Ralph Richardson Filmography

Give My Regards to Broad Street

Actors: Paul McCartney, Bryan Brown, Ringo Starr, Barbara Bach, Linda McCartney

Synopsis: Having written the music and screenplay for this film, Paul McCartney also plays himself in the leading role. When the sole copy of McCartney's latest album is misplaced, he must discover its whereabouts in less than 24 hours or else risk losing his recording company to the lowlife Mr. Rath (John Bennett Read More

Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes

Actors: Ralph Richardson, Ian Holm, James Fox, Christopher Lambert, Andie MacDowell

Synopsis: Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes is a reverent retelling of the Edgar Rice Burroughs original, with a 1980s-sensibilities slant. Shipwrecked on the coast of Africa, Lord Jack Clayton (Paul Geoffrey) and his pregnant wife Lady Alice (Cheryl Campbell) attempt to survive in the Read More

Wagner

Actors: Richard Burton, Vanessa Redgrave, Laszlo Galffi, John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson

Synopsis: Originally a nine-hour British miniseries, this film on the last four decades in the life of Richard Wagner may have taken its long-winded cue from the lengthy operas of the famous 19th-century German composer and musical theorist -- the Ring des Nibelungen is 14-15 hours in itself, divided into Read More

Invitation to the Wedding

Actors: Ralph Richardson, John Gielgud, Paul Nicholas, Elizabeth Shepherd, John Standing, Susan Brooks

Synopsis: Good performances (by Ralph Richardson as a befuddled pastor and Paul Nicholas as David, an unwitting bridegroom) help along this otherwise weak comedy-romance about David, an American who stands in for the groom at a wedding rehearsal -- only to later discover that the wedding was accidentally Read More

Witness for the Prosecution

Actors: Beau Bridges, Deborah Kerr, Ralph Richardson, Diana Rigg

Synopsis: From its humble beginnings as a four-character short story, Agatha Christie's Witness for the Prosecution matriculated into a long-running London and Broadway stage hit, as well as a masterful 1957 film version directed by Billy Wilder. The 1982 TV version of Witness was overseen by Briton Norman Rosemont Read More

Dragonslayer

Actors: Peter MacNicol, Caitlin Clarke, Ralph Richardson, John Hallam, Peter Eyre

Synopsis: A special-effects laden medieval fantasy adventure, Dragonslayer centers on the attempts of a young sorcerer's apprentice to defeat a vicious dragon and save a lovely young maiden. Peter MacNicol stars as the young Galen, an aspiring magician under the tutelage of the aging Ulrich (Ralph Richardson Read More

Early Days

Synopsis: This provocative drama is based on a play by David Storey and chronicles the last days of a formerly powerful politician who is far from stoic as he awaits his execution. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Time Bandits

Actors: John Cleese, Sean Connery, Shelley Duvall, Katherine Helmond, Ian Holm

Synopsis: A young boy joins a group of renegade dwarves on an unpredictable journey through time in this humorous fantasy. Monty Python animator Terry Gilliam mostly achieves a tricky balancing act in his second feature as sole director, creating a dark, irreverent comedy disguised as a family adventure. Read More

Charlie Muffin

Actors: David Hemmings, Pinkas Braun

Synopsis: David Hemmings plays Charlie Muffin, a working-class British secret agent who suffers fools and aristocrats not at all well, and as such is in constant conflict with his superiors. Unlike James Bond, Charlie bleeds when you prick him...and he cares, deeply. Britain's M16 unit reluctantly assigns Read More

Watership Down

Actors: John Hurt, Richard Briers, Michael Graham Cox, John Bennett, Simon Cadell

Synopsis: Unique in the annals of animated films, Watership Down is a serious, even grim tale that many will find relentless and depressing and others will find poetic and moving. It doesn't pull any punches. Death -- violent, disturbing death -- is ever present, portrayed in a manner that is astonishingly Read More

Jesus of Nazareth

Actors: Robert Powell, Olivia Hussey, Peter Ustinov, Christopher Plummer, Anne Bancroft, James Mason, Ian McShane, Laurence Olivier, Rod Steiger

Synopsis: Because director Franco Zeffirelli noted publicly that he intended to depict Jesus Christ as a human being rather than a religious icon, his expensive made-for-TV miniseries Jesus of Nazareth fell victim to protestors long before its April 3, 1977, debut. Despite the pullout of several sponsors Read More

