When did Laurence Olivier play Othello?

When did Laurence Olivier play Othello?

1964
The British actor, Laurence Olivier (1907–1989) played Othello for the National Theatre at The Old Vic in 1964. Maggie Smith took the part of Desdemona while John Dexter was Iago. As this photographic postcard shows, Olivier ‘blacked up’ to play the part, as was common until the early 1980s.

How many Othello movies are there?

Shakespeare’s Play Orson Welles (1952) and Oliver Parker (1995) directed two of the twelve film versions of Othello. The former starred by Orson Welles himself, and the latter, by Laurence Fishburne.

When did Ira Aldridge first play Othello?

1825
The first black actor to play many of William Shakespeare’s leading roles, Ira Aldridge took 19th-century London by storm when in 1825 he performed Othello in the city’s docklands.

Has any white actor played Othello?

It’s all but certain that Shakespeare’s first Othello was Richard Burbage, a white Londoner. It’s even more likely that Burbage would have worn dark makeup, as actors in Britain did until the late 1980s (Michael Gambon was one of the last, at Scarborough in 1990).

Why was Othello played by white actors?

Racial prejudice has allowed white actors to play Othello well into the 20th century.

Was Othello a villain or victim?

Othello is the actual villain. Even though he initially lacks any malicious thoughts and ideas, he eventually gets to become a murderer due to emotionally untrustworthy and jealousy.

What is the best film version of Othello?

All Night Long (1962) “All Night Long” adapts Shakespeare’s “Othello,” the tragedy of a general consumed by fictitious jealousy over his young wife, into the London jazz scene of the 1960s.

Who was the first black person to play Othello?

Ira Aldridge
Mekhi Phifer. Distinguished black thespians have portrayed one of Shakespeare’s most famed and widely depicted characters for years. But paving the way for those acting legends nearly 200 years ago was Ira Aldridge, the first black actor to breathe life into the Othello role.

Is Othello a misogynist?

But Othello’s vulnerability as a black outsider, who unconsciously shares the white perception of his blackness, is inseparable from his thraldom to a patriarchal concept of masculinity and a misogynistic concept of marriage that are just as endemic as racism in Venetian culture, and that play an equally crucial role …

How do you know Othello is black?

Physical appearance. We discover that Othello is black from the beginning of the play, when Iago refers to him as ‘an old black ram,’ although it is interesting that he only refers to Othello’s skin when he is trying to incense Brabantio against the idea of his daughter marrying a black man.