Shakespeare "King Lear"- Laurence Olivier, Act 1, iv and v

John Hurt ... The Fool
Laurence Olivier ... King Lear
Colin Blakely ... Kent
Dorothy Tutin ... Goneril
Robert Lang ... Albany

Director: Michael Elliott

Shakespeare's "King Lear" (filmed 1983 for TV)

to see three other versions of this scene, go here:
http://www.youtube.com/my_playlists?p=D17B9B765D925F91

John Hurt's fool is so excellent in this version. What an actor!

Assembling an all-star cast really paid off, for once. Leo McKern's powerful Gloucester and Diana Rigg's chilling Regan I'll have to put up sometime.


Olivier's acting is less grandiose and fussy in his old age. He was 76 when this TV production came out, and the simplicity of his acting at this age was very good.


to see a very young Dorothy Tutin, in "The Importance of Being Earnest" (1952 film), go here:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=hKvn_pA-F-o

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Shakespeare
• Olivier
• Lear
• Blakely
• Tutin

[Bass5el]

Someone give John Hurt a knighthood!!

[Jacobus180670]

John Hurt was exceptionally good in this adaptation!

[hmvanwijk]

She that's a maid now, and laughs at my departure;

Shall not be a maid long, unless things be cut shorter.

Fool

[JudgeJulieLit]

@EdNortonisMineLol I second that motion! May the current queen haste (to redeem lost time and delayed award) to dub Sir John Hurt -- on the basis of his Lear's Fool, and/or his singularly inspiredly insane yet realist seeming, mercurial chameleon Caligula in the peerless BBC I, Claudius. Actor all-out artistry: he is The Thing itself!

a dancer inextricable from the dance.

[strangersname]

Hurt really establishes a beautiful relationship with Olivier here; how he watches him pray - the way he clings to him at the end.

[LonesomePrarie]

i have just performed as the fool in lear at the shakespeare schools festival tonight there is no way i could match john hurt but the energy behind the fool is so energetic and powerful he is my favorite character in the play

[240soundwave]

@Bass5 hes a scurvy dog blessed fool

[Hemlocke3]

@AtLastOnTheGround ironically Lear himself was around that age in the tragic play

[AtLastOnTheGround]

Olivier was 76 here ... he looks amazing!

[mahtexas]

i played goneril in King Lear when i did it at my school

[EdNortonisMineLol]

I agree with Bass5el: why has John Hurt not been knighted yet?

[brettishgal]

So true , Olivier and Hurt are amazing!!!!!!!