Stock up with our Shop Small Sale! Shop the sale
John Gielgud In His Own Words by John Gielgud
  Send as gift   Add to Wish List

Almost ready!

In order to save audiobooks to your Wish List you must be signed in to your account.

      Log in       Create account
Collage of audiobooks

Shop Small Sale

Shop our limited-time sale on bestselling audiobooks. Donโ€™t miss outโ€”purchases support local bookstores.

Shop the sale
Phone showing make the switch message

Limited-time offer

Get two free audiobooks!

Nowโ€™s a great time to shop indie. When you start a new one credit per month membership supporting local bookstores with promo code SWITCH, weโ€™ll give you two bonus audiobook credits at sign-up.

Sign up today

John Gielgud In His Own Words

$10.01

Narrator John Gielgud

This audiobook uses AI narration.

Weโ€™re taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.

Learn more
Length 1 hour 21 minutes
Language English
  Send as gift   Add to Wish List

Almost ready!

In order to save audiobooks to your Wish List you must be signed in to your account.

      Log in       Create account

Sir John Gielgud was one of his generation's leading actors, who won an Academy Award. In this collection we hear - in his own words - about his family and childhood, deciding to be an actor and his first confident performance. He discusses understudying Noรซl Coward and failing as Romeo, playing Hamlet for the first time and working with other actors. He also talks about bringing Shakespeare back to the West End, directing plays himself, film vs theatre acting, making mistakes and writing his autobiographies.

Interviews include: BBC radio archive interview (first broadcast 1 January 1941) Great Acting, BBC TV (first broadcast 12 February 1966); Parkinson, BBC 1 (first broadcast 7 October 1972); An Actor In His Time, BBC Radio 4 (first broadcast 15 October 1978); Woman's Hour, BBC Radio 4 (first broadcast 30 January 1980); Desert Island Discs, BBC Radio 4 (first broadcast 16 May 1981); Sir John Gielgud Looks Back, BBC World Service (first broadcast 19 February 1995).

Due to the age and nature of this archive material, the sound quality may vary.

ยฉ2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Sir John Gielgud had an astonishing 80-year career as a thespian, and performed a huge variety of roles on stage and screen. Along with Laurence Olivier and Ralph Richardson, he was acclaimed as one of the 'great trinity' of theatre actors, and was particularly renowned for his Shakespearean roles, which included Hamlet, Romeo, King Lear, Richard II and Prospero. Among his other notable stage appearances were in The Importance of Being Ernest, The Seagull, Forty Years On and Home. His films included Chimes at Midnight, Providence, Chariots of Fire, Gandhi and Arthur, in which he played Hobson the butler. The role won him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar, as well as several other awards. On television, he was seen in Brideshead Revisited, The Far Pavilions, War and Remembrance and Summer's Lease. He was made a Knight Bachelor in 1953, and was awarded the Legion of Honour in 1960, the Companion of Honour in 1977 and the Order of Merit in 1996. John Gielgud died in 2000, aged 96.

Sir John Gielgud had an astonishing 80-year career as a thespian, and performed a huge variety of roles on stage and screen. Along with Laurence Olivier and Ralph Richardson, he was acclaimed as one of the 'great trinity' of theatre actors, and was particularly renowned for his Shakespearean roles, which included Hamlet, Romeo, King Lear, Richard II and Prospero. Among his other notable stage appearances were in The Importance of Being Ernest, The Seagull, Forty Years On and Home. His films included Chimes at Midnight, Providence, Chariots of Fire, Gandhi and Arthur, in which he played Hobson the butler. The role won him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar, as well as several other awards. On television, he was seen in Brideshead Revisited, The Far Pavilions, War and Remembrance and Summer's Lease. He was made a Knight Bachelor in 1953, and was awarded the Legion of Honour in 1960, the Companion of Honour in 1977 and the Order of Merit in 1996. John Gielgud died in 2000, aged 96.

Collage of audiobooks

Shop Small Sale

Shop our limited-time sale on bestselling audiobooks. Donโ€™t miss outโ€”purchases support local bookstores.

Shop the sale
Phone showing make the switch message

Limited-time offer

Get two free audiobooks!

Nowโ€™s a great time to shop indie. When you start a new one credit per month membership supporting local bookstores with promo code SWITCH, weโ€™ll give you two bonus audiobook credits at sign-up.

Sign up today
Stock up with our Shop Small Sale! Shop the sale