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Biography Laurence Olivier
Early career
Olivier was born in Dorking, Surrey. He was educated at St Edward's School, Oxford and he attended the Central School of Speech and Drama. It was his father, Gerard Kerr Olivier, an Anglican priest, who decided that Laurence — or Kim as the family called him — would become an actor. His stage breakthroughs were in Noel Coward's Private Lives in 1930 and in Romeo and Juliet in 1935, alternating the roles of Romeo and Mercutio with John Gielgud. His film breakthrough was his portrayal of Heathcliff in the 1939 film, Wuthering Heights, which co-starred Merle Oberon and Geraldine Fitzgerald.
Private life
Olivier with his future second wife, Vivien Leigh, in Fire Over England (1937)
Olivier's biographer Donald Spoto described his first wife Jill Esmond as "a diffident lesbian." They were married in 1930 and had one son, Tarquin, in 1936. They were divorced on 29 January 1940. By 1938, he had embarked on a torrid affair with Vivien Leigh, who was also married. Finally divorced by their respective spouses, they married on 31 August 1940, at the San Ysidro Ranch in Santa Barbara, California, with Katharine Hepburn as maid of honour. They were divorced on 2 December 1960. Olivier married his third wife, Joan Plowright, on St. Patrick's Day, 1961.
Esmond named Leigh as co-respondent in her divorce on grounds of adultery. Leigh named Plowright as co-respondent in her divorce, also on grounds of adultery. Plowright said, "I have always resented the comments that it was I who was the homewrecker of Larry's marriage to Vivien Leigh. Danny Kaye was attached to Larry far earlier than I", referring to biographer Donald Spoto's claim that Kaye and Olivier were lovers. He was reportedly also intimate with playwright Noel Coward.
Terry Coleman's authorised biography of Olivier suggests a relationship between Olivier and an older actor, Henry Ainley, based on correspondence from Ainley to Olivier, although some of Olivier's family dispute this interpretation.
In his book Melting the Stone: A Journey Around My Father, Olivier and Plowright's son, Richard, described his father as being more interested in his work than in his children, and would become depressed when he didn't have a job.
Awards
1979 - Lifetime Achievement - N/A
1948 - Best Picture - Hamlet
1948 - Best Actor - Hamlet
1944 - Special Award for his Outstanding achievement as actor, producer and director in bringing Henry V to the screen. - Henry V
Nominated:
1978 - Best Actor - The Boys from Brazil
1976 - Best Supporting Actor - Marathon Man
1972 - Best Actor - Sleuth
1965 - Best Actor - Othello
1960 - Best Actor - The Entertainer
1955 - Best Actor - Richard III
1948 - Best Director - Hamlet
1944 - Best Picture - Henry V
1944 - Best Actor - Henry V
1940 - Best Actor - Rebecca
1939 - Best Actor - Wuthering Heights
Honours
He was the founding director of the Chichester Festival Theatre (1962–1966) and of the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain (1962–1973) for which he received his life peerage.
He was knighted in 1947, and created a life peer in 1970 (the first actor to be accorded this distinction) as Baron Olivier of Brighton in the County of Sussex. He was admitted to the Order of Merit in 1981.
Later life
After the opening of the National Theatre, Olivier became concerned that he had not done enough to provide for his family after he died. As a result between 1973 and 1986 when his health gave out he did many films and TV specials on a "paycheque" basis on the condition that he would not have to promote the film on release.
He died in Steyning, West Sussex, England, from cancer at the age of 82. Lord Olivier is interred in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey, London, only the second actor to be accorded that honour. The Laurence Olivier Awards, organised by The Society of London Theatre, were renamed in his honour in 1984.
Fifteen years after his death, Olivier once again received star billing in a movie. Through the use of computer graphics, footage of him as a young man was integrated into the 2004 film Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow in which Olivier "played" the villain.
See also
For a complete list of Olivier's stage and screen appearances, see Laurence Olivier chronology of stage and film performances
Further reading
Coleman, Terry (2005). Olivier: the authorised biography. Bloomsbury. ISBN 0747577986.
Olivier, Laurence (1987). "Confessions of an Actor" . Sceptre. ISBN 0340407581
