Laurence Olivier

Sir Laurence Olivier
Acting pioneer, Sir Laurence Olivier.
Birth name	Laurence Kerr Olivier
Born	22 May, 1907 Dorking, Surrey, England
Died	11 July, 1989, aged 82 Steyning, West Sussex, England
Height	5' 10" (1.78 m)
Academy  Awards	Best Actor for Hamlet (1948)
Emmy  Awards	Outstanding Single Performance by an Actor for The Moon and Sixpence (1960) Outstanding Single Performance by an Actor for Long Day's Journey Into Night (1973) Outstanding Lead Actor in a Special Program - Drama or Comedy for Love Among the Ruins (1975) Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or a Special for Brideshead Revisited (1982) Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or a Special for King Lear (1984)
Spouse(s)	Jill Esmond (1930-1940) Vivien Leigh (1940-1960) Joan Plowright (1961-1989)

Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM (22 May 1907–11 July 1989) was an Academy Award, Golden Globe, BAFTA and four-time Emmy winning English actor, director, and producer. He is regarded by many as the greatest English-speaking actor of the 20th century.^[1]

Olivier's career as a stage and film actor spanned more than six decades and included a wide variety of roles, from Shakespeare's Othello and Sir Toby Belch to the sadistic Nazi dentist Christian Szell in Marathon Man . A High Church clergyman's son who found fame on the West End stage, Olivier became determined early on to master Shakespeare, and eventually came to be regarded as one of the foremost Shakespeare interpreters of the 20th century. He continued to act up until his death in 1989.^[2] Olivier played more than 120 stage roles, including: Macbeth, Romeo, Hamlet, Othello, Uncle Vanya, and Archie Rice. He appeared in nearly sixty films, including William Wyler's Wuthering Heights, Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca, Stanley Kubrick's Spartacus, Otto Preminger's Bunny Lake is Missing, Richard Attenborough's Oh! What a Lovely War, Joseph L. Mankiewicz's Sleuth, John Schlesinger's Marathon Man and his own Hamlet.

In 1999, the American Film Institute named Olivier among the Greatest Male Stars of All Time, ranking at No. 14.

Early life

Olivier was born in 1907 in Dorking, Surrey. He was raised in a severe, strict, and religious household, ruled over by his father, Gerard Kerr Olivier, an Anglican priest.^[3] Young Laurence took solace in the care of his mother, Agnes, and was grief-stricken when she died (at 48) when he was only 12.^[4] He was educated at St Edward's School, Oxford, and, at 15, played Katherine in his school's production of The Taming of the Shrew, to rave reviews. After his brother, Richard, left for India, it was his father who decided that Laurence — or "Kim", as the family called him — would become an actor.^[5]

Early career

Olivier then attended the Central School of Dramatic Art at the age of 17.^[6] In 1926, he joined The Birmingham Repertory Company.^[7] At first he was given only paltry tasks at the theatre, such as being the bell-ringer; however, his roles eventually became more significant, and in 1937 he was playing roles such as Hamlet and Macbeth.^[2] Throughout his career he insisted that his acting was pure technique, and he was contemptuous of contemporaries who adopted the 'Method' popularized by Lee Strasberg. Olivier met and married Jill Esmond, an actress in 1930 and had one son, Tarquin, born in 1936.

Olivier was not happy in his first marriage from the beginning, however. Repressed, as he came to see it, by his religious upbringing, Olivier recounted in his autobiography the disappointments of his wedding night, culminating in his failure to perform sexually. He renounced religion forever and soon came to resent his wife, though the marriage would last for ten years.

He made his film debut in The Temporary Widow, and played his first leading role on film in The Yellow Ticket; however, he held film in little regard.^[6] His stage breakthroughs were in Noel Coward's Private Lives in 1930, and in Romeo and Juliet in 1935, alternating the roles of Romeo and Mercutio with John Gielgud. Olivier did not agree with Gielgud's style of acting Shakespeare and was irritated by the fact that Gielgud was getting better reviews than he was.^[8][9] He continued to hold his scorn for film, and though he constantly worked for Alexander Korda, he still felt most at home on the stage. He made his first Shakespeare film, As You Like It, with Paul Czinner, however, Olivier disliked it, thinking that Shakespeare did not work well on film. Olivier then saw a production of The Mask of Virtue, and one thing in particular interested him about it: Vivien Leigh.

