1965. Shouldn't they have just got an actor of color?

Of course there's many excellent black actors who could be and have been wonderful as Othello. But it's obvious this whole project was Olivier wanting to play him, so there's no "they" to get someone else - papa got the funding so papa plays the part.

That said, I love this play, and have seen it many, many times, with black actors and not. My take has been there is a certain dishonesty about playing the part in blackface, and since, well, it's a play about lying, deceit, and fakery...

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there were probably a number of actors who one could throw in just because they were good at the trade and black. But we are talking about Olivier here. No contest. He wanted it, he got it. He had the chops, the Bard's expertise, and the star power to get the gate.

At that time, a Black actor would not have been cast in a major production, especially opposite a White woman with love scenes. Things were just beginning to change. James Earl Jones and Jane Alexander in The Great White Hope at Arena Stage in DC in 1967 and then on Broadway was a major breakthrough. I did not see a bi-racial couple play two white characters until the late 80s. I think we tend to forget just how extreme racism (and sexism) were in the not-too-distant past.

Beauty is truth, truth beauty.