Aug 14
Roddy McDowall as Ariel in Shakespeare’s The Tempest, photographed by Eliot Elisofon for LIFE magazine’s April 14, 1958 feature, “Eleven Fine Actors Get Their Dream Roles.” The elaborate portraits were specially staged for LIFE rather than taken from a current production. McDowall had already played Ariel onstage at the American Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Connecticut, in 1955, and would return to the role for NBC’s 1960 Hallmark Hall of Fame television production of The Tempest, starring Maurice Evans as Prospero, Richard Burton as Caliban and Lee Remick as Miranda. The LIFE photographs were actually taken in late 1957 and early 1958, making them an intriguing bridge between McDowall’s two performances as Shakespeare’s airy spirit.
