To be or not to be is never really the question when it comes to Hamlet. From Sarah Bernhardt to Laurence Olivier to Mel Gibson, there’s nary an actor who hasn’t coveted the role of Elsinore’s most famous son. The Stratford Shakespeare Festival has mounted the Bard’s opus eight times, casting leads who have gone on to become fest stalwarts, Tony award winners and big-screen celebs. You may not have heard of Shaw veteran Ben Carlson (yet), but this year’s Dane is preceded by a starry bunch. Here, a quartet of Stratford’s past Princes and their claims to fame.

CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER
Year: 1957
Critics said: The Toronto native busted his foot onstage, but one CBC radio commentator noted his interpretation was so compelling that audiences totally forgot about his hobbling.
Post-Hamlet trajectory: The part of fierce-yet-fuzzy Captain von Trapp in The Sound of Music, two Tony awards and well over 150 film and TV roles. He returns to Stratford this year to headline Caesar and Cleopatra.

KENNETH WELSH
Year: 1969
Critics said: A National Theatre School graduate, the Edmontonian was well-liked by most, notwithstanding the reviewer who scathingly compared him to a farmer in heavy boots.
Post-Hamlet trajectory: The role of freakishly sinister former FBI agent Windom Earle in the early-’90s TV series Twin Peaks, and a string of politicos that included convicted murderer Colin Thatcher and U.S. prez Harry S Truman.

COLM FEORE
Year: 1991
Critics said: Proving that a little patrician intensity goes a very long way, Feore handily seduced the Toronto Star’s reviewers. Plaudits included “stark,” “imposing” and “chillingly brilliant.”
Post-Hamlet trajectory: A tour de force turn as the titular pianist in Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould, followed by a career made up mostly of bad guys and Romans. And, oh yeah, some guy named Trudeau.

PAUL GROSS
Year: 2000
Critics said: Due South fans flocked, but pundits were split. Verdicts ranged from the Star trumpeting “this Mountie gets his man” to The Globe and Mail calling his intelligence glib and insensitive.
Post-Hamlet trajectory: That curling movie, and three seasons lampooning Canadian theatre as the troubled artistic director of a struggling Stratford-esque festival in the ultimate insider series Slings & Arrows.

Hamlet runs at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival from May 27 to Oct. 26.