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May 7, 2019 · Othello is one of William Shakespeare's most notable tragedies. It addresses themes of racism, love and betrayal that are as relevant today as they were when the work was first published in 1565. Several famous actors have played Othello on the stage and on the silver screen.
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With young actors Jimmy Akingbola as Othello, and Claire-Louise Cordwell as Desdemona, the performance combined movement and dance with Shakespeare’s original dialogue, in a bruising, distinctly British tour-de-force.
Othello (/ ɒ ˈ θ ɛ l oʊ /; full title: The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice) is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare, around 1603. The story revolves around two characters, Othello and Iago .
- William Shakespeare
- 1941
- Sir Mark Rylance
- Sir Ian McKellen
- Dame Judi Dench
- Sir Patrick Stewart
- Ralph Fiennes
- Sir Kenneth Branagh
- Dame Maggie Smith
- James Earl Jones
- Sir Derek Jacobi
- Kevin Kline
Shakespeare lovers cheered when Rylance took home an Oscar in 2016 for portraying accused Soviet spy Rudolf Abel in Steven Spielberg’s “Bridge of Spies.” The role marked a departure from his usual fare. For many, the great Shakespearean scholar is best known as the original artistic director of Shakespeare’s Globe in London; he also playfully under...
Long before he played Gandalf in Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings” films, McKellen made his name as one of the greatest Shakespearean actors of all time. A graduate of Cambridge University (and its famed Marlowe Society), McKellen has performed the Bard’s works all over the world with esteemed companies including the Royal Shakespeare Company...
This legendary talent won an Academy Award for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth I in John Madden’s 1998 film “Shakespeare in Love,” but Dench’s own passion for Shakespeare goes back much farther. A graduate of London’s Central School of Speech and Drama (alongside renowned actor Vanessa Redgrave), Dench made her professional stage debut as Ophelia ...
Stewart has enjoyed a long career as a film and television star, but it all started with a turn at the Royal Shakespeare Company in the 1960s. Stewart then made his Broadway debut playing Tom Snout in Peter Brooks’ 1971 production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” and worked with the Royal National Theatre for many years. Though he took time off for ...
Another performer who got his start with the Royal National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company, Fiennes is an award-winning Shakespearean actor with an astonishing body of work to his name. He has portrayed Romeo, Hamlet, and Claudio in “Much Ado About Nothing” in productions in London and on Broadway. A graduate of the Royal Academy of Dram...
One of the most prolific adaptors of Shakespeare for the screen, Branagh made his name first as a performer, and then as a screenwriter and director of great classical works. A graduate of RADA, who later became its president in 2015, Branagh performed Shakespeare all over London early in his career and co-founded the Renaissance Theatre Company in...
This wildly inventive actor is famous across generations, from a stage career spanning over 50 years to her roles as Professor McGonagall in the “Harry Potter” franchise and Violet Crawley in “Downton Abbey.” Smith was once a fixture at Canada’s Stratford Festival, where she performed numerous Shakespeare roles, and she received the first of six Ac...
One of this country’s most beloved theater and film actors, Jones made his Shakespearean debut in “Othello” over 60 years ago after training at the University of Michigan, and later studied at New York’s American Theatre Wing. Darth Vader in iambic pentameter? Yes please. His career has covered many more of the Bard’s works (in addition to great Am...
A Cambridge graduate (like his friend McKellen and the longtime director Sir Trevor Nunn), this Shakespearean actor honed his skills from a young age as a member of the Birmingham Repertory Theatre. When Laurence Olivier became the first director of the Royal National Theatre, he invited Jacobi to be a part of its company, along with Smith. His car...
A founding member of what is now the touring theater troupe known as The Acting Company, Kline has been performing Shakespeare since his days as a Juilliard student. The actor spent a decade working onstage in New York before breaking into film with “Sophie’s Choice,” and was in several productions as part of Shakespeare in the Park throughout the ...
Oct 20, 2021 · Three actors who have played Shakespeare’s Othello, from left: Laurence Fishburne on film in 1995, Laurence Olivier in offensive blackface in 1965, James Earl Jones in 1981.
- Charles Mcnulty
- Theater Critic
- charles.mcnulty@latimes.com
Aug 15, 2023 · Hugh Quarshie, who played Othello in 2015 for the Royal Shakespeare Company, had wondered almost a decade before whether “[o]f all parts in the canon, perhaps Othello is the one which should most definitely not be played by a black actor.”
Othello, a Venetian soldier, has risen to new heights as the general of the Venetian army and recent husband to Desdemona, the daughter of a powerful statesperson. When Othello chooses to promote Cassio instead of Iago as his chief lieutenant, Iago is furious and begins to weave a complex web of revenge.
