Ralph Richardson (1902-1983) was one of Britain's greatest classical stage actors, regarded alongside Laurence Olivier and John Gielgud as the "Big Three" of 20th-century British theatre. A founding member of the Old Vic, he was knighted in 1947 and appeared in classic films including The Elephant Man, Doctor Zhivago, and The Fallen Idol, for which he received an Oscar nomination.
