May 22 - Laurence Olivier

Happy Birthday, Laurence Olivier! Born today in 1907 as Laurence Kerr Olivier, this English actor and director dominated the British stage of the mid-20th century. He also worked in films throughout his career, playing more than fifty cinema roles. 

  

This was along with his contemporaries, being English actor Ralph Richardson, English actor and theatre director John Gielgud and English actress Peggy Ashcroft. Late in his career, Olivier 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, England, United Kingdom, Olivier learned his craft in a succession of acting jobs during the late 1920s. 

  

In 1930 he had his first important West End theatre success in English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer Noël Coward's comedy of manners Private Lives. Later on, Olivier appeared in his first film.  

  

In 1935, he played in a celebrated production of William Shakespeare's 1597 tragedy play Romeo and Juliet. This was alongside Gielgud and Ashcroft, and by the end of the decade Olivier was an established star. 

  

In the 1940s, together with Richardson and English theatre director John Burrell, Olivier was the co-director of the non-for-profit producing theatre Old Vic in London. He later had it built into a highly respected company.  

  

It was there that his most celebrated roles included Shakespeare's 1633 historical play Richard III and ancient Greek tragedian Sophocles' 429 BC Athenian tragedy play Oedipus Rex. 

  

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. 

This was to play the title role in English playwright, screenwriter and actor John Osbourne's three-act play The Entertainer. This was the same part Olivier later played on film. 

  

From 1963 to 1973, Olivier was the founding director of Britain's National Theatre (NT), running a resident company that fostered many future stars.  

There, his own parts included the title role in the 1965 American Technicolor drama/adaptation film Othello, the miserly and moneylending Jew Shylock in Shakespeare's 1605 comedy play The Merchant of Venice.

As a screen actor, Olivier is best known for co-starring in William Wyler's 1939 American black and white romantic period/historical drama film 'Wuthering Heights' as Heathcliff and in Alfred Hitchcock's 1940 American black and white romantic psychological drama/thriller film 'Rebecca'. 

   

Also as a screen actor, Olivier is best known for co-starring in Stanley Kubrick's 1960 American epic Technicolor historical drama/action film 'Spartacus' and in Joseph L. Mankiewicz's 1972 British-American mystery thriller film 'Sleuth'.

In the late 1970s, Olivier is known for co-starring in John Schlesinger's ('Midnight Cowboy') 1977 American suspense thriller/adaptation film 'Marathon Man' as wanted Nazi war criminal dentist Dr. Christian ("Is it safe?") Szell.  

  

As a filmmaker, Olivier is best known for co-writing, co-producing, directing and starring in the 1944 British Technicolor epic/historical adaptation film 'Henry V'. The feature had been adapted from Shakespeare's eponymous 1599 historical play. 

  

'Henry V' was Olivier's masterful, sweeping rendition of Shakespeare, filmed in rich colour and ingeniously including a typical performance at the Globe Theatre as it might have been seen four centuries ago. 

  

In it's full exhaustive title, the on-screen title is 'Henry V: The Chronicle History of King Henry the Fifth with His Battell Fought at Agincourt in France'. 

'Henry V' was made near the end of World War II and was intended as a morale booster for Britain. Consequently, it was partly funded by the British government. 

  

The following year, 'Henry V' won Olivier an Academy Honorary Award for "his Outstanding achievement as actor, producer and director in bringing Henry V to the screen." This occurred at the 17th Academy Awards in March 1945. 

  

Olivier's honours later included a knighthood in 1947, a life peerage in 1970 and the Order of Merit in 1981. 

  

For his onscreen work Olivier 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. 

  

According to his personal life, Olivier was married three times. 

The first was to Jill Esmond (1930–1940), the second Vivian Leigh  (1940–1961) and his third and his third and final wife, Joan Plowright (1961–1989). Altogether, Olivier had four children. 

  

Olivier had been active from 1930–1989. 

  

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