Sir John Gielgud dies at ninety-six

One of Britain's greatest stage and screen actors, Sir John Gielgud, has died at the age of ninety-six.

He established himself as a leading Shakespearian actor with a distinctive voice, by turns mellifluous and powerful.

He was particularly acclaimed for his performances in the roles of Romeo, Macbeth, Lear and Hamlet -- a part he played hundreds of times.

But Sir John -- over a period of fifty years -- was equally comfortable in comedy, whether in Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, or Alan Bennett's Forty Years On.

And for some seventy years, he was at home on stage, cinema and television.

He dismissed any idea of retirement, and was still working up until the time of his death. He was knighted in 1953, made a Companion of Honour in 1977, and awarded the Order of Merit by the Queen in 1996.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service