Ralph Richardson

SIR RALPH RICHARDSON d1983.  English theatre and film actor. He had no thought of a stage career until a production of Hamlet in Brighton inspired him to become an actor. He learned his craft in the 1920s with a touring company and later the Birmingham Rep Theatre. In 1931 he joined the Old Vic playing mostly Shakespearean roles. He led the company the following season, succeeding John Gielgud, who had taught him much about stage technique. After he left the company, a series of leading roles took him to stardom in the West End and Broadway. In the 1940s, together with Laurence Olivier and John Burrell, he was the co-director of the Old Vic company. There his most celebrated roles included Peer Gynt and Falstaff. He and Olivier led the company to Europe and Broadway in 1945 and 1946, before their success provoked resentment among the governing board of the Old Vic, leading to their dismissal from the company in 1947. His film career began as an extra in 1931. He was soon cast in leading roles in British and American films including Things To Come / The Fallen Idol / The Heiress / Long Days Journey and Doctor Zhivago.  He received nominations / awards in the UK, Europe and the US for his stage and screen work from 1948 until his death and beyond winning a posthumous Academy Award nomination for his final film Greystoke. Throughout his career and increasingly in later years, he became known for his eccentric behaviour on and off stage. He died following a stroke aged 80 in 1983.