"On his death John Gielgud was widely acclaimed as the greatest classical actor of the twentieth century, and the finest modern interpreter of Shakespeare. This biography is the first to cover in full an astonishing career, spanning nearly eighty years in films, radio, television and the theatre.". "For his entertaining, critical and widely researched book Jonathan Croall has talked in detail to more than a hundred friends and colleagues who worked with Gielgud. They include actors such as Alec Guinness, John Mills, Dorothy Tutin, Dirk Bogarde, Sarah Miles, Peter Ustinov, Virginia McKenna, Richard Briers, Anna Carteret and Michael Pennington; the playwrights Edward Albee, Christopher Fry, David Storey and Charles Wood; directors such as Peter Brook, William Gaskill and John Schlesinger; and the designers Tanya Moiseiwitsch, Jocelyn Herbert, and Margaret Harris of Motley."--BOOK JACKET.