Twentieth-century productions of Hamlet often adopted a Freudian interpretation of the scene by introducing a bed onstage. As director of a 1948 film version, Laurence Olivier took the same approach. He also, at the age of forty, starred as Hamlet. Eileen Herlie, who played his mother, was twenty-seven.

©Universal Pictures Photographer: Wilfrid Newton/Photofest

Arnold Schwarzenegger entered the world of Hamlet in Last Action Hero. The film featured a clip from Olivier’s Hamlet (1948), introduced by Olivier’s third wife, Joan Plowright.

Columbia Pictures/Photofest