Michael Hordern Movies and Career Information

Sir Michael Murray Hordern (4 October 1911 – 2 May 1995) was an English actor, knighted in 1983 for his services to the theatre, which stretched back to before the Second World War. Hordern was born in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, and educated at Brighton College, as was his brother Peter. He acted at school and then as an amateur with the St. Pancras People's Theatre. He worked as a school teacher and travelling salesman before entering the profession. In 1937, he made his professional stage début at the People's Palace, East London, playing a minor role in Othello, and later in the year joined the repertory company of the Little Theatre in Bristol. There he met the actress Grace Eveline Mortimer; they married in 1943, and remained together until her death in 1986. They had one daughter, Joanna. His stage work, for the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford and in London, at the Old Vic and in the West End demonstrated his wide range and distinctive, rich voice. In addition to his many Shakespearean roles (Jaques in As You Like It, Cassius in Julius Caesar, Polonius in Hamlet, Malvolio in 'Twelfth Night), Hordern performed in plays by Strindberg, Chekhov, Ibsen, Pinero, Pinter,