Orson Welles as a mad king on live TV? Shakespeare never saw this coming.
In this abridged television production, Lear vows revenge against his conniving daughters after they try to take swift control of his power.
Acting
Welles' booming decline from monarch to broken animal
Production
Daring live-TV minimalism makes it feel like theater
Director
Andrew McCullough
Orson Welles
King Lear
Natasha Parry
Cordelia
Arnold Moss
Duke of Albany
Bramwell Fletcher
Earl of Kent
David J. Stewart
Oswald
Margaret Phillips
Regan
Beatrice Straight
Goneril
Alan Badel
Fool
Micheál Mac Liammóir
Poor Tom
Frederick Worlock
Earl of Gloucester
Scott Forbes
Duke of Cornwall
Wesley Addy
King of France
Fred Sadoff
Duke of Burgundy
Lloyd Bochner
First Gentleman
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Welles performed this live for CBS's Omnibus series, famously memorizing his lines on set because he refused to rehearse conventionally.
This broadcast aired during the early Cold War, when American audiences found new resonance in a leader's catastrophic misjudgment of loyalty.
US
