Editing John Gielgud (section)

===Early West End roles===
{{Hatnote|Details of Gielgud's work, 1924–29: [[List of roles and awards of John Gielgud#jgS24|Stage]], [[List of roles and awards of John Gielgud#jgR24|Radio]], [[List of roles and awards of John Gielgud#jgF24|Film]]}}
Between Gielgud's first two Oxford seasons, the producer [[Barry Jackson (director)|Barry Jackson]] cast him as [[Romeo]] to the [[Juliet]] of [[Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies]] at the Regent's Theatre, London, in May 1924. The production was not a great success, but the two performers became close friends and frequently worked together throughout their careers.<ref>Gielgud (1979), p. 63</ref> Gielgud made his screen debut during 1924 as Daniel Arnault in [[Walter Summers]]'s silent film ''[[Who Is the Man?]]'' (1924).<ref>Gielgud (2000), p. 197</ref>

[[File:Lilian Braithwaite & Noël Coward.jpg|thumb|[[Noël Coward]] with [[Lilian Braithwaite]], his, and later Gielgud's, co-star in ''[[The Vortex]]'']]

In May 1925 the Oxford production of ''The Cherry Orchard'' was brought to the [[Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith]]. Gielgud again played Trofimov.<ref>"Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith", '' The Times'', 26 May 1925, p. 14</ref> His distinctive speaking voice attracted attention and led to work for [[BBC Radio]], which his biographer [[Sheridan Morley]] calls "a medium he made his own for seventy years".<ref name=dnb/> In the same year [[Noël Coward]] chose Gielgud as his understudy in his play ''[[The Vortex]]''. For the last month of the West End run Gielgud took over Coward's role of Nicky Lancaster, the drug-addicted son of a nymphomaniac mother. It was in Gielgud's words "a highly-strung, nervous, hysterical part which depended a lot upon emotion".<ref name=g61>Gielgud (1979), p. 61</ref> He found it tiring to play because he had not yet learned how to pace himself, but he thought it "a thrilling engagement because it led to so many great things afterwards".<ref name=g61/>

The success of ''The Cherry Orchard'' led to what one critic called a "Chekhov boom" in British theatres, and Gielgud was among its leading players.<ref>Croall (2000), p. 69</ref> As Konstantin in ''[[The Seagull]]'' in October 1925 he impressed the Russian director [[Theodore Komisarjevsky]], who cast him as Tusenbach in the British premiere of ''[[Three Sisters (play)|Three Sisters]]''. The production received enthusiastic reviews, and Gielgud's highly praised performance enhanced his reputation as a potential star.<ref>Croall (2000), p. 73</ref> There followed three years of mixed fortunes for him, with successes in fringe productions, but West End stardom was elusive.<ref>Croall (2011), p. 74</ref>

In 1926 the producer [[Basil Dean]] offered Gielgud the lead role, Lewis Dodd, in a dramatisation of [[Margaret Kennedy]]'s best-selling novel, ''[[The Constant Nymph (play)|The Constant Nymph]]''. Before rehearsals began Dean found that a bigger star than Gielgud was available, namely Coward, to whom he gave the part. Gielgud had an enforceable contractual claim to the role, but Dean, a notorious bully, was a powerful force in British theatre.<ref>Croall (2000), p. 89</ref><ref name="dean dnb">Roose-Evans, James. [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/31016 "Dean, Basil Herbert (1888–1978)"], ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, online edition, January 2011, retrieved 12 August 2014 {{ODNBsub}}</ref> Intimidated, Gielgud accepted the position of understudy, with a guarantee that he would take over the lead from Coward when the latter, who disliked playing in long runs, left.<ref>Croall (2011), pp. 85–86</ref> In the event Coward, who had been overworking, suffered a nervous collapse three weeks after the opening night, and Gielgud played the lead for the rest of the run. The play ran for nearly a year in London and then went on tour.<ref>Gielgud (2000), pp. 93–94</ref>

[[File:Mrs-Patrick-Campbell-and-EdithEvans.jpg|thumb|left|[[Mrs Patrick Campbell]] and [[Edith Evans]], 1920s co-stars with Gielgud]]

By this time Gielgud was earning enough to leave the family home and take a small flat in the West End. He had his first serious romantic relationship, living with John Perry, an unsuccessful actor, later a writer, who remained a lifelong friend after their affair ended. Morley makes the point that, like Coward, Gielgud's principal passion was the stage; both men had casual dalliances, but were more comfortable with "low-maintenance" long-term partners who did not impede their theatrical work and ambitions.<ref>Morley, p. 56</ref>

In 1928 Gielgud made his [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] debut as the [[Alexander I of Russia|Grand Duke Alexander]] in [[Alfred Neumann (writer)|Alfred Neumann]]'s ''The Patriot''. The play was a failure, closing after a week, but Gielgud liked New York and received favourable reviews from critics including [[Alexander Woollcott]] and [[Brooks Atkinson]].<ref>Hayman, p. 46; and Atkinson, Brooks. [https://www.nytimes.com/1928/01/20/archives/the-play-imperial-tragedy.html "The Play – Imperial Tragedy"], ''[[The New York Times]]'', 20 January 1928, p. 15 {{subscription}}</ref> After returning to London he starred in a succession of short runs, including [[Ibsen]]'s ''[[Ghosts (play)|Ghosts]]'' with [[Mrs Patrick Campbell]] (1928), and [[Reginald Berkeley]]'s ''The Lady with a Lamp'' (1929) with [[Edith Evans]] and Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies.<ref name=dnb/> In 1928 he made his second film, ''[[The Clue of the New Pin (1929 film)|The Clue of the New Pin]]''.{{refn|According to Morley, but not to Gielgud or Croall, Gielgud's second film appearance was in the title role of Komisarjevsky's film ''Michael Strogoff'' (1926).<ref>Morley, p. 63</ref> No such film is listed by the [[British Film Institute]], and this seems to refer to a live performance given as a prologue to the gala screening of Universal Film de France's 1926 ''Michel Strogoff'' at the [[Albert Hall]]. The film was directed by [[Viktor Tourjansky]];<ref>[http://explore.bfi.org.uk/4ce2b6be94f88 "Michel Strogoff"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222014657/http://explore.bfi.org.uk/4ce2b6be94f88 |date=22 February 2014}}, British Film Institute, retrieved 9 February 2014</ref> Komisarjevsky directed the live prologue, in which a scene from the film was enacted "with prominent British stage players taking the principal roles and scores of dancing girls and others making up the colorful Tartar atmosphere".<ref>[https://archive.org/stream/motionpicture34moti#page/n149/mode/2up "Strogoff Feb 8 Release"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131107170344/http://archive.org/stream/motionpicture34moti |date=7 November 2013}}, ''Motion Picture News'', 13 November 1926, p. 1855</ref>|group=n}} This, billed as "the first British full-length [[talkie]]",<ref>"The Film World", ''The Times'', 6 February 1929, p. 12</ref> was an adaptation of an [[Edgar Wallace]] mystery story; Gielgud played a young scoundrel who commits two murders and very nearly a third before he himself is killed.{{refn|Both Gielgud and Morley refer to the film as silent,<ref>Gielgud (2000), p. 198; and Morley, p. 81</ref> but according to the [[British Film Institute]], it had sound, by the British Phototone [[sound-on-disc]] system, and beat [[Alfred Hitchcock]]'s ''[[Blackmail (1929 film)|Blackmail]]'' to the distinction of being Britain's first full-length talkie.<ref>White and Buscombe, p. 94</ref>|group=n}}