The Man in the Iron Mask

Actors: Richard Chamberlain, Louis Jourdan

Synopsis: The made-for-television The Man in the Iron Mask was, at the very least, the twelfth film version of Alexandre Dumas' 1847 novel. The title character is Philippe (Richard Chamberlain), rightful heir to the throne of France. Enemies of Philippe's twin brother, King Louis XIV (also Chamberlain) plot Read More

SCTV: Crosswords with Ralph Richardson and John Gielgud

Actors: Ralph Richardson, John Gielgud

Synopsis: No kidding! The real Ralph Richardson and John Gielgud show up for some highly Pinteresque banter while waiting for their cue in the dressing room. Actually, this episode is more famous for the first appearance of "The Sammy Maudlin Show," featuring Joe Flaherty as Sammy, Andrea Martin as Read More

Rollerball

Actors: James Caan, John Houseman, Maud Adams, John Beck, Moses Gunn

Synopsis: In the year 2018 violence has been outlawed and corporations have replaced government as the ruling party following the demise of politics. With the absence of war or conflict, a forcibly passive population's bloodlust is satisfied by a brutal new sport known as Rollerball. A high-octane melding Read More

Lady Caroline Lamb

Actors: Fanny Rowe, Sarah Miles, Jon Finch, Richard Chamberlain, John Mills, Margaret Leighton

Synopsis: Screenwriter Robert Bolt's directorial debut is a lushly romantic saga concerning the 1812 love affair between the wife of William Lamb, Lord of Melbourne, and the author of the poem Childe Harold, Lord Byron. Excited and embarrassed by the attendant affections heaped upon him, Byron found his Read More

A Doll's House

Actors: Claire Bloom, Anthony Hopkins, Ralph Richardson, Denholm Elliott, Anna Massey

Synopsis: Henrik Ibsen's oft-filmed play A Doll's House was adapted for the screen in this Anglo-Canadian production. Claire Bloom stars as Nora, the child-like "trophy bride" who matures rather rapidly when her husband is threatened with blackmail. Even after extricating her block-headed hubby from his Read More

William

Actors: John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson, Lynn Redgrave, Simon Ward, Paul Jones

Synopsis: Taped in London and originally telecast by the BBC, this ABC Afternoon Special combines comedy, drama, and song to introduce young children to the marvels of William Shakespeare. In the course of a lively 46 minutes, John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson read excerpts from Hamlet, Richard III, and As Read More

O Lucky Man!

Actors: Malcolm McDowell, Ralph Richardson, Rachel Roberts, Arthur Lowe, Helen Mirren

Synopsis: One man's dreams of success take him on a Byzantine journey through the various stations of the British class system in this politically charged black comedy from director Lindsay Anderson. Mick Travis (Malcolm McDowell) is an ambitious young man who is looking to get his foot on the first rung of Read More

Frankenstein: The True Story

Actors: Michael Sarrazin, Leonard Whiting, James Mason

Synopsis: Per its title, Jack Smight's Frankenstein: The True Story, strives for greater faithfulness to Mary Shelley's novel than prior versions. Thus, as in the book, Dr. Frankenstein's (Leonard Whiting) creation is no monster, but a handsome young man of high intelligence (Michael Sarrazin). In fact, the Read More

Tales from the Crypt

Actors: Joan Collins, Peter Cushing, Patrick Magee, Ralph Richardson

Synopsis: The phenomenon of Tales from the Crypt seems to have no endings, only changes. This successful pun-filled style of presenting ironic horror tales had its beginnings in William Gaine's E.C. comic series. At one time, outlandish E.C. Comics were at the heart of a national furor over the "evils" of Read More

Home

Synopsis: Sir John Gielgud and Sir Ralph Richardson star in this made-for-TV adaptation of David Storey's award-winning comedy-drama as two genial but eccentric men who may or may not be inmates in a mental institution. Storey's text also serves as a pointed metaphor for the slow decline of British culture Read More

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Actors: Fiona Fullerton, Michael Crawford, Ralph Richardson, Flora Robson, Peter Sellers

Synopsis: A star-studded cast highlights this musical adaptation of the classic fantasy tales of Lewis Carroll. One day young Alice (Fiona Fullerton) takes a nasty spill down the rabbit-hole and finds herself in the bizarre kingdom of Wonderland, where she encounters a number of strange and enchanted Read More

Who Slew Auntie Roo?

