Walter Hampden, romantic Shakespeare-&-Cyrano stage favorite of the '20s & '30s, decided it was time to retire, at 67. From California, stately, large-gestured Actor Hampden made a little curtain speech damning the modern fashion of "underplaying" a role, darkly warned that "this movement can result only in the hobbling of dramatic art."
Laurence Olivier, currently screening Hamlet, was right in there with Sir Henry Irving: for his services to Britain's stage & screen, he was made a knight* by George VI. He could now play his Hamlet as Sir Laurence Olivier—and Vivien Leigh, if...
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