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Monday, January 16, 2006

Science Fiction and Shakespeare’s Graduates

Over at Wizbang, J.T. posts a bit of movie trivia: “What unusual achievement do Hugo Weaving, Sir Ian McKellen, and Patrick Stewart all have in common?”

One answer, my answer, and I suppose the answer which J.T. seeks, is that Hugo Weaving (Agent Smith in the Matix movies), Ian McKellen (the wizard Gandalf in the Lord of the Ring movies), and Patrick Stewart (Captain Jean-Luc Piccard, the finest commander the Enterprise has ever seen) were all accomplished Shakespearean thespians. None is a surprise, as all three are commanding actors with marvelous voices. McKellen is of course most widely known stateside for his Richard III. Stewart was recently in a Texas version of Lear, and though I can’t find it I could have sworn he was Lear in a BBC filmed production. And Weaving was once Benedick in The Taming of the Shrew.

This is a fun game. Ian McDiarmid also comes to mind. Most people know him as the cackling, razor-tongued Emperor Palpatine from the Star Wars movies. But he, too, was a great stage player. I remember vividly his hilarious portrayal of the inebriate porter in Macbeth. He possesses what must be one of the best voices in all the world. Patrick Stewart certainly ranks highly on that list as well.

Plenty of people—and none more ardently than Hollywood’s award-giving elite—lambaste science fiction as somehow thinner than the rest. Yet it seems to attract with some consistency the finest actors in the world.

Posted on January 16, 2006 09:42 AM. Permalink