Biographie

Was merciless in his reviews of Vivien Leigh's theatre performances. Laurence Olivier wrote in his autobiography that Tynan's harsh criticism was responsible for at least one of Leigh's nervous breakdowns.

Father of Tracy Tynan.

Co-director (with Laurence Olivier) of the National Theatre of Great Britain. It was Tynan who said that he would only accept the post if Olivier played Othello in Shakespeare's "Othello", something that Olivier had always resisted doing (he had played Iago on stage opposite Ralph Richardson as Othello in the 1930s).

Is portrayed by Rob Brydon in Kenneth Tynan: In Praise of Hardcore (2005)

Father-in-law of Jim McBride.

[on Marlene Dietrich] She has sex but no positive gender. Her masculinity appeals to women and her sexuality to men.

[on Greta Garbo] What, when drunk, one sees in other women, one sees in Garbo sober.

[on movie critics] A man who knows the way but can't drive a car.

[on John Gielgud] The finest actor on earth, from the neck up.

There has never been an actor of greater gusto than Donald Wolfit. He has the dynamism, energy, bulk and stature, and he joins these together with a sheer relish for resonant words, which splits small theatres as [Enrico Caruso] wine glasses.