Sir Alec Guinness as Hamlet

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Sir Alec Guinness as Hamlet

by Cecil Beaton
bromide print on white card mount, 1951
9 3/8 in. x 7 1/4 in. (238 mm x 185 mm)
Given by Cecil Beaton, 1968
Photographs Collection
NPG x14092

Sitterback to top

Artistback to top

  • Cecil Beaton (1904-1980), Photographer, designer and writer. Artist or producer associated with 1114 portraits, Sitter associated with 360 portraits.

This portraitback to top

In 1951 Guinness performed the role of Hamlet for the third time, this time at the New Theatre and directed by himself. Among the cast selected by Guinness were a young Robert Shaw (for whom Guinness also secured a role in The Lavender Hill Mob) and the twenty-four year old theatre critic Kenneth Tynan. The play was a critical failure and Guinness himself described it as a 'theatrical nightmare' in a diary entry in 1979.

Events of 1951back to top

Current affairs

The Conservative Party wins the general election and Winston Churchill returns for a second term as prime minister.

Art and science

On the centenary of the Great Exhibition of 1851, the Festival of Britain is held as a nationwide celebration of British culture, and as an impetus for post-war regeneration. As well as various art, science and industrial exhibitions and events, a major regeneration project was initiated for the South Bank area of London under the directorship of the architect, Hugh Casson.

International

Libya declares its sovereignty from Italian rule, becoming the first independent state to be created by the UN.
At the Treaty of San Francisco, 48 nations sign a peace treaty with Japan, officially ending the Pacific War - the last battleground of the Second World War.

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