Macbeth on screen

William Shakespeare's Macbeth has been screened numerous times, featuring many of the biggest names from stage, film, and television.

Performances

• Macbeth (US, 1908, silent)
  • J. Stuart Blackton, director
  • William V. Ranous as Macbeth
  • Louise Carver as Lady Macbeth
• Macbeth (US, 1916, silent, IMDB)
  • John Emerson, director
  • Herbert Beerbohm Tree as Macbeth
  • Constance Collier as Lady Macbeth
• Macbeth (US, 1948)
  • Orson Welles, director and as Macbeth
  • Jeanette Nolan as Lady Macbeth
• Hallmark Hall of Fame Macbeth (TV, US, 1954, IMDB)
  • Maurice Evans as Macbeth
  • Judith Anderson as Lady Macbeth
• Hallmark Hall of Fame Macbeth (1960, IMDB) – Emmy Award–winning remake, featuring an all-British supporting cast, and filmed on location in England and Scotland.
  • Maurice Evans as Macbeth
  • Judith Anderson as Lady Macbeth
• Play of the Month: Macbeth (UK, TV, 1970; USA, TV, 1975)
  • John Gorrie, director
  • Eric Porter as Macbeth
  • Janet Suzman as Lady Macbeth
• Macbeth (US and UK, 1971)
  • Roman Polanski, director
  • Jon Finch as Macbeth
  • Francesca Annis as Lady Macbeth
• Macbeth (TV, UK, 1979) – film of the Royal Shakespeare Company's Other Place production.
  • Trevor Nunn, director
  • Ian McKellen as Macbeth
  • Judi Dench as Lady Macbeth
• Macbeth (UK, 1981)
  • Arthur Allan Seidelman, director
  • Jeremy Brett as Macbeth
  • Piper Laurie as Lady Macbeth
• Macbeth (TV, Hungary, 1982)
  • Béla Tarr, director
  • György Cserhalmi as Macbeth
  • Erzsébet Kútvölgyi as Lady Macbeth
• BBC Television Shakespeare Macbeth (TV, UK, 1983) – released in the US as part of the Complete Dramatic Works of William Shakespeare series.
  • Jack Gold, director
  • Nicol Williamson as Macbeth
  • Jane Lapotaire as Lady Macbeth
• Shakespeare: The Animated Tales Macbeth (TV, Russia and UK, 1992)
  • Nicolai Serebryakov, director
  • Brian Cox as the voice of Macbeth
  • Zoë Wanamaker as the voice of Lady Macbeth
• Macbeth (UK, 1997)
  • Jeremy Freeston and Brian Blessed, directors
  • Jason Connery as Macbeth
  • Helen Baxendale as Lady Macbeth
• Macbeth (TV, UK, 1998)
  • Michael Bogdanov, director
  • Sean Pertwee as Macbeth
  • Greta Scacchi as Lady Macbeth
• Macbeth (Video, UK, 2001) – film of the Royal Shakespeare Company's Swan production.
  • Gregory Doran, director
  • Antony Sher as Macbeth
  • Harriet Walter as Lady Macbeth
  • Richard Armitage as Angus
• Macbeth (Australia, 2006) – film set against the backdrop of a violent gang war in Melbourne, Australia.
  • Geoffrey Wright, director
  • Sam Worthington as Macbeth
  • Victoria Hill as Lady Macbeth
• Macbeth (TV, UK, 2010) – television adaptation of Royal Shakespeare Company's stage production.
  • Rupert Goold, director
  • Patrick Stewart as Macbeth
  • Kate Fleetwood as Lady Macbeth
• Macbeth (UK, 2015)
  • Justin Kurzel, director
  • Michael Fassbender as Macbeth
  • Marion Cotillard as Lady Macbeth
• The Tragedy of Macbeth (US, TBA)
  • Joel Coen, writer/producer/director
  • Denzel Washington as Macbeth
  • Frances McDormand as Lady Macbeth

Unfinished

• Macbeth (UK, 1956–59)
  • Laurence Olivier, director and as Macbeth
  • Vivien Leigh as Lady Macbeth

Adaptations

• Joe MacBeth (UK, 1955) is a film noir resetting of the story as a gang war in Chicago
  • Ken Hughes, director
  • Paul Douglas as Joe MacBeth
  • Ruth Roman as Lily Macbeth
• Throne of Blood (a.k.a. Cobweb Castle or Kumonosu-jo) (Japan, 1957) is an adaptation of the Macbeth story to a Japanese setting.
  • Akira Kurosawa, director
  • Toshirō Mifune as Washizu Taketok
  • Isuzu Yamada as Washizu Asaji
• The first series of The Black Adder (TV, UK, 1983), written by Richard Curtis and Rowan Atkinson, is a parody of Shakespeare's plays, particularly Macbeth, Richard III and Henry V.
• Men of Respect (US, 1991) is a retelling of the Macbeth story as a Mafia power struggle in New York City, in modern English, but closely tracking the original plot.
  • William Reilly, director
  • John Turturro as Mike Battaglia
  • Katherine Borowitz as Ruthie Battaglia
• Scotland, PA (US, 2001) is set in and around a fast food restaurant in the 1970s.
  • William Morrissette, writer/director
  • Maura Tierney as Pat McBeth
  • James LeGros as Joe "Mac" McBeth
  • Christopher Walken as Lieutenant McDuff
  • Kevin Corrigan as Anthony "Banko" Banconi
  • Andy Dick, Timothy "Speed" Levitch, and Amy Smart as the three Bohemians
• Maqbool (India, 2004) is a Macbeth adaptation set in the Mumbai underworld.
  • Vishal Bhardwaj, director
  • Irfan Khan as Mian Maqbool (the Macbeth character)
  • Tabu as Nimmi (the Lady Macbeth character)
• ShakespeaRe-Told Macbeth (UK, TV, 2005) is a modern adaptation by Peter Moffat, set in a Glasgow restaurant.
  • James McAvoy as Joe Macbeth
  • Keeley Hawes as Ella (the Lady Macbeth character)
  • Richard Armitage as Peter Macduff
• Teenage Gang Debs (US, 1966), setting the theme around a teenage girl who joins a street gang.
  • Sande N. Johnsen, director
  • Diane Conti as Terry (the Lady Macbeth character)

Theatrical performances within films

Another way in which filmmakers use Shakespearean texts is to feature characters who are actors performing those texts, within a wider non-Shakespearean story. In Opera, the 1987 Italian giallo horror film written and directed by Dario Argento and starring Cristina Marsillach, Urbano Barberini, and Ian Charleson; young opera singer Betty (Marsillach) is reluctantly thrust into the lead role in Verdi's Macbeth. During her first performance, a murder takes place in one of the opera boxes. Mysterious murders continue throughout the film as Betty is stalked and those around her meet their unfortunate end. During the final performance of the opera, the killer is revealed, and Betty must confront her past in a terrifying climax.

See also

• Shakespeare on screen
• The Scottish Play