History Creator / LaurenceOlivier

* ''Theatre/CatOnAHotTinRoof'' (1976 TV film) as Big Daddy

On stage he was unanimously seen as a genius actor and director. In cinema, he hit a peak in his early films, including an UsefulNotes/AcademyAward-winning performance as the title role in ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' (1948), which he also directed. ''Hamlet'' also won Best Picture (the ''only'' film spoken in Shakespeare's dialogue to win to date) and earned Olivier a Best Director nomination (making him the only person to direct ''himself'' to an Oscar until Roberto Benigni matched the feat for ''Film/LifeIsBeautiful'' fifty years later).

As a film director, he's best known for his three Creator/WilliamShakespeare adaptations. In addition to Hamlet, there's ''Henry V'' (1944) and ''Theatre/RichardIII'' (1955), both of which were shot in Technicolor, featuring impressive cinematic spectacle for its time, and still considered [[Creator/OrsonWelles among]] [[Creator/RomanPolanski the]] [[Creator/AkiraKurosawa best]] Shakespeare films. His turn as Richard III in particular proved to be one of his most iconic and much parodied roles, famous for his BreakingTheFourthWall monologues to the camera. He was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar each time and it more or less cemented him in PopCulturalOsmosis as [[TheBardOnBoard "the" Shakespearean actor]].

He was married for 20 years to Creator/VivienLeigh and often starred with her in stage and screen. Often compared to Creator/KennethBranagh, another stage and screen star who directed himself in cinematic versions of ''Henry V'' and ''Hamlet''. In what was perhaps the logical extreme to both their careers, Branagh netted an UsefulNotes/AcademyAward nomination for playing Olivier in ''Film/MyWeekWithMarilyn'', a film about the difficult production of ''The Prince and the Showgirl'', which co-starred Olivier and Creator/MarilynMonroe.

* DyeingForYourArt: Olivier occasionally did this, most famously his stage version of ''Theatre/{{Othello}}''. He wore full-body make-up, lifted weights and spent months working with a vocal coach to lower his voice an entire octave. More controversially, he dyed himself again to play the Mahdi in ''Khartoum'', to look more Arab.

** This bias was confirmed and reinforced during the filming of ''Film/ThePrinceAndTheShowgirl'' (which he directed and played one of the title roles). Creator/MarilynMonroe proved difficult for Olivier, since Marilyn's coach Paula Strasberg would insist she employ all the Stanislavskian techniques even in a read-through. More or less every director who worked with Marilyn after she signed up with the Strasbergs admitted she was hard to work with.

---> '''Creator/EliaKazan''': Larry needs to know first of all how the person he’s to play walks, stands, sits, dresses; he has to hear in his memory’s ear the voice of the man whom he’s going to imitate. I lived across the street from him at the time I was directing his wife, Creator/VivienLeigh, in the film of ''Film/AStreetcarNamedDesire'', and would often drop over to see him. Larry was working with Creator/WilliamWyler on ''Sister Carrie'' and, as ever, concentrating on what might seem to “us” to be insignificant aspects of his characterization. I remember pausing outside a window late one Sunday morning and, undetected, watching Larry go through the pantomime of offering a visitor a chair. He’d try it this way, then that, looking at the guest, then at the chair, doing it with a hosts flourish, doing it with a graceless gesture, then thrusting it brusquely forward...always seeking the most revealing way to do what would be a quickly passing bit of stage business for any other actor...Which way is better? As in all art, both.

* PlayingAgainstType: While it's hard to say Olivier, with his diverse selection of roles, had a "type," his appearance in Creator/JohnOsborne's ''Theatre/TheEntertainer'' counts. Besides playing a seedy musical hall comedian, Olivier's involvement gave credibility to Osborne and the Royal Court Theatre, who were considered disreputable outsiders among England's stage community. Afterwards, establishment actors like John Gielgud and Creator/AlecGuinness queued to appear at the Royal Court!

* ShakespearianActors: He was considered to be the one of the greatest, and alongside Creator/RalphRichardson and John Gielgud in acclaim as a "theatrical knight". Likewise, he attained fame for his Shakespeare films, and his take on Richard III was especially iconic.

* DyeingForYourArt: Olivier occasionally did this, most famously his stage version of ''Theatre/{{Othello}}''. He wore full-body make-up, lifted weights and spent months working with a vocal coach to lower his voice an entire octave. More constoversially, he dyed himself again to play the Mahdi in ''Khartoum'', to look more Arab.

