“Badgers, it would seem, behave exactly like Michael Bryant.”
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Laurence Olivier
Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier was an English actor and director. He and his contemporaries John Gielgud, Michael Redgrave and Ralph Richardson made up a quartet of male actors who dominated the British stage of the mid-20th century. He also worked in films throughout his six-decade career, playing more than fifty cinema roles. Late in his career, Olivier had considerable success in televisi…
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entertainment · English actor and director (1907–1989) · film actor · theatre director · film director · politician · film producer · screenwriter · character actor · stage actor · television actor · actor · also Laurence Olivier, Baron Olivier of Brighton, The Lord Olivier, Sir Laurence Olivier, Olivier
Born 22 May 1907 · Died 11 July 1989 · Q55245
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2026· 6 entries
“I can never act as myself, I have to have a pillow up my jumper, a false nose or a moustache or wig ... I cannot come on looking like me and be someone else.”
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“made me feel like a modern actor again”
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Mansion Global: Laurence Olivier’s Onetime Hollywood Home Lists for $3.9 Million
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The Guardian: Laurence Olivier honoured with blue plaque unveiled by Ian McKellen
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Yahoo: Laurence Olivier is honored with a plaque at his London childhood home
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2025· 1 entry
The New York Times: Laurence Olivier - Page 8 - The New York Times
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1989· 3 entries
Died 1989-07-11.
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“If I wasn't an actor, I think I'd have gone mad. You have to have extra voltage, some extra temperament to reach certain heights. Art is a little bit larger than life — it's an exhalation of life and I think you probably need a little touch of madness.”
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“Acting is illusion, as much illusion as magic is — and not so much a matter of being real. I mean, I would probably shock Lee Strasberg.”
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1988· 1 entry
Awarded Feltrinelli Prize (1988).
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1984· 1 entry
Awarded Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie for King Lear (1984).
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1983· 2 entries
Won Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actor for Inchon (1983).
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Played his last Shakespearean role as Lear in King Lear, for Granada Television, winning his fifth Emmy
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1982· 2 entries
Awarded Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie for Brideshead Revisited (1982).
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Received his tenth and last BAFTA nomination in the television adaptation of John Mortimer's stage play A Voyage Round My Father
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1981· 3 entries
Awarded Order of Merit (1981).
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Won Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actor - Razzie Award for The Jazz Singer (1981).
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Appeared as Lord Marchmain in Brideshead Revisited, winning another Emmy
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1979· 1 entry
Awarded Academy Honorary Award (1979).
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1978· 1 entry
Appeared in the film The Boys from Brazil, playing the role of Ezra Lieberman, an ageing Nazi hunter; he received his eleventh Academy Award nomination
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1977· 1 entry
Won Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture for Marathon Man (1977).
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1976· 3 entries
Won Albert Medal (1976).
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Awarded BAFTA Fellowship (1976).
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Appeared in adaptations of Tennessee Williams's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Harold Pinter's The Collection
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1975· 1 entry
Won another Emmy for Love Among the Ruins
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1973· 2 entries
“I have stood out stiffly and coldly and pompously about TV for too long”
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Provided the narration for a 26-episode documentary, The World at War, which chronicled the events of the Second World War, and won a second Emmy Award for Long Day's Journey into Night (1973)
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1972· 2 entries
Although he stipulated that they must never be shown in Britain; he also took a number of cameo film roles, which were in "often undistinguished films", according to Billington
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Took leave of absence from the National to star opposite Michael Caine in Joseph L
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1971· 2 entries
Bernard Levin wrote that the Old Vic company of 1944 to 1948 "was probably the most illustrious that has ever been assembled in this country"
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Career landmark: member of the House of Lords (1971–1989).
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1970· 1 entry
Awarded BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Oh! What a Lovely War (1970).
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1969· 1 entry
Olivier appeared in two war films, portraying military leaders
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1967· 1 entry
Olivier was caught in the middle of a confrontation between Chandos and Tynan over the latter's proposal to stage Rolf Hochhuth's Soldiers
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1966· 2 entries
Awarded Sonning Prize (1966).
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His one play as director was Juno and the Paycock
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1965· 2 entries
Olivier concentrated on management, directing one production (The Crucible), taking the comic role of the foppish Tattle in Congreve's Love for Love, and making one film, Bunny Lake is Missing, in which he and Coward wer
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Which earned four Academy Award nominations, including Best Actor for Olivier
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1963· 2 entries
Olivier received another BAFTA nomination for his leading role as a schoolteacher accused of sexually molesting a student in the film Term of Trial
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The second Chichester season consisted of a revival of Uncle Vanya and two new productions—Shaw's Saint Joan and John Arden's The Workhouse Donkey
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1962· 2 entries
For the opening season he directed two neglected 17th-century English plays, John Fletcher's 1638 comedy The Chances and John Ford's 1633 tragedy The Broken Heart, followed by Uncle Vanya
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And in August Olivier accepted its invitation to be the company's first director
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1961· 1 entry
Olivier accepted the directorship of a new theatrical venture, the Chichester Festival
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1960· 3 entries
Awarded Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie for The Moon and Sixpence (1960).