Vivien Leigh

Olivier with his future second wife, Vivien Leigh, in Fire Over England (1937)

Olivier congratulated Leigh on her performance, and a friendship began. Olivier took her to lunch one day, and the friendship developed.^[10] Alexander Korda cast the two as leads in Fire Over England, and when the film was finished, the two began an affair. They appeared in two other films together, 21 Days, and Korda's epic, That Hamilton Woman, with Olivier as Lord Nelson. They wanted to marry, but both Leigh's husband and Olivier's wife at the time, Jill Esmond, at first, refused to divorce them. Finally divorced, they married on 31 August 1940, at the San Ysidro Ranch in Santa Barbara, California, with Katharine Hepburn as maid of honour.

Olivier and Leigh planned to star in a run of Romeo and Juliet in New York. It was an extravagant production, and was a commercial failure.^[11]

Wuthering Heights

Olivier continued to hold his contempt for films, claiming they were "just a quick way to earn money."^[6] He got his break in Hollywood when cast as Heathcliff in Samuel Goldwyn's production of Wuthering Heights. Olivier worked with Merle Oberon for the second time (the first had been in The Divorce of Lady X), however, despite their relative tolerance for each other on the first film, sparks flew on Wuthering Heights, presumably due to the fact that he had wanted Leigh for the role, and she had been rejected.

Director William Wyler disagreed with Olivier on many things regarding his performance, in particular, the fact that he would keep yelling, a technique that was needed for the theatre, but not for film, and forced Olivier to alter his style. Olivier later admitted that this was for the better, and his performance in the film earned him his first Oscar nomination. But he was still unhappy and still felt most at home on the stage.^[6] This success led to more leading roles for Olivier, including Maxim de Winter in Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca, and Mr. Darcy in MGM's Pride and Prejudice.

War

When World War II broke out, Olivier intended to join the Royal Air Force, but was still contractually obliged to other parties. He apparently disliked actors such as Charles Laughton and Sir Cedric Hardwicke, who would hold charity cricket matches to help the war effort.^[2] Olivier took flying lessons, and racked up over 200 hours. After two years of service, he became Lieutenant Olivier RNVR as a pilot in the Fleet Air Arm but never saw action.

In 1944 he and fellow actor Ralph Richardson were released from their naval commitments to form a new Old Vic Theatre Company at the New Theatre (later the Albery, now the Noel Coward Theatre) with a nightly repertory of three plays, initially Henrik Ibsen's Peer Gynt, Bernard Shaw's Arms and the Man and Shakespeare's Richard III, rehearsed over 10 weeks to the accompaniment of German V1 ‘doodlebugs’. The enterprise, with John Burrell as manager, eventually extended to five acclaimed seasons ending in 1949, after a prestigious 1948 tour of Australia and New Zealand, which included Vivien Leigh in productions of Richard III, Richard Brinsley Sheridan's School for Scandal, and Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth.

The second New Theatre season opened with Olivier playing both Harry Hotspur and Justice Shallow to Richardson’s Falstaff in Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2, in what is now seen as a high point of English classical theatre. Kenneth Tynan was to write (in He Who Plays the King, 1950): ‘The Old Vic was now at its height: the watershed had been reached and one of those rare moments in the theatre had arrived when drama paused, took stock of all that it had learnt since Irving, and then produced a monument in celebration. It is surprising when one considers it, that English acting should have reached up and seized a laurel crown in the middle of a war.’

In 1945 Olivier and Richardson were made honorary Lieutenants with ENSA, and did a six-week tour of Europe for the army, performing Arms and the Man, Peer Gynt and Richard III for the troops, followed by a visit to the Comédie-Française in Paris, the first time a foreign company had been invited to play on its famous stage.^[12] When Olivier returned to London the populace noticed a change in him. Olivier's only explanation was: "Maybe it's just that I've got older."^[6]

Shakespeare trilogy

After gaining widespread popularity in the film medium, Olivier was approached by several investors (namely Filippo Del Giudice, Alexander Korda and J. Arthur Rank), to create several Shakespearean films, based on stage productions of each respective play. Olivier tried his hand at directing, and as a result, created three highly successful films: Henry V, Hamlet and Richard III.

Henry V

Olivier made his directorial debut with a film of Shakespeare's Henry V. At first, he did not believe he was up to the task, instead trying to offer it to William Wyler, Carol Reed, and Terence Young. The film was shot in Ireland (due to the fact that it was neutral), with the Irish plains having to double for the fields of Agincourt. During the shooting of one of the battle scenes, a horse collided with a camera that Olivier was attending. Olivier had had his eye to the viewfinder, and when the horse crashed into his position, the camera smashed into him, cutting his lip, and leaving a scar that would be prominent in later roles.

