Biography
London-born Peter Glenville was a law student in Oxford when he surrendered to the lure of greasepaint. Becoming an actor was hardly an arbitrary decision: Glenville was the son of theatrical performers Shaun Glenville and Dorothy Ward. Among his early roles was Puck in
Max Reinhardt's fabled staging of
A Midsummer Night's Dream. Though he turned director at the Old Vic in 1944, his entree into British films was as a romantic lead in such pictures as
Madonna of the Seven Moons (1945). Glenville would not direct a film until the 1955
Alec Guinness vehicle
The Prisoner. This and many of his subsequent films--
Me and the Colonel (1958),
Summer and Smoke (1961),
Becket (1964, which earned him an Oscar nomination)
Hotel Paradiso (1966) et. al.-- were faithful adaptations of plays that Glenville had previously directed for the stage. Peter Glenville's last film,
The Comedians (1967), reunited him with several old co-workers, including
The Prisoner's Alec Guinness and
Becket's Richard Burton. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide