--- title: Video: William Shakespeare's Life in One Minute description: April 23 marks the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death canonical: https://time.com/4303852/shakespeare-life-video/ author: Sarah Begley article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-04-22T18:00:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-30T12:06:12.373Z article:section: History og:title: Watch: Shakespeare's Life in One Minute og:description: April 23 marks the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death og:url: https://time.com/4303852/shakespeare-life-video/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6283b1315e1224d8/69889068cd1bba4e0c700660/shakespeare-facebook.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: William Shakespeare og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch: Shakespeare's Life in One Minute twitter:description: April 23 marks the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6283b1315e1224d8/69889068cd1bba4e0c700660/shakespeare-facebook.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Watch: Shakespeare's Life in 1 Minute by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) and [Kenneth Bachor](https://time.com/author/kenneth-bachor/) Apr 22, 2016 6:00 PM UTC  Portrait of William Shakespeare from the title page of the First Folio of Shakespeare's plays; copper engraving by Martin Droeshout, 1623\. One of the earliest portraits of Shakespeare. (Photo by GraphicaArtis/Getty Images) Portrait of William Shakespeare from the title page of the First Folio of Shakespeare's plays; copper engraving by Martin Droeshout, 1623\. One of the earliest portraits of Shakespeare. (Photo by GraphicaArtis/Getty Images)GraphicaArtis/Getty Images by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) and [Kenneth Bachor](https://time.com/author/kenneth-bachor/) Apr 22, 2016 6:00 PM UTC With his unforgettable couplets, quips and coined phrases, William Shakespeare is one of the most quoted and referenced writers of all time. Nearly anyone who’s attended high school has had to read his works. Yet while we know his written word well, we have only limited information about his actual life. In honor of the 400th anniversary of his death, here’s what we do know of the Bard of Avon—his own “hour upon the stage … full of sound and fury”—presented in one minute. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4303852/shakespeare-life-video/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4303852/shakespeare-life-video/"},"headline":"Watch: Shakespeare's Life in 1 Minute","datePublished":"2016-04-22T18:00:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-30T12:06:12.373Z","description":"April 23 marks the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death","url":"https://time.com/4303852/shakespeare-life-video/","keywords":["Theater"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6283b1315e1224d8/69889068cd1bba4e0c700660/shakespeare-facebook.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Kenneth Bachor","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/kenneth-bachor/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6283b1315e1224d8/69889068cd1bba4e0c700660/shakespeare-facebook.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"William Shakespeare","caption":"","creditText":"GraphicaArtis/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4303852/shakespeare-life-video/","name":"Watch: Shakespeare's Life in 1 Minute"}}]}] ```