Donald Wolfit | |
|---|---|
 Wolfit in 1965 | |
| Born | Donald Woolfitt (1902-04-20)20 April 1902 New Balderton,Nottinghamshire, England |
| Died | 17 February 1968(1968-02-17) (aged 65) Hammersmith, London, England |
| Occupation | Actor-manager |
| Years active | 1924–1968 |
| Spouse(s) | Chris Castor (1928–1934) Susan Katherine Anthony Rosalind Iden (m.1948) |
Sir Donald Wolfit (bornDonald Woolfitt; 20 April 1902 – 17 February 1968) was an Englishactor-manager, known for his touring productions of Shakespeare. He was especially renowned for his portrayal ofKing Lear.
Born to a conventional middle-class family inNottinghamshire, Wolfit was stage-struck from an early age. His debut was at the Robin Hood Opera House at Aveling to which he cycled from school to join the theatre rep company. After a brief spell as a teacher he joined the touring company of the actor-managerCharles Doran and later that ofFred Terry. He made his London début in 1924 and simplified the spelling of his surname from Woolfitt to Wolfit.
In 1929 Wolfit joinedLilian Baylis's company at theOld Vic but developed a strong antipathy to the leading man,John Gielgud, and left the company after a season. He joined theShakespeare Memorial Theatre companies for the festivals of 1936 and 1937, in thirteen major roles, winning excellent reviews for his performance asHamlet. He then set up his own touring company, taking the plays of Shakespeare and others round Britain and from time to time overseas. He continued to appear in theWest End and made several films but his main concern was for his touring company. Its standards were criticised but several members moved on to greater fame, includingHarold Pinter andBrian Rix.
Wolfit was born atNew Balderton, nearNewark-on-Trent,Nottinghamshire, on 20 April 1902, the second son and fourth of five children of William Pearce Woolfitt and his wife Emma,née Tomlinson.[1] It was a conventional household; Woolfitt senior was anAnglican churchgoer, aConservative supporter and aFreemason.[n 1] From his early childhood Wolfit wanted to become an actor, despite his father's disapproval.[3]
After education atMagnus Grammar School in Newark he was briefly a schoolmaster inEastbourne before passing an audition for the actor-managerCharles Doran.[4] Doran's touring company was a training ground for many British actors, includingRalph Richardson,Cecil Parker,Edith Sharpe,Norman Shelley,Abraham Sofaer andFrancis L Sullivan.[5] Wolfit's début role, at theTheatre Royal, York on 13 September 1920, was Biondello in Doran's production ofThe Taming of The Shrew.[6] Between his engagement with Doran and hisWest End début in 1924 he toured with the companies of Alexander Marsh and laterFred Terry.[7] For the rest of his life Wolfit acknowledged his debt to the latter for what he had learnt from him.[8]
Wolfit made his London début on 26 November 1924 at theNew Theatre, as Phirous inMatheson Lang's production ofThe Wandering Jew.[6] At about this time he simplified the spelling of his surname from Woolfitt to Wolfit.[9] He appeared in supporting roles in West End productions, and at St George's, Westminster, on 16 April 1928, he married an actress, Chris Frances Castor, with whom he had a daughter Margaret Wolfit, who was also an actress.[10][11] The marriage lasted until 1933, when the couple divorced.[12][13]
In 1929 Wolfit joinedLilian Baylis's company at theOld Vic and played Tybalt inRomeo and Juliet, Cassius inJulius Caesar, Touchstone inAs You Like It, Macduff inMacbeth and Claudius inHamlet.[6] The company's leading man wasJohn Gielgud, to whom Wolfit took a strong and lasting dislike, envious of Gielgud's success and being what the biographerSheridan Morley describes as "virulently anti-homosexual".[14][n 2] Wolfit made himself unpopular with his fellow actors and his contract was not renewed after the first year.[15]
After further West End appearances, Wolfit joinedSir Barry Jackson's company in 1931 for a six-month tour of Canada. He played Robert Browning inThe Barretts of Wimpole Street, Young Marlowe inShe Stoops to Conquer, Joe Varwell inYellow Sands, Coade inDear Brutus and Shakespeare inThe Dark Lady of the Sonnets.[6] He overcame his hatred of Gielgud enough to accept the role of Thomas Mowbray inRichard of Bordeaux (1932) with a cast headed by Gielgud andGwen Ffrangcon-Davies; the piece ran for more than a year.[16] Wolfit made a impression in 1933 in the title role of a one-night-only production ofHamlet at theArts Theatre using theFirst Quarto text rather than theFirst Folio text usually given.The Daily Telegraph said,
Encouraged by this success Wolfit determined to try his hand as an actor-manager. He secured financial backing and staged a week-long drama festival in his native Newark in 1934. He presentedArms and the Man,The Master Builder andTwelfth Night, playing Bluntschli, Solness and Malvolio. Among the actors he engaged wereJohn Clements,Elspeth March,Margaret Rutherford andMargaret Webster.[18] In the same year, on 15 September, he married Susan Katherine Anthony; they had a son and a daughter.[10] He made his first film appearance in 1934, asSt Francis of Assisi in a short film calledInasmuch. He appeared in other films in the 1930s, after which he did not work in films again until the 1950s.[19]
