1. Donald Wolfit was especially renowned for his portrayal of King Lear.
35 Facts About Donald Wolfit
1. 2.
Donald Wolfit's debut was at the Robin Hood Opera House at Aveling to which he cycled from school to join the theatre rep company.
3.
Donald Wolfit made his London debut in 1924 and simplified the spelling of his surname from Woolfitt to Wolfit.
4.
In 1929 Donald Wolfit joined Lilian Baylis's company at the Old Vic but developed a strong antipathy to the leading man, John Gielgud, and left the company after a single season.
5.
Donald Wolfit joined the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre companies for the festivals of 1936 and 1937, in thirteen major roles, winning excellent reviews for his performance as Hamlet.
6.
Donald Wolfit then set up his own touring company, taking the plays of Shakespeare and others all round Britain and from time to time overseas.
7.
Donald Wolfit has appeared in the West End and made several films, but his main concern was for his touring company.
8.
Donald Wolfit was born at New Balderton, near Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire, on 20 April 1902, the second son and fourth of five children of William Pearce Woolfitt and his wife Emma, nee Tomlinson.
9.
From his early childhood Donald Wolfit wanted to become an actor, despite his father's disapproval.
10.
Donald Wolfit made his London debut on 26 November 1924 at the New Theatre, as Phirous in Matheson Lang's production of The Wandering Jew.
11.
Donald Wolfit appeared in supporting roles in a variety of 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.
12.
In 1929 Donald Wolfit joined Lilian Baylis's company at the Old Vic and played Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet, Cassius in Julius Caesar, Touchstone in As You Like It, Macduff in Macbeth and Claudius in Hamlet.
13.
The company's leading man was John Gielgud, to whom Donald Wolfit took a strong and lasting dislike, envious of Gielgud's success and being what the biographer Sheridan Morley describes as "virulently anti-homosexual".
14.
Donald Wolfit made himself unpopular with his fellow actors and his contract was not renewed after the first year.
15.
Donald Wolfit played Robert Browning in The Barretts of Wimpole Street, Young Marlowe in She Stoops to Conquer, Joe Varwell in Yellow Sands, Coade in Dear Brutus and Shakespeare in The Dark Lady of the Sonnets.
16.
Donald Wolfit overcame his hatred of Gielgud enough to accept the role of Thomas Mowbray in Richard of Bordeaux with a cast headed by Gielgud and Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies; the piece ran for more than a year.
17.
Donald Wolfit made a impression in 1933 in the title role of a one-night-only production of Hamlet at the Arts Theatre using the First Quarto text rather than the First Folio text usually given.
18.
Donald Wolfit secured financial backing and staged a week-long drama festival in his native Newark in 1934.
19.
Donald Wolfit presented Arms and the Man, The Master Builder and Twelfth Night, playing Bluntschli, Solness and Malvolio.
20.
Donald Wolfit made his first film appearance in 1934, as St Francis of Assisi in a short film called Inasmuch.
21.
Donald Wolfit appeared in other films in the 1930s, after which he did not work in films again until the 1950s.
22.
Donald Wolfit joined the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre companies for the festivals of 1936 and 1937, with eight major roles in the first, including Hamlet, and five in the second.
23.
Donald Wolfit's Hamlet was favourably reviewed by the critics and, according to his biographer Ronald Harwood, "the performance of Hamlet elevated Wolfit to the ranks of leading players".
24.
Donald Wolfit fell in love with her, left his wife, and lived with Iden, eventually marrying her in 1948.
25.
At the outbreak of the Second World War, despite strong advice to the contrary, Donald Wolfit refused to cancel his plans for an autumn tour.
26.
Donald Wolfit played a season in 1940 at the Kingsway Theatre in London.
27.
Later that year Donald Wolfit presented lunch-time Scenes from Shakespeare at the Strand Theatre during the Blitz.
28.
Hermione Gingold adapted an old theatrical joke, saying that "Olivier is a tour-de-force, and Donald Wolfit is forced to tour", but in fact Donald Wolfit preferred touring with his own company and was often unhappy in West End productions, beholden to directors and acting alongside major actors to whom he was not clearly superior.
29.
Donald Wolfit firmly believed that Shakespeare should be taken to the people, and used West End appearances and films to subsidise his touring company.
30.
Donald Wolfit presented a sixteen-week season of "Shakespeare at popular prices", and played to packed houses.
31.
Donald Wolfit 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".
32.
Donald Wolfit returned to actor-management in 1953 with a season at the King's Theatre, Hammersmith, with a stronger company than usual.
33.
Donald Wolfit opened to enthusiastic reviews and full houses for a double bill of Oedipus the King and Oedipus 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 he gave some magnificent performances".
34.
In 1957 Donald Wolfit announced his retirement as an actor-manager, but after his knighthood in that year he emerged from retirement and undertook one final tour under his own management.
35.
Donald Wolfit died in the Royal Masonic Hospital, London, on 17 February 1968 and was buried in St Peter's Church, Hurstbourne Tarrant, Hampshire.