Kenneth Branagh
Historically, Hamlet has been portrayed as neurotic by most of the actors who went before Kenneth Branagh; in fact, Branagh's 2018 portrayal of Hercule Poirot, the little Belgian detective investigating a murder on the Orient Express, showed a far more neurotic and anxiety-ridden man. He also ridded the role of the Oedipus complex that Laurence Olivier had focused on. Branagh's Prince Hamlet pretends to be insane but in reality he is more manic than completely mad.
Branagh has spent a large portion of his esteemed career playing Shakespeare's leading men; trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, in London, and later taking over the role of the school's president from garrulous director Sir Richard Attenborough, Branagh was nominated for two Academy Awards in 1993 for his adaptation of the Bard's Much Ado About Nothing, in both Best Leading Actor and Best Director categories, following these nominations up in 1995 with another Best Director nomination for Othello. Honors also followed for Hamlet, Love's Labours Lost, and As You Like It.
Branagh first came to public prominence in 1987 in the television adaptation of Fortunes of War opposite then-girlfriend Emma Thompson; the two married, and became known as Ken and Em for the best part of a decade before separating shortly after a successful season at the Chichester Theater in the south of England, where they both starred in the sell-out run of King Lear.
Branagh was knighted by the Queen in 2012, and in 2018 was made a Freeman of the City of his native Belfast, Ireland.
Derek Jacobi
BBC viewers found the casting of Jacobi as Claudius both ironic and delightfully familiar, given that he had already been starring in the television series I, Claudius for a number of years; the BBC had called on him again for their made-for-television adaptation of Hamlet in 1980 and so the big-screen version was his second time playing the murderous king. Jacobi is a respected stage actor with a particular penchant for Shakespeare, having been awarded the Laurence Olivier Award twice for his performances in Cyrano de Bergerac, and Twelfth Night. Jacobi was the co-founder of the Royal National Theater Company.
Jacobi played the recurring role of Dr Who's nemesis, The Master, on the popular cult science fiction series for the character's entire run on the show.
Julie Christie
Julie Christie was one of the icons of the swinging sixties, often pictured in magazines walking jauntily down Carnaby Street, and her breakthrough role also came during this time; she won an Oscar for her performance in Darling in 1965, following it up with the movie Dr Zhivago, which still remains her most famous film and which is the eighth highest grossing movie of all time. In her later career she has gravitated more towards arthouse and independent movies, although Harry Potter fans were introduced to her through her role as Madam Rosmerta in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
Richard Briers
Briers' Lord Chamberlain is a busybody, a nosy parker, and an all-around traditionally signature Briers' character; beloved in his native England for his roles in long-running television sit-coms The Good Life and Ever Decreasing Circles, in which he played well-meaning but nosy neighbors, Briers was recognizable for playing characters with cheery demeanors and exceptionally friendly dispositions; this was why it was so jarringly remarkable when he was cast as a murderous proctor in an episode of the crime series Inspector Morse. Briers and Branagh worked together on many occasions, Briers taking on the role of King Lear during the play's run at the Chichester Festival Theater, His final performance, before his death in 2013, was as a voiceover actor in an episode of the motoring television show Top Gear.
Kate Winslet
Between a BAFTA Award winning performance as Marianne Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility and global superstardom thanks to the enormous hit that was Titanic, Winslet squeezed in the role of Ophelia in Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet. At the time this was a typical role for her, as she was becoming well-known in her native England for playing feisty females in period dramas, although her younger sister, Beth, was actually the better known of the two in Shakespearian circles. Despite the enormous worldwide success of Titanic, Winslet returned to her bonnet-and-bodice dramas, appearing in Quills and Iris in 2001.
Winslet received an Academy Award in 2008 for her portrayal of an illiterate Nazi death camp guard in the big screen adaptation of The Reader.
Rufus Sewell
Sewell is well-known in his native England primarily for being the fantasy of many a stay-at -home mother; his career has been a fairly even split between television and stage work, with big screen projects a distant third place on his resume. He garnered a Laurence Olivier Award for his performance as Jan in Tom Stoppard's Rock n Roll, also earning a Tony Award nomination when the play opened on Broadway a year later.
Michael Maloney
Suffolk-born Maloney made his television debut as a teenager, appearing in the popular 1979 drama series Telford's Change. However, his early twenties were largely a barren desert when it came to acting work. It was not until Kenneth Branagh cast him in the film adaptation of Henry V that he started to become a familiar face to movie audiences. He actually appeared in both the 1990 and 1996 film adaptations of Hamlet, playing Rosencrantz in the first version.
Robin Williams
Osric is a supporting character in the story, which is why many of Robin Williams' fans were surprised to see him portraying the courtier whose only real purpose is to invite Hamlet to participate in a duel. Williams is one of the most recognizable actors in the world, after all, and at the time of production, was fresh off the success of both Good Morning, Vietnam and Dead Poets' Society. However, as Williams said himself, he liked to play roles that surprised people, that stretched him, and that enabled him to work with other actors or directors whom he admired. This movie allowed him to do all three of those things.
Jack Lemmon
Lemmon was one of Hollywood's leading and most famous actors, nominated for an incredible eight Academy Awards, winning two, one for Best Supporting Actor in Some Like It Hot, opposite Marilyn Monroe, and the other for Save the Tiger, in the Best Actor category.
