Hamlet

There's an article in The Times today in which Benedict Nightingale chooses his "best Hamlet". Simon Russell Beale came first. I saw his performance a couple of years ago and was not impressed; he spoke the words intelligently and musically, the trouble was he simply did not look the part. Neither did Dereck Jacobi who, again, spoke well but pranced about the stage.
Hamlet should be very male I think, not macho but forceful, direct, commanding.
One of the best I heard (on radio) was Michael Redgrave and one of the worst, if not the worst, (again on radio) was Kenneth Griffiths.
Laurence Olivier in the film version is of course excellent in every way, good looking, robust, intelligent, manly. I am told by a famous actress that the best Hamlet she ever saw was a Russian in a Russian film made, O, fifty years ago?
I saw Robert Helpmann in Stratford, very athletic, throwing himself about balletically (he was of course, a ballet dancer primarilly) but giving a sound performance. And Peter O'Toole as a young man in Bristol was well received and well reviewed.
Was Horatio more than just a good friend to Hamlet? was a question someone asked in The Times a few years ago. Was Horatio married? Letters followed argueing this and that but the best was one that "confirmed" Horatio's marriage status, for does not Hamlet say to him in his final words just before he dies: "If thou dids't ever hold me in thy heart, absent thee from Felicity awhile...."