John Gielgud.

The great-nephew of Ellen Terry, Arthur John Gielgud was born on April 14, 1904, in South Kensington, London to Frank Henry Gielgud, a stockbroker, and Kate Terry, from an acting family. His great-grandmother Aniela Aszperger was a Shakespearean actress in Poland. At Hillside prep school, he first performed as Shylock. He attended Westminster School, often skipping classes to watch the Diaghilev Ballet. At 17, he made his professional debut as a French herald in Henry V at the Old Vic in 1921. He studied at Lady Benson’s Dramatic Academy and later at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, known as RADA, for a year.

Gielgud’s breakthrough came in 1929 when Lilian Baylis invited him to the Old Vic, where he played Hamlet in the 1929–30 season, revolutionizing the role with rapid delivery and becoming the first English actor under 40 to play it in the West End. In 1933, he directed and starred in Richard of Bordeaux, a box-office smash that made him a celebrity. In 1935, he and Laurence Olivier alternated Romeo and Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet, with Gielgud receiving better reviews. He mentored a generation including Alec Guinness and Richard Burton, directing Burton’s 1964 Hamlet. Gielgud won a Tony for his Shakespearean recital The Ages of Man in 1958 and later an Oscar for Arthur in 1981. He continued acting until his death, appearing in over 80 films including Julius Caesar 1953, Becket 1964, and Brideshead Revisited 1981.

Gielgud was homosexual at a time when it was illegal in the UK. He had a long-term relationship with actor John Perry, who later left him for theatrical manager Hugh Binkie Beaumont. In 1953, Gielgud was arrested in Chelsea for soliciting a homosexual act, fined ten pounds, and publicly humiliated. He was advised not to seek US work for four years. He later found lasting love with Martin Hensler, whom he met at the Tate Gallery in the 1960s; they lived together for over 30 years until Hensler’s death in 1998. Despite the arrest, Gielgud did not discuss his sexuality publicly, and his relationship with Hensler was only acknowledged in program notes in 1988.

He transformed English classical theatre. As an actor-manager in the 1930s and 1940s, he established repertory companies that laid the groundwork for the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre, inspiring Laurence Olivier, George Devine, Anthony Quayle, and Glen Byam Shaw. His interpretations of Shakespeare, especially Hamlet and Richard II, set the standard for the 20th century. He received a Tony Award for Best Director for Big Fish, Little Fish in 1961 and a Special Tony for The Ages of Man. In 1994, the Globe Theatre was renamed the Gielgud Theatre. He was appointed to the Order of Merit in 1996. He is remembered as the greatest Shakespearean actor of his era, with a voice Olivier called the voice that wooed the world.