As a film director, he's best known for his three Creator/WilliamShakespeare adaptations. In addition to Hamlet, there's ''Film/HenryV'' (1944) and ''Theatre/RichardIII'' (1955), both of which were shot in Technicolor, featuring impressive cinematic spectacle for its time, and still considered [[Creator/OrsonWelles among]] [[Creator/RomanPolanski the]] [[Creator/AkiraKurosawa best]] Shakespeare films. His turn as Richard III in particular proved to be one of his most iconic and much parodied roles, famous for his BreakingTheFourthWall monologues to the camera. He was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar each time and it more or less cemented him in PopCulturalOsmosis as [[TheBardOnBoard "the" Shakespearean actor]].

* ''Theatre/HenryV'' (1944) (Honorary Academy Award) (also directed)

---> '''Creator/EliaKazan''': ''Larry needs to know first of all how the person he’s to play walks, stands, sits, dresses; he has to hear in his memory’s ear the voice of the man whom he’s going to imitate. I lived across the street from him at the time I was directing his wife, Creator/VivienLeigh, in the film of ''Film/AStreetcarNamedDesire'', and would often drop over to see him. Larry was working with Creator/WilliamWyler on Sister Carrie and, as ever, concentrating on what might seem to “us” to be insignificant aspects of his characterization. I remember pausing outside a window late one Sunday morning and, undetected, watching Larry go through the pantomime of offering a visitor a chair. He’d try it this way, then that, looking at the guest, then at the chair, doing it with a hosts flourish, doing it with a graceless gesture, then thrusting it brusquely forward...always seeking the most revealing way to do what would be a quickly passing bit of stage business for any other actor...Which way is better? As in all art, both.''

* ''[[Film/BunnyLakeIsMissing Bunny Lake is Missing]]'' (1965)

* ''Film/{{Wuthering Heights|1939}}'' (1939)(Academy Award nomination)

* ''Theatre/HenryV'' (1944)(Honorary Academy Award)(also directed)
* ''Film/{{Hamlet|1948}}'' (1948)(Academy Award)(also directed)
* ''Theatre/RichardIII'' (1955)(Academy Award nomination)(also directed)
* ''Film/ThePrinceAndTheShowgirl'' (1957)(also directed)

* ''Theatre/TheEntertainer'' (1960)(Academy Award nomination)

* ''Theatre/{{Othello}}'' (1965)(Academy Award nomination)

* ''Theatre/{{Sleuth}}'' (1972)(Academy Award nomination)
* ''Film/MarathonMan'' (1976)(Academy Award nomination)

Laurence Kerr Olivier, [[UsefulNotes/KnightFever Baron Olivier of Brighton]] (22 May 1907 – 11 July 1989) was an English actor and director, who was considered in his lifetime to be the greatest actor of his generation. On stage he was unanimously seen as a genius actor and director. In cinema, he hit a peak in his early films, including an UsefulNotes/AcademyAward-winning performance as the title role in ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' (1948), which he also directed. ''Hamlet'' also won Best Picture (the ''only'' film spoken in Shakespeare's dialogue to win to date) and earned Olivier a Best Director nomination (making him the only person to direct ''himself'' to an Oscar until Roberto Benigni matched the feat for ''Film/LifeIsBeautiful'' fifty years later).

* CreatorCouple: He and Creator/VivienLeigh appeared in many stage productions together but only three films.[[note]] Leigh auditioned for the role of Mrs. de Winter in ''Film/{{Rebecca}}'' but was passed over; the footage of her screen test with Olivier still exists.[[/note]] ''Film/ThatHamiltonWoman'' is considered the best and it was UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill's favorite film. He also worked several times with Joan Plowright, notably both the play and film of ''The Entertainer''.

* LargeHam: Frequently labeled as such by detractors. Granted, Olivier was a classically trained stage actor, and it did become his default style in Shakespeare adaptations or his [[MoneyDearBoy paycheck roles]]. But anyone watching Olivier in, say, ''The Entertainer'' or ''Marathon Man'', or his own favorite, Wyler's ''Carrie'' [[note]]As in Theodore Dreiser's ''Sister Carrie'' and not Creator/StephenKing's prom-from-hell[[/note]] or in Creator/OttoPreminger's ''[[Film/BunnyLakeIsMissing Bunny Lake is Missing]]'' would know he was capable of more nuanced performances. It should also be noted that Olivier was such a great stage actor that he found acting for films harder than many other Hollywood stars since he found it hard to [[DamnYouMuscleMemory dial down his instinctive stagecraft]] for the cameras, and as a constant touring stage actor with a film career, he had to shift and juggle registers, something that actors of later generation (and MethodActing) were able to do more easily. Olivier credited Creator/WilliamWyler for teaching him how to act for films and felt his films with him were his best.

