Trivia

He had a particular hatred of Sir John Gielgud, who claimed he always worried whenever Wolfit had a big success in case "he now had the money to hire men to murder me". It was said where Wolfit could never bring himself to utter Gielgud's name, "save with a hiss". The two men nonetheless worked together in the film "Becket" with no injuries on either side.

Although Sir Donald was a very good actor he was also quite vain and always surrounded himself with inexperienced or inferior actors so that his part always took center stage unchallenged by a better performer.

His daughter with Chris Castor, Margaret Wolfit was also a successful stage actress.

Third wife Rosalind co-starred on Broadway with Donald in 1947 playing Cordelia to his Lear, Rosalind to his Touchstone, Portia to his Shylock, and Ophelia to his Hamlet.

Appeared in three films that were nominated for the Best Picture Oscar: Room at the Top (1958), Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and Becket (1964). Of those only Lawrence of Arabia (1962) was a winner in the category.

At the time that Laurence Olivier first played Richard III onstage in 1944, Wolfit's Richard had set the standard and was considered definitive, but Olivier's portrayal easily surpassed Wolfit's, and became the new standard by which other performances of the role have been judged.

Although he was often accused of hiring mediocre actors for his theatre company deliberately so that he could outshine them, in fact a number of eminent theatrical personages had early chances under his management. These included Harold Pinter, Joan Greenwood, Eric Porter, Ronald Fraser and Alun Owen, most of whom spoke well of him after finding fame.

Sir Donald's first professional acting work was done in the 1920s, in the company of a now-forgotten actor-manager named Charles Doran. Sir Ralph Richardson got his start in the same company and at the same time. The two future actor-knights were not friends.

Often derided as a ham actor because, although he was good, his company was full of nondescript actors, none of whom would be able to outshine the star. He gave his name to the character "Wolfit" in the ground-breaking 1950s radio comedy "The Goon Show" played by Spike Milligan who reprised the character in the 1956 film The Case of the Mukkinese Battle-Horn (1956) where a 'resting' silent actor accidentally goes into the Police station instead of the Labour Exchange.

He was made a CBE (Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) in the 1950 King's New Year Honours List and made a Knight Bachelor in the 1957 Queen's Birthday Honours List for services to drama.

In 1948, Donald finally married his longtime co-star, actress Rosalind Iden, who was the daughter of British director, actor and educator B. (Ben) Iden Payne (1881-1976) and Edwardian actress Mona Limerick. Dr. Payne was internationally known as a Shakespearean director and for his modified Elizabethan staging. He directed both Donald and his daughter in Stratford Festival productions of "Troilus and Cressida" and "Much Ado About Nothing" in 1936. From 1946 until his retirement in 1973, Payne was a professor at the University of Texas, where among his students were Tommy Tune and Tom Jones, and was the inspiration for the character of "The Old Actor" in Jones and Harvey Schmidt's long-running musical "The Fantasticks".

Father was an accountant.

Took his first job teaching in a preparatory school in Eastbourne.

Harold Pinter played a knight in his company's production of King Lear.

His wife Rosalind Iden played his leading lady in many of his plays,.