Laurence Olivier
Acting
🎂 1907-05-22
Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM 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.
Cast credits(152)
Self
1961
Self
1956
Self - Recipient
1956
Self - Nominee
1944
Self - Cecil B. DeMille Award Recipient
1944
Harry
1971
Self
1971
Self (archive footage)
1967
Self - Audience Member
1967
Self
1953
Self
1948
Self - Guest
1968
Nicodemus
1977
Marcus Licinius Crassus
1960
Dr. Anthony Wainwright
1983
Dr. Jan Spaander
1977
The Old Soldier
1989
Self (archive footage)
2013
Narrator (voice) (uncredited)
1968
Self (from The Prince and the Showgirl [1957]) (archive footage)
1986
Self
1966
Self (archive footage)
1966
Hamlet (archive footage)
2011
Zeus
1981
Self (archive footage)
2014
Maxim de Winter
1940
Narrator
1973
Admiral Hood
1984
Self (archive footage)
2024
Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
1983
Alexander Flyte, Lord Marchmain
1981
Dr. Totenkopf (archive footage)
2004
Graham Weir
1962
Self (archive footage)
2012
Nicholas Randall
1933
Self (archive footage)
1999
Superintendent Newhouse (archive footage) (uncredited)
1991
Field Marshal Sir John French
1969
Elyot Chase
1940
Ezra Lieberman
1978
Heathcliff
1939
Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding
1969
Self (archive footage)
1988
Richard III (archive footage)
2000
Harry
1976
Maxim de winter
1950
Prof. Abraham Van Helsing
1979
Self
1986
Supt. Newhouse
1965
Self
1940
Self
1982
Sir Arthur Glanville-Jones
1975
Self (archive footage)
2018
Szell
1976
Joe Halpern
1983
Adm. Sir Gerald Scaith
1983
Count Witte
1971
Andrew Wyke
1972
The Regent
1957
Mr. Darcy
1940
Hamlet - Prince of Denmark / Voice of Ghost
1948
Mahdi
1966
Police Constable 94-B
1952
1966
Self (archive footage)
2021
King William III of Orange
1986
Self (archival footage)
1992
Peter Bille
1930
Mr. Creakle
1969
Gaius
1984
Shylock
1973
Self (archive footage)
2002
Self (archive footage)
2010
Cantor Rabinovitch
1980
Self (archive footage)
1988
Rudolf Hess
1985
Narrator
1976
George Hurstwood
1952
Self (archive footage)
2005
Self (archive footage)
2005
Self
1976
Orlando
1936
Piotr Ilyich Kamenev
1968
James Tyrone Sr.
1973
Self (archive footage)
2018
Duke of Wellington
1972
Big Daddy
1976
Antonio
1976
Doc Delaney
1976
Sir Joseph
1976
Presenter
1969
Archie Rice
1960
Narrator (voice)
1944
Priest
1963
Othello
1965
Richard III
1955
Henry Breasley
1984
Gen. Burgoyne
1959
Pfeuffer
1983
Self (archive footage)
2021
Sir Joseph
1978
Clifford Mortimer
1984
Edgar
1969
Charles Strickland
1959
Everard Logan
1938
Lord Horatio Nelson
1941
Self (archive footage)
2023
Loren Hardeman
1978
Self
1985
Julius
1979
Self (archive footage)
2015
Professor James Moriarty
1976
Larry Durrant
1940
Nicholas 'Nick' Allen
1932
Dr. Ivan Chebutikin
1970
Harry Burrard
1986
Michael Ingolby
1937
Self (archive footage)
2001
Vincent Lunardi
1931
Self - Presenter
1969
Self
1974
Self
1940
Johnnie, the Trapper
1941
Self (archive footage)
2000
King Lear
1983
Antonio
1978
King Henry
1944
Ivan Kouznetsoff
1943
Self - Interviewee
1966
Lieutenant Ned Nichols
1931
Self (archive footage)
2024
Gen. Douglas MacArthur
1981
Tony McVane
1939
Narrator
1953
Straker
1931
MacHeath
1953
Self - Host
1965
Self (archive footage)
1990
Narrator (voice)
1941
Julian Rolfe
1931
Captain Ivan Ignatoff
1934
Self
1944
Self
1985
Clive Dering
1933
Dr. Astrov
1963
Narrator
1953
Doc Delaney
1977
Big Daddy
1976
Narrator
1971
The Boy
1930
Self
1981
Narrator
1942
