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Shakespearian Actors

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alt title(s): Shakespearean Actors

As in "classically trained Shakespearian actor." These actors (male and female), usually Brits, have had some serious training—often a stint at the Royal Shakespeare Company—and so have developed redoubtable acting skillz.

Of course, this won't necessary be all that they do. It's entirely possible for these people to do comedy, appear in major action movies and even enter Large Ham territory at times. (See, for instance, BRIAN BLESSED.)

Used intelligently, Shakespearian Actors can raise everyone's game, or turn a blah character into a Breakout Character. But beware: being cast alongside one or more Shakespearian Actors makes it painfully clear if someone can't act. (See, for instance, Teaching Mrs. Tingle, in which Helen Mirren out-acts all of her co-stars with her hands literally tied behind her back.)

Because these actors will be critically acclaimed (they can be popular as well), they are more likely than most actors, if they're British, to succumb to the K-strain of Knight Fever, i.e. getting a knighthood.

One of the litmus tests for being a Shakespearian actor is to have played a major/lead role for the Royal Shakespeare Company. The RSC is probably the most prestigious theatre company in Britain, performing (almost) exclusively Shakespeare. (The closest North American equivalents are probably the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.) Even better, see the You Tube entries for the old educational series, Playing Shakespeare, featuring the RSC players of its day, now in retrospect, chock full of future movie stars like Patrick Stewart, Dame Judi Dench, Ben Kingsley, and Sir Ian Mc Kellan.

Shakespearian Actors in fiction

As we've just seen, real-life Shakespearian Actors take a variety of roles for a variety of reasons. In fiction, though, the Shakespearian Actor tends to be a particular subtype of the high-maintenance diva archetype: one who constantly laments his decision to give up theater and who has nothing but contempt for the tripe he's being asked to deliver. This version is the Classically Trained Extra.

Real examples

Timothy Dalton — the fourth cinematic James Bond, and his background can be seen in the way he played 007. He also appears in Flash Gordon, a Nazi spy in Disney's The Rocketeer, and as a medium-sized ham in Hot Fuzz.
Dame Judi Dench. M in the last half-dozen or so James Bond films.
Sir Derek Jacobi. Has entered the Large Ham zone by playing The Master in Doctor Who on two occasions (although one is non-Canon).
Patrick Stewart — his classical training has allowed him to dodge being type cast by either Star Trek or X Men, and he's returned to the RSC since (most recently, as Claudius to David Tennant's Hamlet).
William Shatner: Performed at the Stratford Festival in the 1960s.
Christopher Plummer.
Sir Ian McKellen.
David Tennant, the current Doctor in Doctor Who, was an RSC man (including a well-regarded Romeo) before his stint in the TARDIS. There will be no regular 2009 series as he is playing Hamlet for the RSC.
Catherine Tate did small parts in her youth for the RSC.
Chiwetel Ejiofor, the Operative from Serenity. Has played Othello, if this troper recalls correctly.
Alan Rickman
Sir Alec Guinness aka Obi-Wan Kenobi: Spoke the very first lines at the Stratford Festival (namely, "Now is the winter of our discontent").
Adrian Lester of Hustle
Dan Lauria, the father on The Wonder Years.
Lord Laurence Olivier
Kenneth Branagh (who almost singlehandedly revived the Shakespeare film genre with Henry V)