THE THEATER 1947: Alec Guiness Stars in Old Vic's RICHARD II

Alec's Way

Alec's Way

Whenever Laurence Olivier and Sir Ralph Richardson, the two leading men of London's Old Vic, took time off to make a movie (and a few quid), the players felt deserted. There was nothing for it, the company decided, but to produce an outstanding young actor to fill in. So they did.

He was 33-year-old Alec Guinness, a balding skinnybones with the wide, dashed look of a boy who has just blown his lines in the Sunday-school pageant. In the last six months mild-voiced young Alec has provoked the Old Vic's stage into varied and resonant life. As the Fool in...

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