So late last night, Denyse and I caught the 1936 filmed version of “As You Like It” with Laurence Oliver as Orlando.
I wondered absently if actor Orlando Bloom were named for the character.
(And of course one of Bloom’s most famous roles came in the various Pirates of the Caribbean movies, based on a theme park ride you can visit in Orlando, Florida.)
Looking it up today, he was actually named for English (Tudor/Jacobean period) composer/organist Orlando Gibbons.
According to Wikipedia,
Gibbons was the “favorite composer” of the Canadian pianist Glenn Gould. “Ever since my teen-age years his music has moved me more deeply than any other sound experience I can think of.”
Colm Feore, who played Gould in “Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould”, was early in his career a noted Shakespearian actor at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Canada.
Kenneth Branagh’s 2006 “As You Like It” starred Kevin Klein who was, in the early 80s, a Shakespearian actor, and,
Dubbed “the American Olivier” by New York Times theater critic Frank Rich for his stage acting…
Branagh himself was, of course, both praised and panned by the English theatre critics. Like this one for his portrayal of Hamlet in the late 80s,
Critic Milton Shulman for the Evening Standard wrote: “On the positive side Branagh has the vitality of Olivier, the passion of Gielgud, the assurance of Guinness, to mention but three famous actors who have essayed the role. On the negative side, he has not got the magnetism of Olivier, nor the mellifluous voice quality of Gielgud nor the intelligence of Guinness.”
Kelsey Grammer (of Dr. Frasier Crane fame) played in “As You Like It” at the Globe Theatre in San Diego. Grammer was in the 1996 movie “Down Periscope” featuring, amongst others, a submarine called the USS Orlando.
UPDATE: Via LA Now, the Theatricum Botanicum in Topanga is coincidentally performing “As You Like It” starting today. Details here.
