History Trivia / KingLear

* PlayingGertrude: Irene Worth, who played Goneril, was four years ''older'' than Paul Scofield - who plays her father.

* ActorSharedBackground: Leo [=McKern=] lost an eye during World War II, just as his character Gloucester gets his own eyes gouged out.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Creator/FayeDunaway turned down the role of Regan in order to star in ''The Wicked Lady''.

** Music/GiuseppeVerdi, who composed successful operas based onthree other Shakespeare plays, considered it his dream project to make an opera of ''King Lear'', and he developed the opera with several different writers over the course of his long life, but never actually wrote any music for it. Toward the end of his life, he confided to a younger composer that he was "afraid" to write the scene where Lear is alone on the heath.

** Music/GiuseppeVerdi, who composed successful operas based onthree other Shakespeare plays, considered it his dream project was to make an opera of ''King Lear'', and he developed the project with several different writers over the course of his long life, but never actually wrote any music for it. Toward the end of his life, he confided to a younger composer that he was "afraid" to write the scene where Lear is alone on the heath.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: 2009 saw two adaptations being planned - the first featuring Creator/AlPacino as Lear and the second Creator/AnthonyHopkins. The latter also slated Creator/GwynethPaltrow as Goneril, Creator/NaomiWatts as Regan and Creator/KeiraKnightley as Cordelia. Both were cancelled, and it was speculated that it was due to the recession. A screen adaptation featuring Anthony Hopkins was eventually released in 2018.

* PlayingAgainstType: Creator/DianaRigg of course was famous for her role as glamorous PluckyGirl Emma Peel on ''Series/TheAvengers''. Playing TheSociopath like Regan is different.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Creator/FayeDunaway turned down the role of Regan in order to star in ''The Wicked Lady''.

* OlderThanTheyThink: 21st century audiences may be surprised to hear the word "Unfriended" in a work written centuries before Facebook, though here it is an adjective to describe the state of being without friends, not a verb for deleting someone from your social media.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: 2009 saw two adaptations being planned - the first featuring Creator/AlPacino as Lear and the second Creator/AnthonyHopkins. The latter also slated Creator/GwynethPaltrow as Goneril, Creator/NaomiWatts as Regan and Creator/KeiraKnightley as Cordelia. Both were cancelled, and it was speculated that it was due to the recession.

* RealLifeWritesThePlot:
** 17th century audiences found the play's ending so depressing that a happier one was created - where Cordelia survives and marries Edgar. After World War II, the original ending made a comeback.
** It's been theorised that the reason The Fool disappears after Act III is because the same actor would have played Cordelia as well, and she comes back into the plot shortly afterwards.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: 2009 saw two adaptations being planned - the first featuring Al Pacino as Lear and the second Anthony Hopkins. The latter also slated Gwyneth Paltrow as Goneril, Naomi Watts as Regan and Keira Knightley as Cordelia. Both were cancelled, and it was speculated that it was due to the recession.

* PlayingAgainstType: Diana Rigg of course was famous for her role as glamorous PluckyGirl Emma Peel on ''Series/TheAvengers''. Playing TheSociopath like Regan is different.
* RealLifeRelative: Laurence Olivier's brother-in-law David Plowright was the executive producer.
* ThoseTwoActors: Esmond Knight, who played the Old Man, had appeared in all of Laurence Olivier's other Shakespeare adaptations.

* DawsonCasting: In Peter Brook's 1971 film adaptation, Goneril is played by Irene Worth, who was four years older than Paul Scofield, who played Lear himself.
* OlderThanTheyThink: 21st century audiences may be surprised to hear the word "Unfriended" in a work written centuries before Facebook, though here it is an adjective to describe the state of being without friends, not a verb for deleting someone from your social media.

* DawsonCasting: In Peter Brook's 1971 film adaptation, Goneril is played by Irene Worth, who was four years older than Paul Scofield, who played Lear himself.

* DawsonCasting[=/=]PlayingGertrude: In Peter Brook's 1971 film adaptation, Goneril is played by Irene Worth, who was four years older than Paul Scofield, who played Lear himself.