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 of a stage career until a production of Hamlet in Brighton inspired him to become an actor. He learned his craft in the 1920s with a touring company and later the Birmingham Repertory Theatre. In…