The film opened to rave reviews, despite Olivier's initial reluctance. It was the first widely successful Shakespeare film, and was considered a work of art by many. The film received Oscar nominations for Best Picture and Best Actor, but the Academy, in Olivier's opinion, did not feel comfortable in giving out all of their major awards to a foreigner, so they gave him a special Honorary Award. Olivier disregarded the award as a "fob-off".^[13]

Hamlet

Olivier followed up on his success with an adaptation of Hamlet. He had played this role more often than he had Henry, and was more familiar with the melancholy Dane. However, Olivier was not all that comfortable with the role of Hamlet, as it was more introverted, as opposed to the extroverts that he was famous for. The running time of Hamlet (1948) was not allowed to exceed two-and-a-half hours, and as a result Olivier cut almost half of Shakespeare's text, and was severely criticized for doing so by purists, most notably Ethel Barrymore. Barrymore stated that Olivier's adaptation was nowhere near as faithful to the original text as her brother John's stage production from 1922. Ironically, Barrymore had to present the Best Picture Oscar that year, and was apparently visibly shaken when she read "Hamlet".

The film ended up being another resounding critical and commercial success both in Britain and abroad,^[2] and won Olivier the Best Picture and Best Actor awards at the 1948 Academy Awards. This was the first British film to win Best Picture, and the only time that Olivier would win Best Actor, a category he would be nominated in five more times before his death. Olivier also became the first person to direct himself in an Oscar-winning performance, a feat not repeated until Roberto Benigni directed himself to Best Actor in 1999 for Life is Beautiful. Also, Olivier is still today the only actor ever to receive an Oscar for 'acting' Shakespeare. Olivier, however, did not walk away with the Best Director Oscar that year, preventing what would have practically been a clean sweep of all the major awards the film was nominated for.

Richard III

Olivier's third major Shakespeare project as director and star was Richard III. Alexander Korda initially approached Olivier to reprise on film the role he had played to acclaim at the Old Vic in the 1940s. This role had been lauded as Olivier's greatest (until his 1955 stage production of Macbeth), and is widely considered to be his greatest screen performance. During the filming of the battle scenes in Spain, one of the archers actually shot Olivier in the ankle, causing him to limp. Fortunately, the limp was required for the part, so Olivier had already been limping for the parts of the film already shot.

Although the film was critically well received, it was a financial failure. Korda sold the rights to the American television network NBC, and the film became the first to be aired on television and released in theatres simultaneously. Many deduce that from the enormous ratings that the NBC transmissions received, more people saw Richard III in that single showing than all the people who had seen it beforehand.

Macbeth

Macbeth was supposed to have been Olivier's next Shakespeare film. However, due to Richard III's dismal box-office performance, along with the deaths of Alexander Korda and Mike Todd, the film would never be made. Olivier cited^{[citation needed]} this as his biggest disappointment, as his Macbeth had been praised as one of the all-time great performances.

The Entertainer

Since the end of World War II, apart from his Shakespeare trilogy, Olivier had made only sporadic film appearances. Towards the end of the 1950s, British theatre was changing with the rise of the "Angry Young Men". John Osborne, author of Look Back in Anger wrote a play for Olivier titled The Entertainer, centred on a washed-up stage comedian called Archie Rice. As Olivier later stated, "I am Archie Rice. I am not Hamlet." During rehearsals of The Entertainer, Olivier met Joan Plowright.^[14] He left Vivien Leigh for Plowright, a decision that apparently gave him a sense of guilt for the rest of his life.^[2] Olivier married Plowright on St. Patrick's Day, 1961. Leigh died in 1967.

National Theatre

Olivier was one of the founders of the National Theatre. He became first NT Director at the Old Vic before the South Bank building was constructed with his opening production of Hamlet in October 1963.

During his directorship he appeared in twelve plays (taking over roles in three) and directed nine. However, his career at the National ended, in his view, in betrayal and tragedy.^[2]

Othello

For Othello, Olivier underwent a transformation, requiring extensive study and heavy weightlifting, in order to get the physique needed for the Moor of Venice. It is said that he bellowed at a herd of cows for an hour to get the deep voice that was required. John Dexter's 1964 stage production of the play was filmed in 1965, securing Olivier his 6th Oscar Nomination for Best Actor.

Three Sisters

Olivier's final film as director was the 1970 film Three Sisters, based on the Chekhov play of the same name, and his 1967 National Theatre production. It was, in Olivier's opinion, his best work as director.^[5]

In addition his most fondly remembered National Theatre performances at the Old Vic were as Astrov in his own production of Ibsen's Uncle Vanya, seen first in 1962 at the Chichester Festival Theatre; his Captain Brazen in William Gaskill's December 1963 staging of George Farquhar's The Recruiting Officer; Shylock in Jonathan Miller's 1970 revival of The Merchant of Venice; and his definitive portrayal of James Tyrone in Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night, produced in December 1971 by Michael Blakemore.

