Sir John Gielgud was considered one of the greatest stage actors of the 1950s, famous for his portrayal of Hamlet and comic roles such as the lead in Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest.
However, before being knighted in 1953, he was looked into for his “notorious” private life as a gay man during the height of his fame, The Mail on Sunday can disclose.
Gielgud, later star of Hollywood films such as Arthur, Gandhi, and Chariots of Fire, was the subject of ‘special enquiries’ by civil servants.
The inquiries are detailed in government papers that have been obtained by this newspaper under freedom of information laws and which are published for the first time today.
The MoS asked the Cabinet Office to provide copies of documents relating to the awarding of honours to Gielgud, which also included references to his private life and his homosexuality.
The documents show that civil servants were keen to ensure they could rely on the star’s discretion before awarding him one of the highest honours in the land.
A 1977 document includes the note,Kn ‘He was the subject of special inquiries in 1949 and 1952; these proved positive. No papers kept.’
In 1953, officials considering his suitability for a knighthood compared him with ballet star Anton Dolin. One wrote: ‘He is more discreet than Dolin but all the same notorious.’
Gielgud, who died in 2000 at age 96, was knighted in the Queen’s Coronation Honours. Shortly afterwards, he was arrested and fined for ‘cottaging’—meeting men for sex in a public lavatory—in Chelsea, West London.
His arrest was part of a clampdown overseen by Home Secretary David Maxwell Fyfe, who regarded male homosexuality as a ‘plague’. But Maxwell Fyfe’s stance would not appear to have been shared by theatregoers.
A terrified Gielgud had assumed reports about his arrest while he was appearing in a production of A Day by the Sea in Liverpool would end his career. Instead, he was greeted by a standing ovation.
The Cabinet Office papers also reveal Sir John was considered for a life peerage in 1990.
Gielgud never discussed his private life or his arrest in public. He once told a fellow actor: ‘I do admire people like you and Ian McKellen for coming out, but I can’t be doing with all that myself.’
One actor said last night, ‘Even if they did note his notoriety, it didn’t stop them from honouring him. It’d be interesting to know if notoriously promiscuous heterosexuals were subjected to the same scrutiny.’
Last night, the Cabinet Office declined to respond.
Sir John Gielgud was convicted of ‘cottaging’ (persistently importuning for an immoral purpose) in a public lavatory just off the Fulham Road. He was fined £10 and advised to consult a doctor.
The number of convictions for gross indecency increased significantly in the early 1950s. It was forbidden for males of any age to engage in sexual relations with one another, and those who did so frequently received harsh jail terms.
It was a time when ‘pretty police officers’ acting as ‘agent provocateurs’ enthusiastically engaged in witch hunts, which were encouraged and supported by the established Church, the popular press, and then the Home Secretary, and the judiciary up to and including the Lord Chief Justice.
Authors Rupert Croft-Cooke and Alan Turing, who assisted in cracking the Enigma code at Bletchley Park, were among the people detained.
Sir John Gielgud was widely respected as one of the greatest actors Britain had ever seen. Although he never denied being homosexual, Gielgud always made an effort to be discreet about it.
Gielgud experienced the highs and lows of being a public figure in 1953. He lived and worked in a period when male homosexuality was outlawed and public opinion was harsh.
He received a knighthood for his work for services to the theatre but was arrested for ‘cottaging’ in the same year.
Gielgud avoided Hollywood for over a decade for fear of being denied entry because of his arrest, and he felt humiliated by the ordeal. Some believe that his case helped the campaign to decriminalise homosexuality in England and Wales.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 