Wolfit joined theShakespeare Memorial Theatre companies for the festivals of 1936 and 1937, with eight major roles in the first, including Hamlet and five in the second.[6] His Hamlet was favourably reviewed by the critics and, according to his biographerRonald Harwood, "the performance of Hamlet elevated Wolfit to the ranks of leading players". The criticAudrey Williamson wrote that although Wolfit was never as physically suited as Gielgud to the role of Hamlet, in his Stratford performances he gave the character "an electric drive and force of suffering ... There was thought behind every gesture and line and again and again one was struck by the subtlety of detail".[20] Another critic wrote, "Mr Wolfit has crowned his season's work with a distinguished performance not unworthy of comparison with the great Hamlets".[21] The director at Stratford wasBen Iden Payne, whose daughter Rosalind Iden became Wolfit's leading lady. He fell in love with her, left his wife, and lived with Iden, eventually marrying her in 1948.[10]
At the outbreak of the Second World War, despite strong advice to the contrary, Wolfit refused to cancel his plans for an autumn tour. He told the press, "Here is my national effort at present. They don't want me in the Services yet, so I am endeavouring to carry on with my plans. All my company are waiting to serve when called on".[22] The company played a season in 1940 at theKingsway Theatre in London. Later that year Wolfit presented lunch-timeScenes from Shakespeare at theStrand Theatre during the Blitz. A German bomb destroyed his scenery and costume store but he continued to tour. In 1944 he visited Egypt for theEntertainments National Service Association, followed by seasons in Paris and Brussels.[10]
Wolfit toured more often than he played in London.Hermione Gingold adapted an old theatrical joke, saying that "Olivier is a tour-de-force, and Wolfit is forced to tour" but Wolfit preferred touring with his company and was often unhappy in West End productions, beholden to directors and acting alongside major actors to whom he was not clearly superior.[n 3] He firmly believed that Shakespeare should be taken to the people and used West End appearances and films to subsidise his touring company.[24] After the war he continued his annual tours in Britain and in 1947 he presented two successful tours of Canada, a season in New York and a London season at theSavoy Theatre.[10]
Hoping to present his company in another London season in 1949, Wolfit found that no West End theatre was available and instead he took an oldmusic hall, The Bedford, inCamden Town, north London. He presented a sixteen-week season of "Shakespeare at popular prices", and played to packed houses.[25]The Stage said of his performance inKing Lear, "There is no acting in our theatre to-day as magnificent as that of Donald Wolfit when he plays Lear" but his productions had cheap costumes and scenery and his company was below his own standard of acting.[26] Among the audience during this season was the youngBernard Levin, who later wrote that although "Wolfit and his dreadful company ... horribly travestied Shakespeare" they nevertheless enabled young people to come to know and love the plays and for this Levin held Wolfit's memory in high honour.[27] Levin recalled Wolfit's customary curtain call, "with the old megalomanic, as he thanked the audience, indulging in the same exhausted clutch of the curtain", whichStephen Potter said he did whether he had been "laying himself out with Lear or trotting through twenty minutes of Touchstone".[28]
In 1950 Wolfit was appointedCBE. In that yearTyrone Guthrie invited him to return to the Old Vic to play Lear, Timon of Athens, Lord Ogleby inThe Clandestine Marriage andChristopher Marlowe'sTamburlaine the Great. He had great success in these roles but according to Harwood he "chafed at performing in a company other than his own and surrounded by excellent supporting actors". He quarrelled with Guthrie and left the company.[10]
Wolfit returned to actor-management in 1953 with a season at theKing's Theatre, Hammersmith, with a stronger company than usual. He opened to enthusiastic reviews and full houses for a double bill ofOedipus the King andOedipus at Colonus but in Harwood's words, later in the season and for the last time, "he resorted to his tired Shakespearian productions, in which, however, he gave some magnificent performances".[10] Although Wolfit's touring companies were frequently criticised, they nevertheless included, among many less familiar names, future stars such asPeter Jones,Harold Pinter,Eric Porter,Brian Rix,Frank Thornton andRichard Wattis.[29]
In 1957 Wolfit announced his retirement as an actor-manager, but after hisknighthood in that year he emerged from retirement and undertook one final tour under his own management.[10] A major role of his later years was the title character ofHenrik Ibsen'sJohn Gabriel Borkman at theDuchess Theatre in 1963. One critic said that Wolfit's performance would have pleased Ibsen and deserved to be regarded as the definitive portrayal.[24] Wolfit's last stage appearance was in the musicalRobert and Elizabeth, as the tyrannical Mr Barrett in 1966–67.[10] Wolfit died in theRoyal Masonic Hospital, London, on 17 February 1968 and was buried in St Peter's Church,Hurstbourne Tarrant, Hampshire.[10]
