Gielgoodies

Timothy Bateson

Richard Burton was playing Hamlet at the Old Vic, but he was very nervous and not at his best. John came round to his dressing-room afterwards, to find him stark naked. ‘I’m so sorry, Richard,’ he said. ‘Shall I come back later when you’re better — I mean when you’re dressed?’

To Vivien Leigh, after she suggested playing a scene from Romeo and Juliet for a wartime concert party: ‘Oh no, Vivien! Only a great actress can do that sort of thing.’

To Alec Guinness, then a rising young star, on meeting him in Piccadilly: ‘I can’t think why you want to play big parts. Why don’t you stick to the little people you do so well?’

Robert Lang
Olivier once invited me to dinner with Gielgud. During the meal he asked Gielgud ‘Did you ever read Ionesco’s Rhinoceros, which I played at the Royal Court?’ Gielgud said: ‘Yes I did, it was offered to me first.’