Wolfit, Sir Donald (1902-1968), was the last great actor-manager in the British theater. Wolfit achieved his greatest success in the dramas of the English playwright William Shakespeare, especially the roles of King Lear, Macbeth, and Falstaff. He made his stage debut in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice in 1920. He acted with the Old Vic Company in 1929 and 1930. In 1937, Wolfit formed his own company and toured the United Kingdom. In 1940, he organized lunchtime performances of scenes from Shakespeare. Wolfit appeared in several films, making his motion-picture debut in Death at Broadcasting House (1934). However, nearly all his movie appearances came in the 1950’s and 1960’s, in such motion pictures as Svengali (1954), Room at the Top (1959), Becket (1964), and Decline and Fall (1968).
Wolfit was born on April 20, 1902, in Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire, England. He changed the spelling of his last name from the original Woolfitt. He wrote an autobiography, First Interval (1954). Wolfit was knighted in 1957. He died on Feb. 17, 1968.
