Who acted in Shakespeare's plays?

Answer 1

Shakespeare's plays have continuously on the stage (with a twenty year hiatus) since they were written, and have been continuously filmed since 1899. That is a lot of productions and a lot of actors over the centuries. Before 1660 the actors were all male, but since that time actresses have played the women's parts and sometimes the men's parts as well. And many actors and actresses eagerly embrace any opportunity to perform what are universally regarded as the best plays ever written, sometimes people you might not suspect of wanting to perform Shakespeare. For example:

• Keanu Reaves played Hamlet in a stage production in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
• Diane Venora has played Ophelia and Gertrude on film and also has played Hamlet on stage.
• Morgan Freeman played Coriolanus in a film made in 1979
• The very first person to play Hamlet on film was the French actress Sarah Bernhardt in 1900.
• Kenneth Branagh's 2006 film of Hamlet employed a large number of actors who did not specialize in Shakespeare. Some, like Robin Williams and Billy Crystal, worked quite well, but others, like Jack Lemmon and Gerard Depardieu, did not.
• Bill Murray played Polonius in a film of Hamlet in 2000
• A young Alan Ryckman played Tybalt in a BBC Romeo and Juliet
• Michael Fassbender as Macbeth

Actors and actresses who made their name performing Shakespeare include, and this is a short list, Richard Burbage, Thomas Betterton, William Davenant, Sarah Siddons, William Charles Macready, Charles Kean, Edmund Kean, David Garrick, Edwin Booth, Ira Aldridge, John Philip Kemble, Samuel Phelps, Charles Macklin, Henry Irving, Ellen Terry, Herbert Beerbohm-Tree, Johnston Forbes-Robertson, John Gielgud, Laurence Olivier, Ralph Richardson, Peggy Ashcroft, Edith Evans, Maurice Evans, Orson Welles, John Barrymore, Paul Schofield, Judi Dench, Ian Richardson, Ian Holm, Helen Mirren, Ian McKellen, Kenneth Branagh, and Emma Thompson.

Answer 2

Although Shakespeare is famous for writing plays such as Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet and Midsummer Night's Dream, he was also an actor in his day. He was listed on the cast list of Ben Jonson's Every Man in His Humour and Sejanus, so we know he acted in those. He is also listed in the First Folio of 1623 at the top of the list of actors who played in his own plays. The thing is, not all of the actors in that list played in all of Shakespeare's plays--we know that Will Kempe did not, for example, nor Augustine Phillips who died in 1605 before a number of Shakespeare's plays were written. Therefore it is possible that there were some of Shakespeare's plays that he did not act in.

Answer 3

Members of the company included Will Kempe, Henry Condell, John Heminges, Augustine Phillips, William Sly, Robert Armin (who replaced Kempe), and one of the greatest actors of the age, Richard Burbage.

Answer 4

The First Folio lists a number of actors who performed in Shakespeare's plays. Shakespeare's name is top of the list, and here are the others:

Richard Burbadge, John Hemmings, Augustine Phillips, William Kempt, Thomas Poope, George Bryan, Henry Condell, William Slye, Richard Cowly, John Lowine, Samuel Crosse, Alexander Cooke, Samuel Gilburne, Robert Armin, William Ostler, Nathan Field, John Underwood, Nicholas Tooley, William Ecclestone, Joseph Taylor, Robert Benfield, Robert Goughe, Richard Robinson, John Shancke, John Rice.

The spellings are from the Folio. There were others as well (such as Christopher Beeston), but these are the ones listed in the Folio.

Answer 5

Shakespeare's plays have continuously on the stage (with a twenty year hiatus) since they were written, and have been continuously filmed since 1899. That is a lot of productions and a lot of actors over the centuries. Before 1660 the actors were all male, but since that time actresses have played the women's parts and sometimes the men's parts as well. And many actors and actresses eagerly embrace any opportunity to perform what are universally regarded as the best plays ever written, sometimes people you might not suspect of wanting to perform Shakespeare. For example:

• Keanu Reaves played Hamlet in a stage production in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
• Diane Venora has played Ophelia and Gertrude on film and also has played Hamlet on stage.
• Morgan Freeman played Coriolanus in a film made in 1979
• The very first person to play Hamlet on film was the French actress Sarah Bernhardt in 1900.
• Kenneth Branagh's 2006 film of Hamlet employed a large number of actors who did not specialize in Shakespeare. Some, like Robin Williams and Billy Crystal, worked quite well, but others, like Jack Lemmon and Gerard Depardieu, did not.
• Bill Murray played Polonius in a film of Hamlet in 2000
• A young Alan Ryckman played Tybalt in a BBC Romeo and Juliet
• Michael Fassbender as Macbeth

Actors and actresses who made their name performing Shakespeare include, and this is a short list, Richard Burbage, Thomas Betterton, William Davenant, Sarah Siddons, William Charles Macready, Charles Kean, Edmund Kean, David Garrick, Edwin Booth, Ira Aldridge, John Philip Kemble, Samuel Phelps, Charles Macklin, Henry Irving, Ellen Terry, Herbert Beerbohm-Tree, Johnston Forbes-Robertson, John Gielgud, Laurence Olivier, Ralph Richardson, Peggy Ashcroft, Edith Evans, Maurice Evans, Orson Welles, John Barrymore, Paul Schofield, Judi Dench, Ian Richardson, Ian Holm, Helen Mirren, Ian McKellen, Kenneth Branagh, and Emma Thompson.

Answer 6

Ken Dodd, Kenneth Branagh, Ian McKellen and Ian Holm

But Shakespeare acted in many of his own plays as well

Answer 7

There were professional actors during Shakespeare's time. They weren't paid much, but acting was still their profession.

Answer 8

Shakespeare worked with a company of professional actors, the greatest of which was Richard Burbage. Others included comedian Will Kemp, Condel, Heminges, Armin, and several more.