Celebrity Culture in Shakespeare's Time

Since I'm thinking about celebrity culture today, I started wondering about who the star of Shakespeare's day was. And then I realized I already knew--Richard Burbage. He and his older brother Cuthbert (don't you wonder how poor Cuthbert got saddled with a name like that while Richard got a perfectly normal name?) were both actors. Their father had been a joiner-turned-theatrical impresario.
Burbage was a member of a number of prestigious acting companies but made his name as Shakespeare's leading man, originating the roles of Hamlet, Othello, Richard III and King Lear.
Burbage later managed his own theater. His epitaph is brief, "Exit Burbage."
Martin Clunes plays Burbage in Shakespeare in Love. Wonder if they'll still be talking about Brad Pitt in 500 years.

A Tale of Three Richards

Portrait of Richard III by Mark Satchwill

One of the pleasures of seeing multiple productions of a play is being able to compare and contrast the way each actor plays a role and makes it his or her own. I recently saw both versions of the filmed production of Danny Boyle's Frankenstein, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller. The two men switched off in the roles and although I think Cumberbatch is a terrific actor, I thought Miller was better in both parts. (I thought Cumberbatch was way too remote as Dr. Frankenstein, and a little too "Sherlockian." And his physicality worked against him as the creature whereas Miller's stockier, shorter form suited the "base creaure" more solidly.)
Richard the III is one of the best villains Shakespeare (or anyone else) ever imagined, a real-life player in the Game of Thrones who murdered and manipulated his way to the crown, only to lose it just two  years later. He was only 33 when he died, but like another historical figure who died at 33, his legacy lives on.
Richard III was a hunchback and it's intriguing to see how some actors exploit that physical trait and others don't. Here's Laurence Olivier in the play's most famous scene--the wooing of Lady Anne, the widow of a man Richard III has had murdered. That's Claire Bloom as Lady Anne. (More about her later in the summer. And what's up with that headdress she's wearing? It looks like it came from a low-budget high school production.)
The 1955 Olivier Richard III is available on YouTube in 15 parts if you have the patience to watch it a bit at a time. (Pretend you're watching it old school on a weekend television movie marathon with a zillion commercials.)