| SEIZETHEDAY | Failed-actor tale by 58 Across |
| BUCHANAN | Phoenix, failed actor played by Hugh Grant in 2017 comedy film Paddington 2 (8) |
| SERBOCROAT | Failed actor sore about British language (5-5) |
| FACIA | Failed actor heads American agency, which is nothing but a front (5) |
| ASCI | Sacs studied by 58-Across |
| AUGIEMARCH | Protagonist unveiled by 58 Across in 1953 |
| DANGLINGMAN | Novel in diary form by 58 Across |
| IMAGINATIONIS | Start of a quote by 58-Across |
| FLYMYPRETTIESFLY | Line never said by 58-Across |
| WEARYWILLIE | Character created by 58-Across |
| FORREST | Gump played by 58-Across |
| IFATFIRST | Start of a quote about creativity by 58-Across/39-Down |
| CORSAIR | The ___, verse tale by Lord Byron which inspired an opera by Verdi and a ballet by Adam (7) |
| HANSEL | English title of a three-act opera by Engelbert Humperdinck based on a fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm (6,3,6) |
| SHOES | The Red -; title of a fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen; or, an album by Kate Bush (5) |
| PETER | Character depicted by string instruments in a symphonic fairy tale by Sergei Prokofiev (5) |
| REDFOX | An animal with a brush for a tail, depicted in the Reynard cycle, several of Aesop's fables, a tale by Beatrix Potter and a story by Roald Dahl (3,3) |
| HANSELANDGRETEL | English title of a three-act opera by Engelbert Humperdinck based on a fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm |
| WOLF | Depicted by French horns in an orchestral fairy tale by Prokofiev, an animal from whose Latin appellation the lupin derives its name (4) |
| WORM | 'The ---', 1989 film by Ken Russell based on a tale by Bram Stoker (4,2,3,5,4) |
