally made to be seen only from one side, and often have a plain lining added on the back. However, other tradi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jean Simmons
Jean Merilyn Simmons, (31 January 1929 – 22 January 2010) was a British actress and singer. One of J. Arthur Rank's "well-spoken young starlets", she appeared predominantly in films, beginning with those made in Great Britain during and after World War II, followed mainly by Hollywood films from 1950 onwards. Simmons was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for ''Hamlet'' (1948), and won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress for ''Guys and Dolls'' (1955). Her other film appearances include ''Young Bess'' (1953), '' The Robe'' (1953), '' The Big Country'' (1958), ''Elmer Gantry'' (1960), '' Spartacus'' (1960), and the 1969 film ''The Happy Ending'', for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. She also won an Emmy Award for the miniseries '' The Thorn Birds'' (1983). Biography Early life Simmons was born on 31 January 1929, in Islington, London, to Charles Simmons, a bronze medalist in gymnastics at the 1912 Summer Olympics ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ophelia (character)
Ophelia () is a character in William Shakespeare's drama ''Hamlet'' (1599–1601). She is a young noblewoman of Denmark, the daughter of Polonius, sister of Laertes and potential wife of Prince Hamlet, who, due to Hamlet's actions, ends up in a state of madness that ultimately leads to her drowning. Along with Queen Gertrude, Ophelia is one of only two female characters in the original play. Name Like most characters in ''Hamlet'', Ophelia's name is not Danish. It first appeared in Jacopo Sannazaro's 1504 poem '' Arcadia'' (as ''Ofelia''), probably derived from Ancient Greek ὠφέλεια (''ōphéleia'', "benefit"). Plot In Ophelia's first speaking appearance in the play, she is seen with her brother, Laertes, who is leaving for France. Laertes warns her that Hamlet, the heir to the throne of Denmark, does not have the freedom to marry whomever he wants. Ophelia's father, Polonius, who enters while Laertes is leaving, also forbids Ophelia from pursuing Hamlet, as Pol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Felix Aylmer
Sir Felix Edward Aylmer Jones, OBE (21 February 1889 – 2 September 1979) was an English stage actor who also appeared in the cinema and on television. Aylmer made appearances in films with comedians such as Will Hay and George Formby. Early life Felix Aylmer was born in Corsham, Wiltshire, the son of Lilian (Cookworthy) and Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Edward Aylmer Jones. He was educated at King James's Grammar School, Almondbury, near Huddersfield, where he was a boarder from 1897 to 1900, Magdalen College School, and Exeter College, Oxford, where he was a member of Oxford University Dramatic Society (OUDS). He trained under the Victorian-era actress and director Rosina Filippi before securing his first professional engagement at the London Coliseum in 1911. He appeared in the world premiere of ''The Farmer's Wife'' by Eden Phillpotts at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre in 1917. Between 1917 and 1919 he served as a junior officer in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (R.N.V ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polonius
Polonius is a character in William Shakespeare's play ''Hamlet''. He is chief counsellor of the play's ultimate villain, Claudius, and the father of Laertes and Ophelia. Generally regarded as wrong in every judgment he makes over the course of the play, Polonius is described by William Hazlitt as a "sincere" father, but also "a busy-body, hois accordingly officious, garrulous, and impertinent". In Act II, Hamlet refers to Polonius as a "tedious old fool" and taunts him as a latter day "Jephtha". Polonius connives with Claudius to spy on Hamlet. Hamlet unknowingly kills Polonius, provoking Ophelia's descent into madness, ultimately resulting in her (probable) suicide and the climax of the play: a duel between Laertes and Hamlet. Character Father of Ophelia and Laertes, and counsellor to King Claudius, he is described as a windbag by some and a rambler of wisdom by others. It has also been suggested that he only acts like a "foolish prating knave" to keep his position and popu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prince Hamlet
