“Ah, I think I know what you want – a little more flute and a little less cello”
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Ralph Richardson
Sir Ralph David Richardson was an English actor. Along with his contemporaries John Gielgud, Michael Redgrave and Laurence Olivier, he made up a quartet of male actors who dominated the British stage of the mid-20th century. Neverthless, he worked in films throughout most of his career, playing more than sixty cinema roles. From an artistic but not theatrical background, Richardson had no thought…
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entertainment · English actor (1902–1983) · stage actor · film actor · television actor · film director · actor · theatre manager · also Ralph Richardson, Sir Ralph David Richardson, Kt, Richardson
Born 19 December 1902 · Died 10 October 1983 · Q381285
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2026· 5 entries
“He had everything the part wants – the exuberance, the mischief, the gusto. ... Here is something better than virtuosity in character-acting – the spirit of the part shining through the actor.”
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KUAF Public Radio: Yvonne Richardson Center's next chapter — Waterwitch film series continues
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Investing.com México: Director de Richardson Electronics vende acciones por $54,329
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Community Impact: Richardson City Manager files $432M budget, no tax rate increase for FY 2026-27
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1983· 4 entries
Died 1983-10-10.
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“Besides cherishing our long years of work together in the theatre, where he was such an inspiring and generous partner, I grew to love him in private life as a great gentleman, a rare spirit, fair and balanced, devotedly loyal and tolerant and, as a companion, bursting with vitality, curiosity and humour.”
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"Besides cherishing our long years of work together in the theatre, where he was such an inspiring and generous partner, I grew to love him in private life as a great gentleman, a rare spirit, fair and balanced, devotedl
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Was seen as Pfordten in Tony Palmer's Wagner; this was a film of enormous length, starring Richard Burton as Richard Wagner and was noted at the time, and subsequently, for the cameo roles of three conspiratorial cour
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1982· 1 entry
In a documentary programme about Little Tich, whom he had watched at the Brighton Hippodrome before the First World War
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1978· 1 entry
As the aged retainer Firs in The Cherry Orchard
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1975· 1 entry
Successfully offered Richardson the title role in Ibsen's John Gabriel Borkman, with Ashcroft and Wendy Hiller in the two main female roles
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1973· 1 entry
Richardson received a BAFTA nomination for his performance of George IV in Lady Caroline Lamb, in which Olivier appeared as Wellington
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1971· 2 entries
Richardson starred in John Osborne's West of Suez, after which, in July 1972, he surprised many by joining Peggy Ashcroft in a drawing-room comedy, Lloyd George Knew My Father by William Douglas-Home
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Bernard Levin wrote that the Old Vic company of 1944 to 1947 "was probably the most illustrious that has ever been assembled in this country"
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1970· 1 entry
Richardson was with Gielgud at the Royal Court in David Storey's Home
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1969· 1 entry
As Dr Rance in What the Butler Saw by Joe Orton
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1967· 2 entries
Again played Shylock; this was the last time he acted in a Shakespeare play on stage
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Played Lord Emsworth on BBC television in dramatisations of P G Wodehouse's Blandings Castle stories, with his wife playing Emsworth's bossy sister Constance, and Stanley Holloway as the butler, Beach
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1965· 1 entry
Played Alexander Gromeko in Lean's Doctor Zhivago, an exceptionally successful film at the box office, which, together with The Wrong Box and Khartoum, earned him a BAFTA nomination for best leading actor in 1966
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1964· 1 entry
Richardson was the voice of General Haig in the twenty-six-part BBC documentary series The Great War
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1963· 1 entry
Was judged by the critic Sheridan Morley to have been a high-point of the actor's work in the 1960s
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1962· 1 entry
Also starred opposite Kenneth More, Wendy Craig, Megs Jenkins and Peter Sallis in the television film Heart to Heart, which was written by Terence Rattigan and partly based on the television series Face to Face
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1955· 1 entry
And later reproached himself for missing the chance to be in "the greatest play of my generation"
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1953· 1 entry
And in November of the same year he and Gielgud starred together in N
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1952· 1 entry
Richardson appeared at the Stratford-upon-Avon Festival at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre (forerunner of the Royal Shakespeare Company)
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1947· 1 entry
Won St. Olav's Medal (1947).
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1945· 3 entries
But there is little other mention of party politics in the biographies
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The company toured Germany, where they were seen by many thousands of Allied servicemen; they also appeared at the Comédie-Française theatre in Paris, the first foreign company to be given that honour
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And 1946, before their success provoked resentment among the governing board of the Old Vic, leading to their dismissal from the company in 1947
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1942· 1 entry
On his way to visit his wife at the cottage where she was cared for by a devoted couple, Richardson crashed his motor-bike and was in hospital for several weeks
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1936· 2 entries
London Films released Things to Come, in which Richardson played the swaggering warlord "The Boss"
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“Though not so very much older than I am, I regarded him in a way as a father, and to me he was as generous as a prince.”
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1933· 1 entry
Had his first speaking part in a film, playing the villain, Nigel Hartley, in The Ghoul, which starred Cedric Hardwicke and Boris Karloff
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1931· 1 entry
Joined the Old Vic, playing mostly Shakespearean roles
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1930· 1 entry
Richardson, with some misgivings, accepted an invitation to join The Old Vic company
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1929· 1 entry
Persuaded the young West End star John Gielgud to lead the drama company
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1923· 1 entry
And toured in a new play, Outward Bound by Sutton Vane
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1920· 1 entry
And considered how else he might make a career
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1919· 1 entry
Aged sixteen, Richardson took a post as office boy with the Brighton branch of the Liverpool Victoria insurance company
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1907· 1 entry
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
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1902· 1 entry
Born 1902-12-19.
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