Sir Arthur John Gielgud OM, CH (14 April 1904 – 21 May 2000) was an English actor and theatre director.
Along with Ralph Richardson and Laurence Olivier, he was one of the three theatre giants who dominated the British stage for most of the 20th century, establishing himself as one of the most eminent and acclaimed Shakespeare interpreters of his time.
Gielgud was primarily a stage actor for the majority of his career, only sporadically appearing in films until the 1960's. He stated that in most instances, apart from films that were adapted from stage plays, he had rather little interest in the material and usually only appeared in movies for the additional income. For example, even though Gielgud won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as sarcastic and witty valet Hobson in Arthur (1981), the actor himself didn't find the material particularly funny. Most of his other numerous film appearances tended to be One-Scene Wonder supporting roles or cameos.
In 1991, he completed his EGOT, winning an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony, becoming only the fourth person to do so, and the first non-American and first LBGT creator at that.
His works on TV Tropes
- Secret Agent (1936)
- The Lady's Not for Burning (1949)
- Julius Caesar (1953)
- Romeo and Juliet (1954)
- Richard III (1955)
- Around the World in Eighty Days (1956)
- Becket (1964)
- The Loved One (1965)
- Chimes at Midnight (1966)
- The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968)
- The Shoes Of The Fisherman (1968)
- Oh! What a Lovely War (1969)
- Julius Caesar (1970)
- Murder on the Orient Express (1974)
- Galileo (1975)
- Edward the Seventh (1975)
- The Picture of Dorian Gray (1976)
- Caligula (1979)
- The Human Factor (1979)
- Murder by Decree (1979)
- The Elephant Man (1980)
- Lion of the Desert (1981)
- Arthur (1981)
- Gandhi (1982)
- The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1982)
- The Scarlet and the Black (1983)
- The Shooting Party (1985)
- War and Remembrance (1988 TV Series)
- Prospero's Books (1991)
- Swan Song (1992) (short film)
- Elizabeth (1998)
- Merlin (1998) (cameo)
- Catastrophe (2000) (short film)