Editing John Gielgud (section)

===1950s – Film success and personal crisis===
{{Hatnote|Details of Gielgud's work, 1950–59: [[List of roles and awards of John Gielgud#jgS50|Stage]], [[List of roles and awards of John Gielgud#jgD50|Director]], [[List of roles and awards of John Gielgud#jgR50|Radio]], [[List of roles and awards of John Gielgud#jgF50|Film]], [[List of roles and awards of John Gielgud#jgTV50|Television]], [[List of roles and awards of John Gielgud#jgA50|Accolades]]}}
[[File:Julius Caesar promo still.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|[[Edmond O'Brien]] (Casca, left) and Gielgud (Cassius) in ''[[Julius Caesar (1953 film)|Julius Caesar]]'' (1953)]]
At the [[Shakespeare Memorial Theatre]], [[Stratford-upon-Avon]], Gielgud did much to reclaim his position as a leading Shakespearean. His cold, unsympathetic Angelo in [[Peter Brook]]'s production of ''[[Measure for Measure]]'' (1950) showed the public a new, naturalistic manner in his playing.<ref>Hayman, p. 171; and Morley, pp. 210–212</ref> He followed this with three other Shakespeare productions with Brook, which were well received.<ref name=dnb/> His own attempt at direction in Stratford, for Richardson's ''Macbeth'' in 1952, was much less successful, with poor notices for the star and worse ones for the director.<ref>"Stratford Festival", ''The Times'', 11 June 1952, p. 8; and Tynan, p. 107</ref>

In 1953 Gielgud made his first Hollywood film, the sole classical actor in [[Joseph L. Mankiewicz]]'s ''[[Julius Caesar (1953 film)|Julius Caesar]]'', playing [[Gaius Cassius Longinus|Cassius]]. [[Marlon Brando]] (Mark Antony) was in awe of him,<ref>Gielgud (2004), p. 157</ref> and [[James Mason]] (Brutus) was disheartened at Gielgud's seemingly effortless skill.<ref name=m223>Morley, pp. 223–224</ref> Gielgud, for his part, felt he learned much about film technique from Mason.<ref>Gielgud (1979), p. 199</ref> Gielgud enjoyed his four-month stay in California, not least, as Morley comments, for the relaxed attitude there to homosexuality.<ref>Morley, p. 225</ref>

[[File:John Gielgud - 1953.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Gielgud, 1953]]

Returning to London later in 1953 Gielgud took over management of the Lyric, Hammersmith, for a classical season of ''Richard II'', Congreve's ''[[The Way of the World]]'', and [[Thomas Otway]]'s ''[[Venice Preserv'd]]'', directing the first, acting in the last, and doing both in the second. Feeling he was too old for Richard, he cast the young [[Paul Scofield]]; both the actor and the production were a critical and commercial success.<ref>Morley, pp. 232–233</ref> During the season Gielgud was [[Knight Bachelor|knighted]] in the [[1953 Coronation Honours#Knights Bachelor|1953 Coronation Honours]].<ref>"The Coronation Honours", ''The Times'', 1 June 1953, p. 8</ref>

On the evening of 20 October 1953, Gielgud, usually highly discreet about casual sex, was arrested in [[Chelsea, London|Chelsea]] for [[cottaging]] (i.e. [[cruising for sex]] in a public lavatory). Until the 1960s sexual activity of any kind between men was illegal in Britain.{{refn|The principal law against homosexual acts was the [[Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885]], in which [[Labouchere Amendment|Section 11]] made any kind of sexual activity between men illegal. It was not repealed until the passage of the [[Sexual Offences Act 1967]].<ref name=w239/>|group=n}} The [[Home Secretary]] of the day, [[David Maxwell Fyfe]], was fervently homophobic, urging the police to arrest anyone who contravened the Victorian laws against homosexuality.<ref name=w239>Weeks, pp. 239–240; and Carpenter, p. 334</ref> Gielgud was fined; when the press reported the story, he thought his disgrace would end his career. When the news broke he was in [[Liverpool]] on the pre-London tour of a new play, ''[[A Day by the Sea]]''. According to the biographer [[Richard Huggett (playwright)|Richard Huggett]], Gielgud was so paralysed by nerves that the prospect of going onstage as usual seemed impossible, but his fellow players, led by [[Sybil Thorndike]], encouraged him:

