Laurence Olivier

English actor and director who dominated mid-20th century British stage.

Laurence Kerr Olivier was an English actor and director born on 22 May 1907 in Dorking, Surrey.^[1][2] He was the youngest of three children of the Reverend Gerard Kerr Olivier and Agnes Louise Olivier.^[2] Olivier died on 11 July 1989.^[1]

Last updated 2026-09-30 from the source article.

Quick Facts

Born

22 May 1907

Birthplace

Dorking, Surrey, England

Died

11 July 1989

Place of death

Ashurst, West Sussex, England

Occupation

Actor
director
producer

Years active

1925–1989

Education

Central School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art

Children

Facts from the source article.

Life and work

Because his father only received temporary church posts, Olivier never lived in one place long enough to make friends during his first few years.^[3][4] In 1916, Olivier passed the singing examination for admission to the choir school of All Saints, Margaret Street in London.^[5] In 1928, he created the role of Stanhope in R. C. Sherriff's Journey's End, scoring a great success at its Sunday night premiere.^[6] Olivier's first foray into Shakespeare on film was as Orlando in As You Like It in 1936, directed by Paul Czinner.^[7][8]

In a 1917 school production of Julius Caesar, the ten-year-old Olivier played Brutus; Ellen Terry wrote in her diary that "the small boy who played Brutus is already a great actor."^[5]

What the cited sources add

The same source states that the opening aerial shot of Henry V was "an emotional tribute to those who had only recently survived the Blitz"^[9] That source also notes that Korda cast Olivier and Leigh because they were "the most famous and glamorous show business couple of their day"^[10] That article also reports that Olivier spent much of the 1960s setting up the National Theatre, whose main stage was later named after him.^[7] The Screenonline account notes that Olivier's 1944 film Henry V "came too late in the Second World War to be a call to arms as such, but formed a powerful reminder of what Britain was defending".^[9]

The Screenonline account of That Hamilton Woman describes the film as "both the real-life love story of Admiral Nelson and Lady Emma Hamilton, and a call to arms against the threat posed to Europe by Hitler".^[10] The Screenonline article "Laurence Olivier and Shakespeare" states that Olivier "was the cinema's first great Shakespearean artist".^[7]

References

Wikipedia, "Laurence Olivier" (CC BY-SA 4.0) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Laurence Olivier" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Billington 2004; Holden 1988, p. 12 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Laurence Olivier" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Darlington 1968, p. 13 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Laurence Olivier" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Beckett 2005, p. 2 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Laurence Olivier" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Holden 1988, p. 12; Denny 1985, p. 269; Tynan, "The Actor: Tynan Interviews Olivier", The Tulane Drama Review, Winter 1966, p. 71–101; Kiernan 1981, p. 12 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Laurence Olivier" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Coleman 2006, p. 25, 485 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Brooke, "Laurence Olivier and Shakespeare", Screenonline. facts only, no text reused. screenonline.org.uk
Wikipedia, "Laurence Olivier" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Brooke, "Laurence Olivier and Shakespeare", Screenonline (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
Brooke, "Henry V (1944)", Screenonline. facts only, no text reused. screenonline.org.uk
Moat, "That Hamilton Woman (1941)", Screenonline. facts only, no text reused. screenonline.org.uk

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Laurence Olivier (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.