As Andrew Scott's biopic Elsinore premieres at the Telluride Film Festival this weekend, director Richard Eyre has recalled the extraordinary story behind Ian Charleson's final performance as Hamlet in 1989. Charleson, best known for playing Eric Liddell in Chariots of Fire, took on the role at the National Theatre while terminally ill with Aids, replacing Daniel Day-Lewis, who had abruptly quit after a breakdown. The production became one of the most celebrated Hamlets of its era, and Charleson's willingness to perform under such circumstances, and later to have Aids publicly recorded as his cause of death, made him a significant figure in the fight against the stigma surrounding the disease.

Charleson, then 40, persuaded Eyre to let him reprise a role he had first played 15 years earlier, despite the director's concerns about his health; the cast and audience were told his swollen face resulted from a sinus operation, when in fact he was suffering from septicaemia and undergoing acupuncture and chemotherapy. The run lasted six weeks, and the day after his final show, Ian McKellen gave Charleson his own Evening Standard best actor award. Charleson died on 6 January 1990, eight weeks later. Elsinore, directed by Simon Stone with Scott in the lead role, will open the London Film Festival in October and is already tipped for awards recognition.