{{blockquote|She grabbed him and whispered fiercely, "Come on, John darling, ''they won't boo me''{{-"}}, and led him firmly on to the stage. To everybody's astonishment and indescribable relief, the audience gave him a standing ovation. They cheered, they applauded, they shouted. The message was quite clear. The English public had always been loyal to its favourites, and this was their chance to show that they didn't care tuppence what he had done in his private life{{space}}... they loved him and respected him dearly. It was a moment never to be forgotten by those who witnessed it.<ref>Huggett, p. 249</ref>}}

His career was safe, but the episode briefly affected Gielgud's health; he suffered a [[nervous breakdown]] some months afterwards. He never spoke publicly about the incident, and it was quickly sidelined by the press and politely ignored by writers during his lifetime. Privately he made donations to [[LGBT rights in the United Kingdom|gay campaign groups]], but did not endorse them in public. In his later years he said to the actor [[Simon Callow]], "I do admire people like you and [[Ian McKellen]] for coming out, but I can't be doing with that myself."<ref>Croall (2013), p. 87</ref>

Between December 1953 and June 1955 Gielgud concentrated on directing and did not appear on stage. His productions ranged from a revival of ''Charley's Aunt'' with [[John Mills]] to ''The Cherry Orchard'' with Ffrangcon-Davies, and ''Twelfth Night'' with Olivier.<ref name=roles/> His return to the stage was in a production of ''King Lear'', which was badly hampered by costumes and scenery by [[Isamu Noguchi]] that the critics found ludicrous.<ref>"Palace Theatre", ''The Times'', 27 July 1955, p. 5; Hope-Wallace, Philip. "Lear in Eastern Trappings", ''The Manchester Guardian'', 27 July 1955, p. 3; and [[J. C. Trewin|Trewin, J C]]. "The World of the Theatre", ''[[Illustrated London News]]'', 13 August 1955, p. 276</ref> A revival of ''Much Ado About Nothing'' with Ashcroft in 1955 was much better received; in ''The Manchester Guardian'', [[Philip Hope-Wallace]] called it "Shakespearean comedy for once perfectly realised".<ref>Hope-Wallace, Philip. "'Much Ado' Visits London", ''The Manchester Guardian'', 22 July 1955, p. 5</ref> In 1955 Gielgud made his second appearance in a film of Shakespeare, portraying [[George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence|Clarence]] in Olivier's ''[[Richard III (1955 film)|Richard III]]''.<ref name=roles/>

In the second half of the 1950s Gielgud's career was in the doldrums as far as new plays were concerned.<ref>Harwood, pp. 82–83</ref> British theatre was moving away from the West End glamour of Beaumont's productions to more ''{{lang|fr|[[Experimental theatre|avant-garde]]}}'' works. Olivier had a great success in [[John Osborne]]'s ''[[The Entertainer (play)|The Entertainer]]'' in 1957,<ref>Tynan, p. 49</ref> but Gielgud was not in tune with the new wave of writers.{{refn|In 1955 Gielgud advised Richardson not to accept the role of [[Estragon]] in [[Samuel Beckett|Beckett]]'s ''[[Waiting for Godot]]'', describing the piece as rubbish. Richardson later deeply regretted taking his friend's advice, recognising the work as "the greatest play of my generation".<ref>Miller, pp. 162–163</ref>|group=n}} He remained in demand as a Shakespearean, but there were few new plays suitable for him. He directed and played the lead in Coward's ''[[Nude with Violin]]'' in 1956, which was dismissed by the critics as old-fashioned, though it ran for more than a year.<ref>Lesley, p. 370</ref> He made two film appearances, playing a cameo comedy scene with Coward as a prospective manservant in [[Michael Anderson (director)|Michael Anderson]]'s ''[[Around the World in 80 Days (1956 film)|Around the World in 80 Days]]'' (1956), and as the father of [[Elizabeth Barrett Browning]] in [[Sidney Franklin (director)|Sidney Franklin]]'s 1957 remake of ''[[The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1957 film)|The Barretts of Wimpole Street]]''. He did not consider his performance as the tyrannical father convincing, and confessed that he undertook it only for the large fee ("it will set me up for a couple of years") and to keep him before the public in America, where he had not performed for over four years.<ref name=roles/><ref>Gielgud (2000), pp. 441–443; and Gielgud (2004), p. 191</ref>

