Customer Reviews:

Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0

Best of the Best of the King Lears on Tape:

Laurence Olivier turns in an incredible performance as King Lear in this 1970s made-for-British-televison version. He can be watched again and again to savor both his acting and the beauty of Shakespeare's poetry (I've watched it dozens of times). An extremely strong supporting cast only helps - Diana Rigg as Reagan, Dorothy Tutin as Goneril, David Threlfall as Edgar (he played Leslie Titmous in the BBC/PBS *Paradise Postponed*), John Hurt as The Fool, Leo McKern as Gloster (better known as Rumpole, but... more info

Laurence Olivier plays Shakespeare's "King Lear":

Laurence Olivier's performance as "King Lear" received the same sort of critical acclaim that the actor received three decades earlier for doing "Hamlet," "Richard III" and "Othello." Certainly Olivier was of the right age to play Shakespeare's embittered monarch and it is not surprising that a first-rate supporting cast signed on for the 1984 production, directed by Michael Elliot. Leo McKern as Gloucester, John Hurt as the Fool, Brian Cox as Burgundy, Dorothy Tutin as Goneril and Diana Rigg as Regan... more info

ideal holm:

people who say Olivier's Lear is superior to Holm's are morons. Are ye stones? By Common consent, Olivier's Lear, played as a senile man, was deeply flawed, great actor tho' he might have been he got it wildy wrong at times. Gilgeud thought Holm's Lear wonderful as `did Pinter. Ignore the rubbish on this site.

Holm is terrific; Olivier is not

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