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Quick Facts
- NAME: Laurence Kerr Olivier
- OCCUPATION: Film Actor, Theater Actor, Television Actor
- BIRTH DATE: May 22, 1907
- DEATH DATE: July 11, 1989
- EDUCATION: All Saints Choir School, St. Edward's School, Central School of Dramatic Art
- PLACE OF BIRTH: Dorking, England
- PLACE OF DEATH: London, England
- AKA: Sir Laurence Olivier
Best Known For
Laurence Olivier, a towering figure of the British stage and screen, was acclaimed in his lifetime as the greatest English-speaking actor of the 20th century.
Laurence Olivier. (2012). Biography.com. Retrieved 01:42, Feb 09, 2012 from http://www.biography.com/people/laurence-olivier-9428279
Laurence Olivier [Internet]. 2012. http://www.biography.com/people/laurence-olivier-9428279, February 09
" Laurence Olivier." 2012. Biography.com 09 Feb 2012, 01:42 http://www.biography.com/people/laurence-olivier-9428279
' Laurence Olivier', Biography.com,(2012) http://www.biography.com/people/laurence-olivier-9428279 [accessed Feb 09, 2012]
" Laurence Olivier," Biography.com, http://www.biography.com/people/laurence-olivier-9428279 (accessed Feb 09, 2012).
Laurence Olivier [Internet]. Biography.com; 2012 [cited 2012 Feb 09]. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/laurence-olivier-9428279.
Laurence Olivier, http://www.biography.com/people/laurence-olivier-9428279 (last visited Feb 09, 2012).
Laurence Olivier, http://www.biography.com/people/laurence-olivier-9428279 (last visited Feb 09, 2012).
Synopsis
Laurence Olivier began his professional career with the Birmingham Repertory Theatre Company (1926–28). Three years later he made his first significant West End appearance, in Beau Geste. Also in 1929,
he made his Broadway debut. In 1944 he returned to film as star of Henry V (1944). In 1984 he played his last major Shakespearean role in a TV version of King Lear.
Profile
(born May 22, 1907, Dorking, Surrey, England—died July 11, 1989, near London) a towering figure of the British stage and screen, acclaimed in his lifetime as the greatest English-speaking actor of the 20th century. He was the first member of his profession to be elevated to a life peerage.
The son of an Anglican minister, Olivier attended All Saints Choir School, where at age nine he made his theatrical debut as Brutus in an abridgement of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. Five years later he played the female lead in The Taming of the Shrew at Oxford's St. Edward's School, repeating this performance at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. These early stage appearances did not go unnoticed by the theatrical notables of the era, who encouraged Olivier to consider acting as a profession. At first he dismissed the notion, hoping to follow the example of his older brother by managing an Indian rubber plantation; but his father, who had heretofore been ambivalent on the subject of acting, all but demanded that young Laurence embark upon a stage career.
Olivier enrolled at the Central School of Dramatic Art in 1924, then began his professional career with the Birmingham Repertory Theatre Company (1926–28). Three years later he made his first significant West End appearance, playing the title role in a staging of P.C. Wren's Beau Geste. Also in 1929, he made his Broadway debut in Murder on the Second Floor. Having acted in British films from 1930, he was briefly signed by Hollywood's RKO Radio Pictures in 1931, but he failed to make much of an impression at this early date. What could have been his first Hollywood break in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's Queen Christina (1933) was scuttled when star Greta Garbo vetoed Olivier as her leading man in favour of her former lover John Gilbert.
During this period Olivier broadened his acting range by tackling difficult classical roles; he also chose to accept character parts that allowed him to hide what he considered his shortcomings behind heavy makeup and false beards. As he gained confidence in himself and his craft, audiences responded positively to him. The theatre critics also liked his work, though their comments were guarded and often compared Olivier unfavourably to such contemporaries as John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson. He scored a significant triumph as star of an unabridged 1937 staging of Hamlet. He returned to Hollywood to play the tormented Heathcliff in Samuel Goldwyn's production of
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