* PlayingAgainstType: While it's hard to say Olivier, with his diverse selection of roles, had a "type," his appearance in Creator/JohnOsborne's ''The Entertainer'' counts. Besides playing a seedy musical hall comedian, Olivier's involvement gave credibility to Osborne and the Royal Court Theatre, who were considered disreputable outsiders among England's stage community. Afterwards, establishment actors like John Gielgud and Creator/AlecGuinness queued to appear at the Royal Court!

* RomanceOnTheSet: Met Creator/VivienLeigh while filming ''Film/FireOverEngland'', and Joan Plowright during the stage production of ''The Entertainer''.

* ''Film/ClashOfTheTitans'' (1981)

* WhatTheHellIsThatAccent: He occasionally put on ridiculous accents for some of his roles. Like ''Film/FortyNinthParallel'' where he plays a Canadian trapper and has an accent that is supposed to sound like Canadian-French-English, and then his weird nasal accent for ''Khartoum'' where he plays the Mahdi. His portrayal of General [=MacArthur=] in ''Inchon'' has been likened to a bad impression of Creator/WCFields.

* ''Literature/WutheringHeights'' (1939)(Academy Award nomination)

* ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' (1948)(Academy Award)(also directed)

He was married for 20 years to Creator/VivienLeigh and often starred with her in stage and screen. The UsefulNotes/LaurenceOlivierAward for Best New Play is given every year to the best new play on the London stage. Often compared to Creator/KennethBranagh, another stage and screen star who directed himself in cinematic versions of ''Henry V'' and ''Hamlet''. In what was perhaps the logical extreme to both their careers, Branagh netted an UsefulNotes/AcademyAward nomination for playing Olivier in ''Film/MyWeekWithMarilyn'', a film about the difficult production of ''The Prince and the Showgirl'', which co-starred Olivier and Creator/MarilynMonroe.

TropeNamer for MoneyDearBoy, which was his response to why he appeared in ''Inchon''.

* ''[[Film/BunnyLakeIsMissing Bunny Lake is Missing]]''

* LargeHam: Frequently labeled as such by detractors. Granted, Olivier was a classically trained stage actor, and it did become his default style in Shakespeare adaptations or his [[MoneyDearBoy paycheck roles]]. But anyone watching Olivier in, say, ''The Entertainer'' or ''Marathon Man'', or his own favorite, Wyler's ''Carrie'' [[note]]As in Theodore Dreiser's ''Sister Carrie'' and not Creator/StephenKing's prom-from-hell[[/note]] or in Creator/OttoPreminger's ''Bunny Lake is Missing'' would know he was capable of more nuanced performances. It should also be noted that Olivier was such a great stage actor that he found acting for films harder than many other Hollywood stars since he found it hard to [[DamnYouMuscleMemory dial down his instinctive stagecraft]] for the cameras, and as a constant touring stage actor with a film career, he had to shift and juggle registers, something that actors of later generation (and MethodActing) were able to do more easily. Olivier credited Creator/WilliamWyler for teaching him how to act for films and felt his films with him were his best.

He was married for 20 years to Creator/VivienLeigh and often starred with her in stage and screen. The LaurenceOlivierAward for Best New Play is given every year to the best new play on the London stage. Often compared to Creator/KennethBranagh, another stage and screen star who directed himself in cinematic versions of ''Henry V'' and ''Hamlet''. In what was perhaps the logical extreme to both their careers, Branagh netted an UsefulNotes/AcademyAward nomination for playing Olivier in ''Film/MyWeekWithMarilyn'', a film about the difficult production of ''The Prince and the Showgirl'', which co-starred Olivier and Creator/MarilynMonroe.

He was married for 20 years to Creator/VivienLeigh and often starred with her in stage and screen. The LaurenceOlivierAward for Best New Play is given every year to the best new play on the London stage. In what was perhaps the logical extreme to both their careers, Creator/KennethBranagh netted an UsefulNotes/AcademyAward nomination for playing Olivier in ''Film/MyWeekWithMarilyn'', a film about the difficult production of ''The Prince and the Showgirl'', which co-starred Olivier and Creator/MarilynMonroe.

He was married for 20 years to Creator/VivienLeigh and often starred with her in stage and screen. The LaurenceOlivierAward for Best New Play is given every year to the best new play on the London stage. Oliver was the TropeNamer for MoneyDearBoy, which was his response to why he appeared in ''Inchon''. In what was perhaps the logical extreme to both their careers, Creator/KennethBranagh netted an UsefulNotes/AcademyAward nomination for playing Olivier in ''Film/MyWeekWithMarilyn'', a film about the difficult production of ''The Prince and the Showgirl'', which co-starred Olivier and Creator/MarilynMonroe.

** Interestingly, he seemed to not be in favor of the more dangerous types of MethodActing, famously chastising Actor/DustinHoffman for staying up an excessively long time to get into character instead of just acting.