Laurence (Lord) OLIVIER

It is beyond the remit of this guide to do justice to the career of Laurence Olivier as much of his most important work lies in the theatre and in acting rather than as a film director. Olivier has widely been regarded as the finest classical actor of his generation (although not everyone shared this view) and he dominated British theatre for four decades. In the cinema, he moved from romantic leading roles to character parts in British and American films during a career that stretched across six decades. It is easy for his achievements as a film director to seem marginal in the circumstances, but the five films he directed include three of the most effective interpretations of Shakespeare on film.

The son of a clergyman, Laurence Olivier was born in Dorking, Surrey on 22 May 1907. He trained as an actor at the Central School and made his professional stage debut in 1922, going on to establish an unparalleled reputation as an interpreter of classical roles, particularly Shakespeare. He acted with the Old Vic, created the National Theatre on the South Bank, was a star in the West End and on Broadway and took part in prestigious tours to Russia and Australia. Although he began acting in films from the early 1930s, like many British stage actors he was initially dismissive of this populist medium. He admitted that it was only when he went to Hollywood and appeared as Heathcliff in William Wyler's Wuthering Heights (1939) that he began to really take film acting seriously.