Trivia / Hamlet (1948)

• Acting for Two: Laurence Olivier played both Hamlet and his father.
• Creator-Chosen Casting: It was J. Arthur Rank who suggested Olivier cast Jean Simmons as Ophelia after the release of Great Expectations (1946).
• Dawson Casting: Laurence Olivier was 40 when he played the title role. Eileen Herlie, who played Gertrude, was 29. The former was actually a pragmatic choice; with Orson Welles adapting Macbeth and also prepping for his version of Othello, Hamlet was the only other option and he had to cast himself as the lead to secure funding.
• Directed by Cast Member: Laurence Olivier played Hamlet and his father, and was the director.
• Dueling Works: With Orson Welles's Macbeth. Laurence Olivier had planned to adapt that but changed to Hamlet when he realised the other one would come out first.
• No Stunt Double: The final scene to be filmed was the famous shot of Laurence Olivier jumping off a high tower onto Claudius and killing him because it was considered to be so dangerous that it was feared that Olivier would injure himself too badly performing the stunt to film any other scenes. Olivier emerged uninjured from the leap, but the stuntman doubling as Claudius was knocked out from the impact and lost two teeth.
• The Other Marty: Stanley Holloway was an 11th-hour choice; the actor who was supposed to play the gravedigger, F.J. McCormick, died shortly before filming.
• Reality Subtext: Basil Sydney plays Claudius, who is seen as a usurper of Hamlet's throne. He had played Hamlet himself back in the 20s.
• Role Reprise: Eileen Herlie had actually played the role of Gertrude on the stage before.
• Star-Making Role: Subverted. Jean Simmons was relatively unknown beforehand, having only had supporting parts in Black Narcissus and Great Expectations. Despite her Oscar-nominated performance as Ophelia, her real breakthrough as a leading actress didn't really happen until Simmons' next movie.
• Those Two Actors:
  • This was the first of 24 films in which Christopher Lee (Spear Carrier) and Peter Cushing (Osric) both appeared.
  • Laurence Olivier and Felix Aylmer starred together in film versions of As You Like It and Henry V. John Laurie (Francisco) also starred in all of Laurence Olivier's Shakespeare films.
• What Could Have Been: Vivien Leigh, who was married to Laurence Olivier at the time, wanted to play Ophelia but Olivier felt she was too famous, and cast the relatively unknown Jean Simmons instead.

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