Editing Ralph Richardson (section)

===Early years===
Richardson was born in [[Cheltenham]], Gloucestershire, the third son and youngest child of Arthur Richardson and his wife Lydia ({{nee|Russell}}) on 19 December 1902.<ref name=dnb /> The couple had met while both were in Paris, studying with the painter [[William-Adolphe Bouguereau]].<ref name=o16>O'Connor, p. 16</ref> Arthur Richardson had been senior art master at [[Cheltenham Ladies' College]] from 1893.<ref>O'Connor, p. 17</ref>
{{Quote box |bgcolor=#DCD|salign=right| quote =She eloped with me, then aged four.|source=Richardson on his mother's<br />breakup of the family<ref>O'Connor, p. 20</ref>|align=right| width=225px}}
In 1907 the family split up; there was no divorce or formal separation, but the two elder boys, Christopher and Ambrose, remained with their father and Lydia left them, taking Ralph with her. The ostensible cause of the couple's separation was a row over Lydia's choice of wallpaper for her husband's study. According to John Miller's biography, whatever underlying causes there may have been are unknown.<ref name=m8/> An earlier biographer, [[Garry O'Connor (writer)|Garry O'Connor]], speculates that Arthur Richardson might have been having an extramarital affair.<ref>O'Connor, pp. 20–21</ref> There does not seem to have been a religious element, although Arthur was a dedicated [[Quaker]], whose first two sons were brought up in that faith, whereas Lydia was a devout convert to [[Roman Catholic]]ism, in which she raised Ralph.<ref name=m8>Miller, pp. 7–8</ref> Mother and son had a variety of homes, the first of which was a bungalow converted from two railway carriages in [[Shoreham-by-Sea]] on the south coast of England.<ref name=dnb>Morley, Sheridan, [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/31607 "Richardson, Sir Ralph David (1902–1983)"], ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004; online edition, January 2011, retrieved 13 January 2014 {{ODNBsub}}</ref>

Lydia wanted Richardson to become a priest.<ref name=dnb/> In [[Brighton]] he served as an [[Altar server#Altar servers in the Catholic Church|altar boy]], which he enjoyed,{{#tag:ref|O'Connor comments that a youthful taste for ritual was common to Richardson and his two great contemporaries, [[John Gielgud]] and [[Laurence Olivier]], the former from attending the [[Brompton Oratory]] and the latter from his days at the [[High Anglican]] choir school of [[All Saints, Margaret Street]].<ref name=o24>O'Connor, p. 24</ref>|group= n}} but when sent at about fifteen to the nearby Xaverian College, a seminary for trainee priests, he ran away.<ref name=rituals/> As a pupil at a series of schools he was uninterested in most subjects and was an indifferent scholar. His Latin was poor, and during church services he would improvise parts of the Latin responses, developing a talent for invention when memory failed that proved useful in his later career.<ref>Miller, p. 10</ref>

{{Quote box |bgcolor=#DCD|salign=right| quote =I was too lazy to be a painter{{space}}... I hadn't the persistency – but then I hadn't got very much talent.|source=Richardson on his<br />time at art school<ref>O'Connor, p. 27</ref>|align=left| width=200px}}
In 1919, aged sixteen, Richardson took a post as office boy with the Brighton branch of the [[Liverpool Victoria]] insurance company.<ref name=o26/> The pay, ten [[shilling]]s a week, was attractive, but office life was not; he lacked concentration, frequently posting documents to the wrong people as well as engaging in pranks that alarmed his superiors.<ref name=o26>O'Connor, p. 26</ref>{{#tag:ref|Miller cites an occasion when Richardson climbed the façade of the building and entered the office through the window of an upper floor, horrifying his employer at the danger he had risked.|group= n}} His paternal grandmother died and left him £500, which, he later said, transformed his life.<ref name=m15>Miller, p. 15</ref> He resigned from the office post, just in time to avoid being dismissed,<ref name=h15>Hobson, p. 15</ref> and enrolled at the [[Brighton School of Art]]. His studies there convinced him that he lacked creativity, and that his drawing skills were not good enough.<ref name=m15/>

Richardson left the art school in 1920, and considered how else he might make a career. He briefly thought of pharmacy and then of journalism, abandoning each when he learned how much study the former required and how difficult mastering shorthand for the latter would be.<ref>O'Connor, p. 29</ref> He was still unsure what to do, when he saw [[Frank Benson (actor)|Sir Frank Benson]] as [[Prince Hamlet|Hamlet]] in a touring production. He was thrilled, and felt at once that he must become an actor.<ref>O'Connor, p. 31</ref>

Buttressed by what was left of the legacy from his grandmother, Richardson determined to learn to act. He paid a local theatrical manager, Frank R. Growcott, ten shillings a week to take him as a member of his company and to teach him the craft of an actor.<ref name=timesobit>Obituary, ''The Times'', 11 October 1983, p. 14</ref>{{#tag:ref|According to Hobson and Morley the weekly payment to Growcott was £1. O'Connor and Miller give the smaller sum.<ref>Hobson, p. 15; Morley pp. 326–327; O'Connor, p. 34; and Miller, p. 18</ref>|group= n}} He made his stage debut in December 1920 with Growcott's St Nicholas Players at the St Nicholas Hall, Brighton, a converted bacon factory.<ref name=h15/> He played a [[Gendarmerie|gendarme]] in an adaptation of ''[[Les Misérables]]'' and was soon entrusted with larger parts, including [[Banquo]] in ''[[Macbeth]]'' and [[Malvolio]] in ''[[Twelfth Night]]''.<ref name=roles/>