Knight Errant: Memoirs of a Vagabond Actor

by Robert Stephens

Robert Stephens is one of the best-loved and most unpredictable of great actors. He has endured good times and bad times, surviving four marriages, countless love affairs, years of hard living and drinking, illness and professional setbacks, and more recently a life-saving kidney and liver transplant operation. In his memoirs we learn how he fell in love with Maggie Smith, was nearly seduced by Marlene Dietrich and rubbed shoulders with, among others, Olivier, Nowl Coward, John Gielgud and Vanessa Redgrave.

Genres: Memoir, Biography

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Sir Robert Graham Stephens was a leading English actor, mainly in the theatre. He was involved with both the English Stage Company at the Royal Court Theatre and the Royal National Theatre. Although less important, Stephens appeared in a number of major films including: A Taste of Honey, Cleopatra, The Prime of Miss Jean Brody and The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes. On television he played the role of Abner Brown in the 1984 BBC TV dramatisation of the children's classic The Box of Delights and on radio he provided the voice of Aragorn in the 1981 BBC Radio serialisation of The Lord of the Rings.

Reviews

[Neale · Rating 3 out of 5]

The great virtue of this co-written theatrical autobiography, published just before Stephens premature but not unexpected death, is that it has no interest whatsoever in anything outside the narrow world of theatre and film – there is not a single reference that I can recall to any event in the ‘outside’ world, just an unending stream of theatrical and show-business anecdotage, frequently scurrilous and often very funny, and unedifying stories from ‘The Private Life of Robert Stephens’.

Chances are, if you are reading a book like this then that is exactly what you want, and it is exactly what you get. It is a plum-pudding of a book, with a lot more plums than pudding. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

There is also quite a lot of theatrical wisdom, which one is inclined to attribute to the co-author, critic Michael Coveney, although the book certainly reveals a much more complicated character to its subject than the rather plummy and blustering persona that Stephens often portrayed, particularly on film. It is good to be reminded what an interesting and natural actor he was at his best, particularly on stage.

I have often thought that good writing about the theatre is one of the most important kinds of ‘criticism’, since it recreates and pays tribute to an artform which is otherwise lost, and this book is an engaging contribution.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting listening to both this autobiography and his ex-wife’s, Dame Maggie Smith, in the same year. Hers was very edited, with few personal revelations, and his is more chatty, with a cheerfulness and happy-go-lucky air throughout his relating of the facts.. both were officially sanctioned tellings. Theatre romances and rivalries, and “hail fellow well met” partying. Nice insights into Sir Laurence Olivier and Life at the Old Vic.

[Janelle V. Dvorak · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have read several interviews with one of the author's sons indicating that he has never read the book, feeling that he might not sympathize with some of his father's points of view. I can understand why.