Gielgud, one of the 20th century's great actors who was perhaps the definitive Hamlet of his era, was a trouper to the end, working as recently as a month ago on a film of the Samuel Beckett play, Catastrophe. Gielgud, who was described by theater writer Ned Sherrin as "one of the great classical glories of the English stage," failed to achieve one ambition, however: He did not die, as he said he wanted to, on stage in the middle of a performance.
Passage: Sir John Gielgud, 96
Gielgud, one of the 20th century's great actors who was perhaps the definitive Hamlet of his era, was a trouper to the end, working as recently as a month ago on a film of the Samuel Beckett play, Catastrophe. Gielgud, who was described by theater writer Ned Sherrin as "one of the great classical glories of the English stage," failed to achieve one ambition, however: He did not die, as he said he wanted to, on stage in the middle of a performance.
