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Laurence Olivier

Laurence Olivier

Birthday: 1907-05-22 | Place of Birth: Dorking, Surrey, England, UK

Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM (22 May 1907 – 11 July 1989) was an English actor and director who, along with his contemporaries Ralph Richardson, Peggy Ashcroft and John Gielgud, dominated the British stage of the mid-20th century. He also worked in films throughout his career, playing more than fifty cinema roles. Late in his career, he had considerable success in television roles. His family had no theatrical connections, but Olivier's father, a clergyman, decided that his son should become an actor. After attending a drama school in London, Olivier learned his craft in a succession of acting jobs during the late 1920s. In 1930 he had his first important West End success in Noël Coward's Private Lives, and he appeared in his first film. In 1935 he played in a celebrated production of Romeo and Juliet alongside Gielgud and Ashcroft, and by the end of the decade he was an established star. In the 1940s, together with Richardson and John Burrell, Olivier was the co-director of the Old Vic, building it into a highly respected company. There his most celebrated roles included Shakespeare's Richard III and Sophocles's Oedipus. In the 1950s Olivier was an independent actor-manager, but his stage career was in the doldrums until he joined the avant garde English Stage Company in 1957 to play the title role in The Entertainer, a part he later played on film. From 1963 to 1973 he was the founding director of Britain's National Theatre, running a resident company that fostered many future stars. His own parts there included the title role in Othello (1965) and Shylock in The Merchant of Venice (1970). Among Olivier's films are Wuthering Heights (1939), Rebecca (1940), and a trilogy of Shakespeare films as actor-director: Henry V (1944), Hamlet (1948), and Richard III (1955). His later films included The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968), Sleuth (1972), Marathon Man (1976), and The Boys from Brazil (1978). His television appearances included an adaptation of The Moon and Sixpence (1960), Long Day's Journey into Night (1973), Love Among the Ruins (1975), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1976), Brideshead Revisited (1981) and King Lear (1983). Olivier's honours included a knighthood (1947), a life peerage (1970) and the Order of Merit (1981). For his on-screen work he received four Academy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, five Emmy Awards and three Golden Globe Awards. The National Theatre's largest auditorium is named in his honour, and he is commemorated in the Laurence Olivier Awards, given annually by the Society of London Theatre. He was married three times, to the actresses Jill Esmond from 1930 to 1940, Vivien Leigh from 1940 to 1960, and Joan Plowright from 1961 until his death. Description above from the Wikipedia article Laurence Olivier, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

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Known For

Acting

Year
Title

Role

2018
Nothing Like a Dame

as    Self (archive footage)

2004
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow

as    Dr. Totenkopf (archive footage)

1989
War Requiem

as    The Old Soldier

1986
Peter the Great

as    King William III of Orange

1985
Wild Geese II

as    Rudolf Hess

1984
The Bounty

as    Admiral Hood

1984
The Last Days of Pompeii

as    Gaius

1984
King Lear

as    King Lear

1983
The Jigsaw Man

as    Adm. Sir Gerald Scaith

1983
A Talent for Murder

as    Dr. Anthony Wainwright

1983
Wagner

as    Pfeuffer

1981
Brideshead Revisited

as    Alexander Flyte, Lord Marchmain

1981
Inchon

as    Gen. Douglas MacArthur

1981
Clash of the Titans

as    Zeus

1980
The Jazz Singer

as    Cantor Rabinovitch

1979
A Little Romance

as    Julius

1979
Dracula

as    Prof. Abraham Van Helsing

1978
The Boys from Brazil

as    Ezra Lieberman

1978
The Betsy

as    Loren Hardeman

1977
A Bridge Too Far

as    Dr. Jan Spaander

1976
The Seven-Per-Cent Solution

as    Professor James Moriarty

1976
Marathon Man

as    Szell

1973
Lady Caroline Lamb

as    Duke of Wellington

1973
Long Day's Journey Into Night

as    James Tyrone Sr.

1973
The World at War

as    Narrator

1973
The Merchant of Venice

as    Shylock

1972
Sleuth

as    Andrew Wyke

1969
Battle of Britain

as    Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding

1969
Oh! What a Lovely War

as    Field Marshal Sir John French