Actors: Jacqueline Cowper, Charlotte Sayce, Shelley Winters, Mark Lester, Ralph Richardson

Synopsis: In this English film, a group of orphans visiting the home of a wealthy, retired singer (Shelley Winters) discover that the woman is hiding a disturbing secret. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide Read More

Eagle in a Cage

Actors: Athol Coates

Synopsis: Television veteran Fielder Cook brings a TV-like intimacy to his direction of Eagle in a Cage. This underrated film stars Kenneth Haigh as Napoleon Bonaparte, in his years of exile on St. Helena. The story is told from the point of view of the island's governor (John Gielgud), a former Read More

Upon This Rock

Actors: Orson Welles, Edith Evans, Dirk Bogarde, Ralph Richardson

Synopsis: This colorful documentary covers the history of the Basilica in the Cathedral of St. Peters in Vatican City. Ralph Richardson is the eloquent tour guide, with Orson Welles portraying Michaelangelo and Edith Evans plays Queen Christian, the Swedish monarch who left the country to join the religion Read More

David Copperfield

Actors: Richard Attenborough, Cyril Cusack, Edith Evans, Pamela Franklin, Susan Hampshire

Synopsis: This lackluster 1970 version of Charles Dickens' classic novel, David Copperfield (made as a film twice before) turns Dickens' picaresque tale into an extended flashback, with David Copperfield (Robin Phillips) as a young man, brooding on a deserted beach, recalling his youth. The characters are Read More

Midas Run

Actors: Richard Crenna, Anne Heywood, Fred Astaire, Ralph Richardson, Adolfo Celi

Synopsis: A disgruntled British secret service officer and an aspiring author turn to crime when they are again passed over for prominent career advancements. John Pedley (Fred Astaire) is the agent who has been passed over for knighthood one too many times for his liking. He proposes a plan to university Read More

Battle of Britain

Actors: Harry Andrews, Trevor Howard, Michael Caine, Curd Jürgens, Ralph Richardson, Ian McShane, Laurence Olivier

Synopsis: James Bond-flick director Guy Hamilton helmed this episodic, all-star World War II film. With Sir Laurence Olivier heading up an ensemble cast as flight commander Sir Hugh Dowdling, The Battle of Britain pays tribute to other nationalities instrumental in fending off the waves of Luftwaffe planes Read More

The Bed Sitting Room

Actors: Rita Tushingham, Ralph Richardson, Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Spike Milligan

Synopsis: The specter of atomic warfare raises its head once again in this bizarre 1969 black comedy, directed by Richard Lester and hatched from the mind of twisted British comic Spike Milligan. England lays in ruins after World War III, and a number of dazed survivors try to carry on as if nothing is Read More

Oh! What a Lovely War

Actors: Ralph Richardson, Meriel Forbes, Wensley Pithey, Ruth Kettlewell, Ian Holm

Synopsis: Oh! What a Lovely War is an every-man-for-himself adaptation of Charles Chilton's 1963 play, as staged in London by Joan Littlewood. The tragedy of World War I is redefined in bawdy music-hall terms, beginning with a verbal free-for-all involving the Crowned Heads of Europe. The war is presented Read More

Twelfth Night

Actors: Alec Guinness, Tommy Steele, Ralph Richardson, Joan Plowright, Adrienne Corri

Synopsis: This televised adaptation of William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, originally screened on Britain's ITV in 1969, stars Alec Guinness, Tommy Steele, Joan Plowright and Sir Ralph Richardson in the principal roles. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide Read More

The Looking Glass War

Actors: Robert Urquhart, Christopher Jones, Pia Degermark, Ralph Richardson, Paul Rogers, Anthony Hopkins, Susan George

Synopsis: In this Cold War espionage-thriller, adapted from the novel of John Le Carre, two veteran British intelligence operatives, Leclerc (Ralph Richardson) and Haldane (Paul Rogers), recruit a young Polish defector (Christopher Jones) to check on some missiles in East Germany. Avery (Anthony Hopkins) is Read More

Chimes at Midnight

Actors: Orson Welles, John Gielgud, Jeanne Moreau, Norman Rodway, Keith Baxter

Synopsis: The legendary Shakespearean character Sir John Falstaff, the notoriously drunken, obese, and yet charming companion of the young Henry V, steps up from supporting character in several plays to the central focus of Orson Welles' Chimes at Midnight, considered by many critics the best of the Read More

Khartoum

Actors: Charlton Heston, Laurence Olivier, Richard Johnson, Ralph Richardson, Alexander Knox

Synopsis: After declaring a holy war to rid the Sudan of Anglo-Egyptian rule in the 1880s, the fanatical Sudanese leader Muhammad Ahmad (Laurence Olivier) massacres a British-led force of 8,000 and marches on the strategic city of Khartoum at the confluence of the Blue Nile and the White Nile. The British Read More

