Actor-Inspired Element: In the celebrated 1984 RSC production, Antony Sher played Richard on crutches, using them to move very quickly all over the stage (his black costume was also given long dangling cuffs, so he looked like a menacing, muscular spider.) These were Sher's idea: in a 1983 production of King Lear, in which he'd played the Fool to Michael Gambon's Lear, he'd torn a ligament onstage one night and had been on crutches for months while it healed. After playing around and discarding various ways of conveying Richard's deformity, he started fooling about with his NHS crutches, and...
Beam Me Up, Scotty!: "Off with his head! So much for Buckingham." For many years one of Richard's most iconic lines and a Trope Namer — but not part of Shakespeare's play. It was added in 1700 by leading-man Colley Cibber.
Dawson Casting: Frequently with this play, since the actual Richard died at 32 with one of the most notable examples being 64-year-old Colm Feore (Literally twice the age of the actual Richard when he died) in the Stratford Festival's 2022 production.
1955 film
Billing Displacement: John Gielgud has only a single significant scene in the film as Clarence (where he recounts his nightmare to the jailer shortly before his murder), yet he's billed second after Olivier in the opening film credits, ahead of other actors with far more lines and screen time (including Ralph Richardson as Buckingham).
Dawson Casting: Although Laurence Olivier was 47 when the film was made, the real King Richard III was only 32 when he died. King Edward IV was 40 when he died but was played by 61-year-old Cedric Hardwicke.
Production Posse: Laurence Olivier reassembled the production team from his other Shakespeare films, including production designer Roger Furse, art director Carmen Dillon, composer William Walton and associate director Anthony Bushell. As with Henry V, they modeled the film's look on the illustrations in the medieval Book of the Hours.
Throw It In!: In the opening of the film, Richard accidentally drops the Duke's coronet after the royal party leaves. It was a mistake that Laurence Olivier made, but left in. However, it became a running joke throughout the film and later, you can see the same gag again.
Olivier wanted to cast Orson Welles in the role of Buckingham, but life-long friend Sir Ralph Richardson wanted the role, and Olivier gave it to him. In his autobiography, Olivier says he wishes he had disappointed Richardson and cast Welles instead as he would have brought an extra element to the screen, an intelligence that would have gone well with the plot element of conspiracy.
Olivier originally wanted John Mills and Richard Attenborough to play the murderers. However, Mills thought the idea might be regarded as Stunt Casting, and Attenborough had to pull out due to a scheduling conflict.
Vivien Leigh wanted to play Lady Anne, but Olivier chose the younger Claire Bloom instead. Alexander Korda then suggested he cast Leigh in a silent cameo, a role specially created for the film version, but instead Olivier convinced the producer to cast her in another of his films, The Deep Blue Sea (1955), a leading role he felt better suited to her talents.
Olivier approached Richard Burton about playing Henry VII.
Awesome, Dear Boy: Ian McKellen enjoyed acting with Robert Downey Jr. in Restoration (1995), and asked him to play the part of Rivers, expecting him to turn the role down as too small. To McKellen's surprise, Downey immediately cleared his schedule and took the part.
Dawson Casting: Ian McKellen was in his fifties when he played King Richard III, who only lived to be thirty-two.
Life Imitates Art: In the theatre production when Richard III ruffles the hair of the princes, Ian McKellen was accused of cribbing from Saddam Hussein trying to pat Stuart Lockwood's head. In truth the script had been written long before.
One of the tanks used for the movie, the Mandela Way T-34, was taken to a lot after the filming was done, where it is often repainted by graffiti artists.
a menacing, muscular spider.) These were Sher's idea: in a 1983 production of King Lear, in which he'd played the Fool to Michael Gambon's Lear, he'd torn a ligament onstage one night and had been on crutches for months while it healed. After playing around and discarding various ways of conveying Richard's deformity, he started fooling about with his NHS crutches, and...
