April 14, 1904- Most people remember him for his Oscar winning performance as Dudley Moore‘s butler in the 1981 film Arthur, but he was so much more. He was more romantic than Laurence Olivier, & more sensitive than Ralph Richardson. Sir John Gielgud was the greatest Shakespearean performer of the 20th century. His portrayal, as a very young man, of Hamlet, is considered the greatest of all time. He is a favorite theatre personality & a personal acting idol for me.
Gielgud is one of the few entertainers to have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy, & Tony Award. Known for his beautiful delivery, he was called the “voice that wooed the world”. He was still acting on stage at 90 years old & he now has a West End theatre named after him.
On stage, Gielgud had his act together, but for half of his time on this earth, his private life was a big old mess. His career was almost ended by his sexuality at a time when being gay was a crime. Today, when it is perfectly legal to indulge in some dude-on-dude action in Britain, it is difficult to imagine that gay men were taking enormous risks to be together just 40 years ago. Back then, sex between men, even performed in total privacy, could lead to ruined careers & years in prison.
At the very apex of his acting success, an incident in Gielgud’s life so crippled him that he contemplated suicide. In 1953, after a rehearsal for his lead role in A Day By The Sea, the 49 year old actor had cocktails with friends & then went on the prowl for an encounter with another man. He visited one of London’s infamous underground public bathrooms. Gielgud had done this before, but this time he was arrested by a Scotland Yard officer picked for his good-looks & assigned to the urinals for the purposes of entrapment poofsters.
During that era, The Home Secretary of the nation had called gays “A Plague Over England” & vowed to wipe out homosexuality before it destroyed the British Empire. You know how gays can ruin civilization. The police arrested more than 10,000 gay men a year, & the poor clueless Gielgud was one of them.
Gielgud, born into a famous theatrical family, he had never had any doubt that he preferred other gentlemen. One of his first acting jobs in the 1920s was to understudy the very gay Noel Coward, & he knew the score. In 1926, during the run of Coward’s play The Constant Nymph, Gielgud had his first serious romance, with fellow actor John Perry, who gave up his own promising stage career to live with his much more successful lover.
Gielgud’s homosexuality was common knowledge in the theatre world, but audiences only knew of his astonishing talent. After his Hamlet became a box-office sensation in 1934, British theatre-goers idolized him. Other actors, Alec Guinness, Edith Evans & Richard Burton thought he was simply the best.
In 1953, the year of the Elizabeth 2’s Coronation, Gielgud was nominated for a knighthood. He was at the very height of his remarkable career. He was directing himself in a new production, & he had a new lover, interior designer Paul Anstee. Despite his new knighthood & being one of the most celebrated actors on the planet, there he was, arrested & charged with “persistently importuning men for immoral purposes”.
Despite his high profile, Gielgud was not recognized when he was arrested. He was fined & urged to seek a doctor’s help for his perverse sex life, a common recommendation back when homosexuality was considered a medical problem. Gielgud’s good fortune ended when a reporter from the London Evening Standard happened to be in court during his hearing & recognized the actor’s magnificent voice. On his way to rehearsal that same afternoon, Gielgud saw his own name on the front page of the newspaper.
The humiliation was too much for Gielgud. A noted politician, called for him to be horsewhipped in the street after being stripped of his knighthood. His fellow cast members were very supportive, & when the play finally opened, Gielgud’s adoring public proved supportive & enthusiastically applauded his performance. The little bit of vindication was not enough for Gielgud. 5 months into the run, he had a nervous breakdown & left the play.
The USA government denied Gielgud a visa to tour his production of The Tempest around the country. Famed gay choreographer Frederick Ashton denounced Gielgud as having “ruined it for us all”. If as if he had not suffered enough, by the late 1950s, Gielgud’s acting style had fallen out of style. But, instead of going into hiding, he smartly adapted & continued to work by moving in the more modern theatre, performing the works of Harold Pinter & Samuel Beckett. Gielgud continued to work on stage & in films into his 90s. He had roles in 3 films in 1997, including the piano tutor in the film Shine.
Sweet revenge, Gielgud’s career enjoyed a renaissance in his old age. He even achieved respectability in his love life. At a Tate Gallery exhibition in the 1960s, Gielgud bumped into artist Martin Hensler, who was 30 years younger & shared his love of gardening. They fell for each other & remained a couple for 40 years. They died only weeks apart in 2000.
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