The Wrong Box

Actors: John Mills, Ralph Richardson, Michael Caine, Peter Cook, Dudley Moore

Synopsis: Years before the story proper in The Wrong Box gets under way, a "tontine" is drawn up on behalf several young British boys. Each of the boys' parents had placed 1000 pounds in a pool, to be invested and expanded upon. The resultant fortune will go to the last surving member of the tontine. A Read More

Doctor Zhivago

Actors: Omar Sharif, Julie Christie, Tom Courtenay, Geraldine Chaplin, Rod Steiger, Alec Guinness

Synopsis: Based on the Nobel Prize-winning novel by Boris Pasternak, Doctor Zhivago covers the years prior to, during, and after the Russian Revolution, as seen through the eyes of poet/physician Yuri Zhivago (Omar Sharif). In the tradition of Russian novels, a multitude of characters and subplots Read More

Woman of Straw

Actors: Gina Lollobrigida, Sean Connery, Ralph Richardson, Johnny Sekka, Laurence Hardy

Synopsis: In this British melodrama based on a French novel by Catherine Arley, Sean Connery plays Anthony Richmond, a money-hungry young man enraged that his rich, dying uncle doesn't plan to include him in his will. Instead, Charles Richmond (Ralph Richardson) plans to give his fortune to charity. Anthony Read More

Hedda Gabler

Actors: Ingrid Bergman

Long Day's Journey into Night

Actors: Katharine Hepburn, Ralph Richardson, Jason Robards, Jr., Dean Stockwell, Jeanne Barr

Synopsis: Playwright Eugene O'Neill sold Random House the text of his intensely autobiographical 1941 play on the proviso that the play not be produced during O'Neill's lifetime. Two years after the playwright's death in 1953, the play was given its first Broadway staging and won a Pulitzer Prize. Set in Read More

The 300 Spartans

Actors: Richard Egan, Ralph Richardson, Diane Baker, Barry Coe, David Farrar

Synopsis: A colorful action film about the Battle Of Thermopylae in 480 B.C. in which the Spartans defend themselves for a Persian invasion against overwhelming odds. King Leodinas (Richard Egan) rallies the locals to stop the attack of thousands of plundering Persian invaders led by evil King Xerxes (David Read More

Our Man in Havana

Actors: Alec Guinness, Burl Ives, Maureen O'Hara, Ernie Kovacs, Noël Coward

Synopsis: Graham Greene wrote this witty comedy inspired by Cold War paranoia. Jim Wormald (Alec Guiness) is an Englishman selling vacuum cleaners in Cuba on the cusp of the revolution. Hawthorne (Noel Coward), a British intelligence agent, is looking for information on Cuban affairs and recruits Jim to act Read More

Exodus

Actors: Paul Newman, Eva Marie Saint, Ralph Richardson, Peter Lawford, Lee J. Cobb

Synopsis: Produced and directed by Otto Preminger, Exodus is a 212-minute screen adaptation of the best-selling novel by Leon Uris. The film is concerned with the emergence of Israel as an independent nation in 1947. Its first half focuses on the efforts of 611 holocaust survivors to defy the blockade of Read More

Oscar Wilde

Actors: Robert Morley, Phyllis Calvert, John Neville, Ralph Richardson, Dennis Price

Synopsis: Robert Morley is ideally cast as the legendary playwright, poet, and wit Oscar Wilde in this biographical look at the author's tumultuous life. While he was married to a woman named Constance (Phyllis Calvert), Wilde was primarily attracted to men, and at the height of his fame, he became involved Read More

A Novel Affair

Actors: Ralph Richardson, Margaret Leighton, Patricia Dainton, Ada Reeve

Synopsis: Margaret Leighton stars as a novelist who draws inspiration for her characters from the people around her. While working on a romance novel, she bases the sexy central male character upon her chauffeur (Carlo Justini). He can't understand that Margaret's interest in him is purely professional, and Read More

Smiley

Actors: Ralph Richardson, John McCallum, Chips Rafferty, Colin Petersen, Jocelyn Hernfield

Synopsis: The first of two films based on characters created by novelist Moore Raymond, this tells of a mischievous Australian boy (Colin Peterson), Smiley, who wants a bicycle, but the funds aren't available. He goes through numerous adventures in his quest for his "dream" vehicle, the most heart-pounding Read More

Richard III

Actors: Cedric Hardwicke, Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud, Nicholas Hannen, Claire Bloom, Ralph Richardson, Alec Clunes

