Editing Donald Wolfit (section)

===Postwar===
Wolfit toured more often than he played in London. [[Hermione Gingold]] adapted an old theatrical joke, saying that "[[Laurence Olivier|Olivier]] is a tour-de-force, and Wolfit is forced to tour",{{refn|This theatrical jibe goes back at least to the 19th century. It was said of [[Seymour Hicks]] that whereas [[David Garrick]] and [[Henry Irving]] had been ''tours de force'', Hicks had been forced to tour. A later iteration concerned [[Lilian Braithwaite]] and [[Mrs Patrick Campbell]] in the 1930s, and the use of the phrase for Olivier and Wolfit was a recycling for a 1940s revue by Gingold's writers.<ref>Rees, p. 3</ref>|group=n}} but in fact Wolfit preferred touring with his own company and was often unhappy in West End productions, beholden to directors and acting alongside major actors to whom he was not clearly superior. He firmly believed that Shakespeare should be taken to the people, and used West End appearances and films to subsidise his touring company.<ref name=m419>Morley  (1986), p. 419</ref>  After the war he continued his annual tours in Britain and in 1947 he presented two successful tours of Canada, a season in New York and a London season at the [[Savoy Theatre]].<ref name=dnb/>

Hoping to present his company in another London season in 1949, Wolfit found that no West End theatre was available and instead he took an old [[music hall]], The Bedford, in [[Camden Town]], north London. He presented a sixteen-week season of "Shakespeare at popular prices", and played to packed houses.<ref>Harwood, pp. 207–208</ref> ''[[The Stage]]'' said of his performance in ''King Lear'', "There is no acting in our theatre to-day as magnificent as that of Donald Wolfit when he plays Lear",<ref>"The Bedford", ''The Stage'', 10 March 1949, p. 7</ref> but his productions had cheap costumes and scenery and his company was below his own standard of acting. Among the audience during this season was the young [[Bernard Levin]], who later wrote that although "Wolfit and his dreadful company ... horribly travestied Shakespeare" they nevertheless enabled young people to come to know and love the plays, and for this Levin held Wolfit's memory in high honour.<ref>Levin, pp. 148–150</ref> Levin recalled Wolfit's customary curtain call, "with the old megalomanic, as he thanked the audience, indulging in the same exhausted clutch of the curtain", which [[Stephen Potter]] said he did whether he had been "laying himself out with Lear or trotting through twenty minutes of Touchstone".<ref>Levin, p. 150; and Harwood, p. 187</ref>

In 1950 Wolfit was appointed [[Order of the British Empire|CBE]]. In that year [[Tyrone Guthrie]] invited him to return to the Old Vic to play Lear, Timon of Athens, Lord Ogleby in ''[[The Clandestine Marriage]]'', and [[Christopher Marlowe]]'s ''[[Tamburlaine the Great]]''. He had great success in these roles but according to Harwood he "chafed at performing in a company other than his own and surrounded by excellent supporting actors". He quarrelled with Guthrie and left the company.<ref name=dnb/>

Wolfit returned to actor-management in 1953 with a season at the [[King's Theatre, Hammersmith]], with a stronger company than usual. He opened to enthusiastic reviews and full houses for a double bill of  ''Oedipus the King'' and ''Oedipus at Colonus'', but, in Harwood's words, later in the season, and for the last time, "he resorted to his tired Shakespearian productions, in which, however, he gave some magnificent performances".<ref name=dnb/> Although Wolfit's touring companies were frequently criticised, they nevertheless included, among many less familiar names, future stars such as [[Peter Jones (actor)|Peter Jones]], [[Harold Pinter]], [[Eric Porter]], [[Brian Rix]], [[Frank Thornton]] and [[Richard Wattis]].<ref>Harwood, pp. 287–289</ref>

In 1957 Wolfit announced his retirement as an actor-manager, but after his [[knight bachelor|knighthood]] in that year he emerged from retirement and undertook one final tour under his own management.<ref name=dnb/> A major role of his later years was the title character of  [[Henrik Ibsen]]'s ''[[John Gabriel Borkman]]'' at the [[Duchess Theatre]] in 1963. One critic said that Wolfit's performance would have pleased Ibsen, and deserved to be regarded as the definitive portrayal.<ref name=m419/> Wolfit's last stage appearance was in the musical ''[[Robert and Elizabeth]]'', as the tyrannical Mr Barrett in 1966–67.<ref name=dnb/> 

Wolfit died in the [[Royal Masonic Hospital]], London, on 17 February 1968 and was buried in St Peter's Church, [[Hurstbourne Tarrant]], Hampshire.<ref name=dnb/>