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And 1961, Olivier appeared in Anouilh's Becket on Broadway, first in the title role, with Anthony Quinn as the king, and later exchanging roles with his co-star
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Made his second appearance for the Royal Court Company in Ionesco's absurdist play Rhinoceros
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1957· 1 entry
To play the title role in The Entertainer, a part he later reprised on film
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1956· 1 entry
And withdrew from the production of Coward's comedy South Sea Bubble
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1955· 1 entry
Olivier and Leigh were invited to play leading roles in three plays at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, Stratford
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1951· 2 entries
Olivier joined her in Hollywood to film Carrie, based on the controversial novel Sister Carrie
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With productions of Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra and Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra which the Oliviers played in London and then took to Broadway
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1949· 3 entries
Won Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for Hamlet (1949).
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Awarded Academy Award for Best Actor for Hamlet (1949).
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As Richard III, Sir Peter Teazle, and Chorus in his own production of Anouilh's Antigone with Leigh in the title role
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1948· 1 entry
Olivier led the Old Vic company on a six-month tour of Australia and New Zealand
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1947· 2 entries
Awarded Knight Bachelor (1947).
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Awarded Academy Honorary Award (1947).
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1945· 1 entry
The company toured Germany, where they were seen by many thousands of Allied servicemen; they also appeared at the Comédie-Française theatre in Paris, the first foreign company to be given that honour
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1943· 1 entry
At the behest of the Ministry of Information, Olivier began working on Henry V
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1942· 1 entry
Was invited to make another propaganda film, The Demi-Paradise, in which he played a Soviet engineer who helps improve British-Russian relationships
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1938· 1 entry
Olivier joined Richardson to film the spy thriller Q Planes, released the following year
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1936· 2 entries
As Orlando in As You Like It, directed by Paul Czinner, "a charming if lightweight production", according to Michael Brooke of the British Film Institute's (BFI's) Screenonline
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And the two had begun an affair sometime that year
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1935· 2 entries
Under Albery's management, John Gielgud staged Romeo and Juliet at the New Theatre, co-starring with Peggy Ashcroft, Edith Evans and Olivier
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Played in a celebrated production of Romeo and Juliet alongside Gielgud and Peggy Ashcroft, and by the end of the decade he was an established star
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1934· 1 entry
Included Bothwell in Gordon Daviot's Queen of Scots, which was only a moderate success for him and for the play, but led to an important engagement for the same management (Bronson Albery) shortly afterwards
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1933· 1 entry
To appear opposite Greta Garbo in Queen Christina, but was replaced after two weeks of filming because of a lack of chemistry between the two
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1931· 1 entry
RKO Pictures offered Olivier a two-film contract at $1,000 a week (equivalent to $21,000 in 2025); he discussed the possibility with Coward, who, irked, told Olivier "You've no artistic integrity, that's your trouble; th
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1930· 3 entries
Noël Coward cast Olivier as Victor Prynne in his new play Private Lives, which opened at the new Phoenix Theatre in London in September
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With his impending marriage in mind, Olivier earned some extra money with small roles in two films
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Had his first important West End success in Noël Coward's Private Lives, and he appeared in his first film
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1928· 1 entry
Olivier created the role of Stanhope in R
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1926· 1 entry
On Thorndike's recommendation, Olivier joined the Birmingham Repertory Company
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1925· 1 entry
Olivier worked for small theatrical companies; his first stage appearance was in a sketch called The Unfailing Instinct at the Brighton Hippodrome in August 1925
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1924· 1 entry
Gerard Olivier, a habitually frugal man, told his son that he must gain not only admission to the Central School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art, but also a scholarship with a bursary to cover his tuition fees and li
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1917· 1 entry
The ten-year-old Olivier's performance as Brutus impressed an audience that included Lady Tree, the young Sybil Thorndike and Ellen Terry, who wrote in her diary, "The small boy who played Brutus is already a great actor
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1916· 2 entries
After attending a series of preparatory schools, Olivier passed the singing examination for admission to the choir school of All Saints, Margaret Street, in central London
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“when to drop the voice, when to bellow about the perils of hellfire, when to slip in a gag, when suddenly to wax sentimental ... The quick changes of mood and manner absorbed me, and I have never forgotten them.”
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1912· 1 entry
When Olivier was five, his father secured a permanent appointment as assistant rector at St Saviour's, Pimlico
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1907· 1 entry
Born 1907-05-22.
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