Ralph Richardson

Sir Ralph David Richardson (19 December, 1902 – 10 October, 1983) was an English actor, one of a group of theatrical knights of the mid-20th century who, though more closely associated with the stage, did their best to make the transition to film.

Background

Richardson was born in Cheltenham, and when he was a baby his mother, Lydia Russell, left his father and took him with her to Gloucester, where she raised him a Roman Catholic (his father and brothers were Quakers). His father supported them with a small allowance. Lydia Richardson wished Ralph to become a priest. Ralph was an altar boy in Brighton, England, and was educated by the Xaverian Brothers, but he did not become a priest, nor was he ever particularly religious.

Career

Stage

He made his West End début in 1926. Thereafter he became one of the Old Vic's major stars, one of his early big roles being Caliban to the Prospero of John Gielgud, a professional association that lasted for four decades.

In 1969 he played in the original production of Joe Orton's controversial farce What The Butler Saw in the West End at the Queen's Theatre in 1969 with Stanley Baxter, Coral Browne, and Hayward Morse. In 1933 he played the title role in W. Somerset Maugham's final play Sheppey at Wyndham's Theatre.

After active service in World War II, Richardson joined Laurence Olivier and the director John Burrell as co-director of the Old Vic, where his notable roles included Falstaff (to Olivier's Hal), Bluntschli in Arms and the Man (Olivier as Sergius), and Peer Gynt in which Olivier took the cameo role of the Button Moulder. Richardson also appeared with the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-on-Avon.

In the 1970s he appeared in the West End (for example in William Douglas-Home's play Lloyd George Knew My Father with Peggy Ashcroft), and with the National Theatre under Peter Hall's direction, where among the classics he played Firs in The Cherry Orchard and the title role in John Gabriel Borkman. He continued his long stage association with John Gielgud, appearing together in two new works, David Storey's Home and Harold Pinter's No Man's Land.

Radio and Television

From 1954–1955 he played the character of Dr. John Watson (mistakenly called 'James' in several episodes) in an American/BBC radio co-production of canonical Sherlock Holmes stories, which starred Gielgud as the famous consulting detective. In the 1960s he played Lord Emsworth on BBC television in dramatisations of P.G.Wodehouse's Blandings Castle stories, with his real-life wife Meriel Forbes playing his domineering sister Connie, and Stanley Holloway as his butler Beach.

Film

His film appearances included The Heiress, Richard III (playing Buckingham to Olivier's Richard), Our Man in Havana (with Alec Guinness and Noel Coward), O Lucky Man!, Oh! What a Lovely War, Dragonslayer, and Time Bandits. His final film appearance was as the sixth Earl of Greystoke in the 1983 movie Greystoke - The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes, for which he was again nominated for an Academy Award.

Music

Richardson recorded the narration for Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf, and the superscriptions for Vaughan Williams' Sinfonia Antartica - both with the London Symphony Orchestra, the Prokofiev conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent and the Vaughan Williams by André Previn.

Awards and honours

Richardson was knighted by King George VI in 1947. In 1963 he won the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival for Long Day's Journey Into Night. He won the BAFTA Award for Best British Actor for The Sound Barrier (1952), and was nominated on another three occasions. He was also nominated for three Tony Awards for his work on the New York stage.

Family

He was a nephew of the mathematician Lewis Fry Richardson. He was married to the actress Meriel Forbes (a member of the theatrical Forbes-Robertson family).

Sir Ralph died of a stroke, aged 80, and was interred at Highgate Cemetery.

Trivia

Richardson habitually rode a motorbike even in his seventies. He rode a Norton Dominator and in his later years changed to a BMW.

Selected filmography

Things to Come (1936)
The Man Who Could Work Miracles (1936)
The Citadel (1938)
South Riding (1938)
The Four Feathers (1939)
The Silver Fleet (1943)
The Fallen Idol (1948)
Anna Karenina (1948)
The Heiress (1949)
The Sound Barrier (1952)
Richard III (1955)
Woman of Straw (1964)
Dr Zhivago (1965)
Khartoum (1966)
The Wrong Box (1966)
Battle of Britain (1969)
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1972)
A Doll's House (1973)
O Lucky Man! (1973)
Dragonslayer (1981)
Time Bandits (1981)
Greystoke - The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984)
Give My Regards To Broad Street (1984)

External links

Ralph Richardson | Ralph Richardson

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