A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. The female equivalent is a princess. The English word derives, via the French word ''prince'', from the Latin noun , from (first) and (head), meaning "the first, foremost, the chief, most distinguished, noble ruler, prince". Historical background The Latin word (older Latin *prīsmo-kaps, literally "the one who takes the first lace/position), became the usual title of the informal leader of the Roman senate some centuries before the transition to empire, the ''princeps senatus''. Emperor Augustus established the formal position of monarch on the basis of principate, not dominion. He also tasked his grandsons as summer rulers of the city when most of the government were on holiday in the country or attending religious rituals, and, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
King Hamlet
The ghost of Hamlet's father is a character from William Shakespeare's play ''Hamlet''. In the stage directions he is referred to as "Ghost". His name is also Hamlet, and he is referred to as ''King'' Hamlet to distinguish him from the Prince, his son and the protagonist of the story. He is loosely based on a legendary Jutish chieftain named Horwendill, who appears in '' Chronicon Lethrense'' and in Saxo Grammaticus' ''Gesta Danorum''. According to oral tradition, the Ghost was originally played on stage by Shakespeare himself.Sylvan Barnet, "Shakespeare: An Overview," in ''Macbeth'', ed. Sylvan Barnet, A Signet Classic, 1998, p. ix. In ''Hamlet'' The Ghost appears 4 times throughout the play: in Act I, Scene i; in the continuum of Act I, Scenes iv and v; and in Act III, Scene iv. The Ghost arrives shortly after midnight in at least two of the scenes, and in the other scenes, all that is known is that it is night. The Ghost first appears to a duo of soldiers—Bernardo an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Basil Sydney
Basil Sydney (23 April 1894 – 10 January 1968) was an English stage and screen actor. Career Sydney made his name in 1915 in the London stage hit ''Romance'' by Edward Sheldon, with Broadway star Doris Keane, and he costarred with Keane in the 1920 silent film of the play. The couple married in 1918, and when Keane revived ''Romance'' in New York City in 1921, Sydney made his Broadway debut in the parts. He stayed in New York for over a decade playing classical roles such as Mercutio in ''Romeo and Juliet'' (1922), Richard Dudgeon in '' The Devil's Disciple'' (1923), the title role in '' Hamlet'' (1923), Prince Hal in ''Henry IV, Part I'' (1926), and Petruchio in '' Taming of the Shrew'' (1927). In 1937 he starred in the murder mystery '' Blondie White'' in the West End. He made over 50 screen appearances, most memorably as Claudius in Laurence Olivier's 1948 film of '' Hamlet.'' He also appeared in classic films like '' Treasure Island'' (1950), ''Ivanhoe'' (1952), and ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
King Claudius
King Claudius is a fictional character and the main antagonist of William Shakespeare's tragedy ''Hamlet''. He is the brother to King Hamlet, second husband to Gertrude and uncle and later stepfather to Prince Hamlet. He obtained the throne of Denmark by murdering his brother with poison and then marrying the late king's widow. He is loosely based on the Jutish chieftain Feng who appears in ''Chronicon Lethrense'' and in Saxo Grammaticus' '' Gesta Danorum''. There has never been an actual Danish King of that name. Overview Claudius is seen at the beginning of the play to be a capable monarch as he deals diplomatically with such issues as the military threat from Norway and Hamlet's depression. It is not until the appearance of King Hamlet's Ghost in the courtyard that the audience questions his motives. During the play's progression he takes a turn for the worse by first resorting to spying, and, when that fails, murder. It is in Act III Scene 3, when Claudius forestalls Ha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eileen Herlie
Eileen Herlie (March 8, 1918 – October 8, 2008) was a Scottish-American actress. Personal life Eileen Herlie was born Eileen Isobel Herlihy to an Irish Catholic father, Patrick Herlihy, and a Scottish Protestant mother, Isobel Cowden, in Glasgow, Scotland, and was one of five children. She attended Shawlands Academy, on the city's southside. Herlie was trained as a theatre actress. Among her West End London theatre successes were '' The Eagle Has Two Heads'' by Jean Cocteau. She was married twice, to Philip Barrett (m 1942) and Witold Kuncewicz (m 1951), both marriages ending in divorce. She had no children. In 1955 she moved permanently to the United States, where she lived and worked for the last fifty-three years of her life. Career Against the wishes of her parents, she chose to become an actress when she joined the non-professional touring company Scottish National Players in 1938. She subsequently toured with the semi-professional Rutherglen Repertory Company. I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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