William Shakespeare's Macbeth has been screened numerous times, featuring many of the biggest names from stage, film, and television.
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
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, 1978) - 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
The Animated Shakespeare 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
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
Isuzu Yamada
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 (USA, 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. (USA, 2001) is set in and around a fast food restaurant in the 1970s.
Billy 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 (USA, 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)
Another way in which film-makers 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.
