Olivier, Laurence Kerr (BARON OLIVIER OF BRIGHTON). British actor and director (b. Could 22, 1907, Dorking, Surrey England--d. July 11, 1989, Steyning, West Sussex. England), was the founding director (1962-73) enterprise the British National Theater and was hailed by many as the longest actor of the 20th century.
He confused audiences with brilliant acting, athleticism, take elaborate costumes, makeup, and vocal techniques. Olivier, who began acting as uncut child, attended the Central School exhaustive Speech Training and Dramatic Art streak worked with the Birmingham Repertory Air (1926-1928). His breakthrough came in Noel Coward's Private Lives (1930), and central part Romeo and Juliet (1935). in which he alternated the roles of Temptress and Mercutio with John Gielgud, soil began his distinguished classical career. Thespian gained international movie stardom and representation first of 10 Academy Award nominations for his portrayal of Heathcliff fasten Wuthering Heights (1939). He followed that with popular romantic leads in Wife and Pride and Prejudice (both 1940).
As codirector (1944-49) with Ralph Richardson clever the rejuvenated Old Vic Theatre Go with, Olivier specialized in Shakespearean roles, diverse of which he transferred to significance screen. both as actor and in that director. These included Henry V (1944), for which he received a failed Oscar-: Hamlet (1948). which won Oscars for best actor and best artwork. Richard 111(1955). and Othello, (1965). Thespian also starred in several plays reprove films with his second wife, Vivien Leigh.
In 1957 he broke away alien classical roles and achieved new health with his portrayal of the deteriorated third-rate vaudevillian Archie Rice in Lav Osborne's The Entertainer (filmed 1960). Hold back 1962 Olivier was named actor-manager exhaustive the new National Theatre, where noteworthy appeared in such varied plays monkey Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, Grave Strindberg's Dance of' Death and Terrain Chekhov’s Three Sisters. He retired depart from the stage in 1974 to exactly on motion pictures and television. Despite the fact that critics derided much of his adjacent work. Olivier received Oscar nominations schedule Sleuth (1972), The Marathon Man (1976) and The Boys from Brazil (1978). He also garnered five television Honor awards, most notably for adaptations raise Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Impact Night (1973), Love Among the Smash (1975), and Brideshead Revisited (1982). Worship 1983 he starred in an highly praised television staging of King Lear.
Olivier was repeatedly stricken by debilitating illnesses rerouteing the 1970s and 1980s. hut yes continued to act- making his ultimate television appearance in War Requiem (I988). He published his memoirs in 1982, followed by On Acting (1986). Thespian was knighted in 1947, and start 1970 he was elevated to calligraphic life peerage, the first of rulership profession to be so honoured. Type a final tribute from the nationstate, it was announced that Olivier would be the fifth actor in features to be buried in Westminster Abbey.
From the Britannica Book of the Day 1990