Biografia

Father of actors Toby Stephens and Chris Larkin.

He was awarded the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award in 1993 (1992 season) for Best Actor for his performance as Falstaff in "Henry IV, Parts I & II" at the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Was nominated for Broadway's 1959 Tony Award as Best Actor (Dramatic) for "Epitaph for George Dillon."

Appeared with his then-wife, Maggie Smith, in Much Ado About Nothing (1967), which was, at least, the second film based on a William Shakespeare play, featuring a real-life husband and wife, that was later remade with another real-life husband and wife. La bisbetica domata (1929) starred then-husband-and-wife, Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, and was remade in 1967 with then-husband-and-wife Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. La bisbetica domata (1967) was directed by Franco Zeffirelli, who also directed the stage "Much Ado" with Stephens and Smith which was adapted for television in the same year, with only one recorded change from the stage cast. The 1993 remake of "Much Ado" starred Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson. Stephens worked jointly with Branagh and Thompson in Fortunes of War (1987) and Enrico V (1989), while Smith worked with them both separately in the "Harry Potter" films. He and Smith also appeared opposite Laurence Olivier in (possibly separate) productions of "Othello", in which they played "Iago" and "Desdemonda", respectively. In the 1943 American production, those roles were played by then husband-and-wife José Ferrer and Uta Hagen.

Provided the voice of Aragorn in the acclaimed 1981 BBC Radio serialization of "The Lord of the Rings".

[on "The Method"] I once asked two old Russian actors about the Method, because I'd seen American actors in New York use their version of it and it was so awful, amateur and inept and stupid. And they said to me, "If you have a copy of [Konstantin Stanislavski's] "My Life in Art" or "An Actor Prepares", just take it out and throw it in the river". If it was no use to them, it was certainly of no use to me.

[on "Hamlet"] It is undoubtedly the greatest part ever written, but it's so complex. You can't really play it, you just give an opinion of it.

One reason I've never chased after films is that once you become a film star, you can't really stop, because you have to be before the public's eye all the time. I wouldn't care for that. Also, in films the material can't be that good all the time. You have to make mostly bad films, or films that aren't frightfully good. That wouldn't interest me - not that I've ever been offered that opportunity.

[on comedian Sonnie Hale] A gross, unfunny person offstage and someone, on the whole, to avoid.

[on Tony Richardson] He convinced me (wrongly of course) that anyone can make a movie. All Tony Richardson ever did was come in and ask his cameraman what he should do . . . He was a useless, unpleasant creature.