John Gielgud: Matinee Idol to Movie Star: (Biography and Autobiography)

New in paperback, John Gielgud: Matinee Idol to Movie Star is the most authoritative and comprehensive account of the finest classical actor of the twentieth century. This entertaining but critical biography charts the ups and downs of Gielgud's long and glittering career, from his young ground-breaking Hamlet to his later success in plays by Pinter, Storey, Bond and Bennett, and his recognition as a major movie star following his role in Arthur. It also reassesses his complex relationship with his great rival Laurence Olivier and throws fresh light on his personal relationships and the turbulent episodes of his private life that threatened to shatter his career. For this biography Jonathan Croall's exhaustive research has included over a hundred new interviews with key people from his life and career, including Peter Brook, Kenneth Branagh, Alec Guinness, Joan Plowright and Eileen Atkins, and it draws on several hundred letters to and from Gielgud that have never been published, including correspondences with Noël Coward, Somerset Maugham, Siegfried Sassoon, Edith Evans and Edward Gordon Craig. What emerges is an intimate, complex and often startling portrait of this great actor and much-loved man. Gielgud's interpretations of Shakespeare's great roles made Shakespeare's plays a commercial success on London's West End for the first time. He was also hugely influential as a director and an actor-manager and worked extensively in film and television later in life. Since Jonathan Croall's first biography of Gielgud was published in 2000 a considerable amount of new material has come to light and the result is a much more rounded, candid and richly textured portrait of this celebrated stage and screen actor.

About the Author :
Jonathan Croall is the author of Buzz Buzz: Playwrights, Actors and Directors at the National Theatre. He worked as features editor on the Times Educational Supplement and as editor of Arts Express magazine, the National Theatre's magazine StageWrite, and programmes at the Old Vic.

Review :
His public loved him, and so does the author of this thoroughly readable biography. John Gielgud's life makes such a good story...the book is a significant reminder of a silken-voiced, altogether singular talent. An authoritative, nicely balanced account of both Gielgud's public and private lives... Croall also emphasizes what an important, modernizing figure he was as a director... This is by no means an uncritical biography of Gielgud - Croall illustrates his character defects of snobbery, tactlessness...and impatience...but overall he comes across as an attractively modest man with a mischievous sense of humour, possessing an evergreen enthusiasm for and deep understanding of theatre. This book does full justice to a protean performer who bestrode the stage like a Colossus. The work of a stage actor, however great, is writ on water...It was for his theatrical work that Kenneth Tynan (who, mind you, preferred Laurence Olivier) could refer to [Gielgud] as 'not an actor, but the actor.'...So, whatever the limitations of merely reading about a magnificent actor, it is gratifying to have such a well-researched and fluently written, committed yet not adulatory biography...[Gielgud] emerges as a witty, charming, conversationally apt human being. (refers to the previously released edition) (A) tremendous biography...the result of a great deal more material which had become available to the biographer -- mostly letters, but also people more willing to speak openly. (The contents) illuminate not only the man himself but also the great changes that have taken place in social and legal attitudes in the past half-century. This is a splendid book, impressively researched and extremely readable. Elegantly written...scented with the aroma of fresh revelations...riveting. As entertaining and full of variety as the subject himself I really enjoyed reading it. In fact it's marvellous - and best of all FACTUAL! That's something of a rarity these days. I am so grateful for the close scrutiny you give the performances: their context, their aspiration, their achievement. It's compelling, grown-up analysis. If what you want from the genre of showbiz biography is sleaze or sycophancy, you'll have to look elsewhere. What is on offer here is something else. Croall manages the difficult balancing act of maintaining a discreet distance from his subject while at the same time seeming to have immersed himself in that subject's complexity. An unexpectedly enjoyable book to read... I found Croall a good navigator through the curious narrative of Gielgud's life...Croall manages to round out his portrait with nuance, new information and a gusto that drives the narrative... the larger story of a man with a mercurial talent, utterly committed to his craft, alive to instinct and nuance with a magical quota of talent, is well told. By the end of Jonathan Croall's massive homage to Sir John Gielgud, the great actor seems like an old friend... This meticulously researched book can be read as more than merely a biography of a single man, since it is wide-ranging enough to place his life in the context of theatre across the 20th century. Readers are therefore able to learn much about trends in drama throughout Gielgud's lifetime. Sir John Gielgud was a man of the theatre the like of whom we may never see again. Therefore, the ever-readable Jonathan Croall should be warmly congratulated on researching and writing what must surely be the definitive biography. A glorious tome. Jonathan Croall's book gives an authentic flavour of the real Gielgud. Both the career and the man are brought to brilliant life...Jonathan Croall stakes a serious claim to be the most notable theatrical biographer of the day. John Gielgud was all light and humour, the most mercurial of men, and the most poetic of actors: Jonathan Croall is perfectly tuned in to every one of his qualities. A huge new overview that will surely become definitive. A magnificent book – a model of meticulous research and sympathy with the subject.