Intro

There are certain basic requirements for an actor on stage: a retentive memory, an alert brain, a clear, resonant voice with good articulation, and controlled breathing. Looks and personality also undoubtedly play a part.

If you take the above ingredients as necessary for any actor, there is still a question about what makes a ‘great actor’. Great actors seem to have a special sensibility (‘fire’, ‘enthusiasm’, or ‘spirit’ in the words of 18th century theoreticians), which makes it possible for them to enter into the experience and emotions of the character they are playing, and communicate those emotions to their audience. As Henry Irving put it, a great actor has ‘a magnetic personality [which] exercises a power of sympathy which is irresistible and indefinable’.

Acting styles have changed greatly over the centuries but the performers collected here all have a claim to the label ‘great actor’. Of the earlier ones, we have only what was written about them to try to understand their qualities. Of the later ones, there may be film or television footage, but it still doesn’t capture the experience of a live performance. We can only look at the images, read the reviews, and try to imagine the impact of these great performers.