[[File:Gielgud and Leighton in Much Ado 1959.jpg|thumb|left|upright|''[[Much Ado About Nothing]]'': Gielgud as Benedick and [[Margaret Leighton]] as [[Beatrice (Much Ado About Nothing)|Beatrice]], 1959|alt=]]
During 1957 Gielgud directed [[Berlioz]]'s ''[[The Trojans]]'' at [[Royal Opera House|Covent Garden]] and played Prospero at [[Theatre Royal, Drury Lane|Drury Lane]],<ref name=roles/> but the production central to his career over the late 1950s and into the 1960s was his one-man show ''The Ages of Man''. He first appeared in this in 1956 and revived it every year until 1967. It was an anthology of Shakespearean speeches and [[Shakespeare's sonnets|sonnets]], compiled by [[George Rylands]], in which, wearing modern evening clothes on a plain stage, Gielgud recited the verses, with his own linking commentary.<ref>Hope-Wallace, Philip. "A recital by Gielgud", ''The Manchester Guardian'', 9 June 1959, p. 5</ref> He performed it all over Britain, mainland Europe, Australasia and the US, including a performance at the [[White House]] in 1965.<ref name=roles/> He found there were advantages to performing solo: "You've no idea how much easier it is without a Juliet. When there's a beautiful girl above you on a balcony, or lying on a tomb with candles round her, naturally the audience look at her the whole time, and Romeo has to pull out all the stops to get any attention."<ref>Lyttelton and Hart-Davis, p. 104</ref> His performance on Broadway won him a [[Special Tony Award]] in [[13th Tony Awards|1959]], and an audio recording in 1979 received a [[Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album|Grammy Award]].<ref name=dnb/><ref>[http://www.grammy.com/nominees/search?artist=Gielgud&field_nominee_work_value=&year=All&genre=All "John Gielgud"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140221203938/http://www.grammy.com/nominees/search?artist=Gielgud&field_nominee_work_value=&year=All&genre=All |date=21 February 2014}}, Grammy, retrieved 15 February 2014</ref> He made many other recordings, both before and after this, including ten Shakespeare plays.<ref>Croall (2000), p. 545</ref>

Gielgud continued to try, without much success, to find new plays that suited him as an actor, but his direction of [[Peter Shaffer]]'s first play, ''[[Five Finger Exercise]]'' (1958), received acclaim.<ref>Morley, pp. 302–303</ref><!--Deleted mention of him winning Tony for the Shaffer play, as it seems to be incorrect; Juliet Mills was nominated at the 14th Tony Awards, but Gielgud was not.--> While in the US for the Shaffer play, Gielgud revived ''Much Ado About Nothing'', this time with [[Margaret Leighton]] as his [[Beatrice (Much Ado About Nothing)|Beatrice]]. Most of the New York critics praised the production, and they all praised the co-stars.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1959/09/19/archives/5-drama-critics-hail-much-ado-but-all-7-praise-gielgud-and-margaret.html "5 Drama Critics Hail 'Much Ado'; But All 7 Praise Gielgud and Margaret Leighton"], ''The New York Times'', 19 September 1959 {{subscription}}</ref> He gave his first performances on television during 1959, in Rattigan's ''[[The Browning Version (play)|The Browning Version]]'' for [[CBS]] and [[N.&nbsp;C. Hunter]]'s ''A Day by the Sea'' for [[ITV (TV network)|ITV]].<ref>Tanitch, p. 15</ref> He appeared in more than fifty more plays on television over the next four decades.<ref>Croall (2000), pp. 542–544</ref>