He played an unforgettably droll supporting role as the ancient Antonio in Franco Zeffirelli's 1973 production of Eduardo de Filippo's Saturday, Sunday, Monday, alongside his wife Joan Plowright (in the starring role of Rosa). His final stage appearance, on 21 March, 1974, was as the fiery Glaswegian, John Tagg, in John Dexter's production of Trevor Griffiths' The Party.

The only appearance he made on the stage of the new Olivier Theatre, was at the royal opening of the new National Theatre building on 25 October, 1976.

Later career

Famous throughout his career for his commitment to his art, Olivier immersed himself even more completely in his work during his later years, reportedly as a way of distracting himself from the guilt he felt at having left his second wife Vivien Leigh.^[2]

He died of cancer in Steyning, West Sussex, England, in 1989 at the age of 82. Lord Olivier is interred in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey, London, only the second actor (the first was David Garrick) to be accorded that honour.

Bisexuality claims

Since Olivier's death, several biographers have produced books about him, several of which bring up the claim that Olivier was bisexual. Joan Plowright said:

I have always resented the comments that it was I who was the homewrecker of Larry's marriage to Vivien Leigh. Danny Kaye was attached to Larry far earlier than I.[15]

referring to biographer Donald Spoto's claim that Kaye and Olivier were lovers.^[16] According to Sir Noel Coward, sexually speaking, Olivier had "a puppy-like acquiescence to all experiences", as quoted by friend Michael Thornton.^[17] Terry Coleman's authorised biography of Olivier suggests a relationship between Olivier and an older actor, Henry Ainley, based on correspondence from Ainley to Olivier.^[2] Olivier's son Tarquin disputed this as 'unforgivable garbage'.^[18] and sought to suppress them, leading Dame Joan Plowright to privately state that "a man who had been to Eton and in the Guards might be expected to be a little more broad-minded".^[17]

In August 2006, on the radio program Desert Island Discs, Plowright responded to the question of Oliver's alleged bisexuality by stating: "If a man is touched by genius, he is not an ordinary person. He doesn't lead an ordinary life. He has extremes of behaviour which you understand and you just find a way not to be swept overboard by his demons. You kind of stand apart. You continue your own work and your absorption in the family. And those other things finally don't matter."^[17]

Honours

Olivier was the founding director of the Chichester Festival Theatre (1962–1966) and of the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain (1962–1973) for which he received his life peerage. He was knighted in 1947, and created a life peer in 1970 (the first actor to be accorded this distinction) as Baron Olivier, of Brighton in the County of Sussex. He was admitted to the Order of Merit in 1981. The Laurence Olivier Awards, organised by The Society of London Theatre, were renamed in his honour in 1984. Though he was a Life Peer and one of the most respected personalities in the industry, Olivier insisted that one should address him as "Larry", and he simply would not listen to anyone addressing him with honorifics such as "Lord", and "Sir".^[2]

Fifteen years after his death, Olivier once again received star billing in a movie. Through the use of computer graphics, footage of him as a young man was integrated into the 2004 film Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow in which Olivier "played" the villain.

Awards

For a complete list of Olivier's award wins and nominations, see Laurence Olivier list of awards & nominations

See also

For a complete list of Olivier's stage and screen appearances, see Laurence Olivier chronology of stage and film performances

Notes

Further reading

• Coleman, Terry (2005). Olivier: The authorised biography. Bloomsbury. ISBN 0-7475-7798-6
• Plowright, Joan (2001). And That's Not All: The Memoirs of Joan Plowright. Weidenfeld. ISBN 0-29764594-3
• Hall, Lyn, editor (1989). Olivier at Work: The National Years. Nick Hern Books/National Theatre. ISBN 1-85459-037-5
• Holden, Anthony (1998). Olivier. Weidenfeld. ISBN 0-297-79089-7
• Olivier, Laurence (1987). Confessions of an Actor. Sceptre. ISBN 0-340-40758-1
• Olivier, Laurence (1986). On Acting. Weidenfeld. ISBN 0-297-78864-7
• Olivier, Laurence (1982). Confessions of an Actor. Weidenfeld. ISBN 0-297-78106-5

External links

• Laurence Olivier at the Internet Movie Database
• Laurence Olivier at the TCM Movie Database
• Laurence Olivier at the Internet Broadway Database
• Laurence Olivier.com
• Olivier Entry Page