Synopsis: Laurence Olivier was the director, co-screenwriter (with Alan Dent), and star of this robust adaptation of Shakespeare's drama, which, as Bruce Eder has written, "was the final, crowning glory of the British studio system and the end of the great cycle of British films aimed at international Read More

The Holly and the Ivy

Actors: Ralph Richardson, Celia Johnson, Margaret Leighton, Denholm Elliott, Hugh Williams

Synopsis: Faithfully adapted from a popular holiday play by Wynyard Browne, this moving British drama centers on a recently widowed, aging country vicar who hosts a family Christmas and learns a valuable lesson about keeping his own homefires alight before spending too much time tending the fires of others. Read More

Outcast of the Islands

Actors: Ralph Richardson, Trevor Howard, Robert Morley, Kerima, Wendy Hiller

Synopsis: Partially filmed on location in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Outcast of the Islands is a reasonably faithful adaptation of Joseph Conrad's novel. Trevor Howard plays a degenerate British expatriate who wanders aimlessly around a Malayan island. Most of the film involves the search for Howard by those Read More

Breaking the Sound Barrier

Actors: Ralph Richardson, Ann Todd, Nigel Patrick, John Justin, Dinah Sheridan

Synopsis: Breaking the Sound Barrier juxtaposes the history of jet aviation with an intensely personal fictional story. Ralph Richardson plays a wealthy aircraft manufacturer, stubbornly determined to develop a jet that will travel faster than the speed of sound. Richardson's seemingly cavalier attitude Read More

Home at Seven

Crew: Director

Actors: Ralph Richardson, Margaret Leighton, Jack Hawkins, Campbell Singer, Michael Shepley

Synopsis: British stage and film star Ralph Richardson stepped behind the cameras for the first and last time to direct Murder on Monday. Richardson also starred in the film, portraying a clerk who suffers a blackout after a blow on the head. Upon recovering, Richardson is led to believe that he has Read More

The Heiress

Actors: Olivia de Havilland, Montgomery Clift, Ralph Richardson, Miriam Hopkins, Vanessa Brown

Synopsis: Henry James based his 1881 novella Washington Square on a real-life incident, wherein a young actor of his acquaintance married an unattractive but very wealthy young woman for the express purpose of living the rest of his life in luxury. Washington Square was turned into a stage play in 1946 by Read More

Anna Karenina

Actors: Vivien Leigh, Ralph Richardson, Kieron Moore, Hugh Dempster, Mary Kerridge

Synopsis: This 1948 adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina was produced in England by Alexander Korda, and released in the US by 20th Century-Fox. Vivien Leigh plays the title role, a 19th-century Russian gentlewoman married to Czarist official Ralph Richardson. Though her marriage is not intolerable Read More

The Fallen Idol

Actors: Ralph Richardson, Michèle Morgan, Bobby Henrey, Sonia Dresdel, Jack Hawkins, Denis O'Dea

Synopsis: Adapted from the Graham Greene story The Basement Room, director Carol Reed's The Fallen Idol is told almost completely from a child's eye view-but it isn't a children's story. Young Bobby Henrey idolizes household butler Ralph Richardson. Therefore, when it seems as though Richardson might be Read More

School for Secrets

Actors: Ralph Richardson, Raymond Huntley, John Laurie, Ernest Jay, David Tomlinson

Synopsis: Produced, directed and scripted by Peter Ustinov (who did not star), Secret Flight was released in Great Britain in 1946, but not distributed in the U.S. until 1951 -- at which time it was panned as being out-of-date! The fact-based screenplay details the efforts of five dedicated British Read More

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The Silver Fleet

Crew: Associate Producer

Actors: Ralph Richardson, Googie Withers, Esmond Knight, Beresford Egan, Frederick Burtwell

Synopsis: In this war drama set during WW II, an engineer in a Dutch shipyard assists the Nazis with the construction of two new kinds of submarines and finds himself a social pariah. Even his wife turns against her apparently traitorous husband. During the maiden voyage of one of the subs, the engineer Read More

The Day Will Dawn

Actors: Ralph Richardson, Deborah Kerr, Hugh Williams, Griffith Jones, Francis L. Sullivan

Synopsis: Also known as The Avengers, the British The Day Will Dawn is set in Norway at the outbreak of WW2. British foreign correspondent Lockwood (Ralph Richardson), forced out of Norway by the Nazi invasion, returns to the occupied Scandanavian country at the request of the War Office. Lockwood's Read More

The Lion Has Wings

Actors: Merle Oberon, Ralph Richardson,