Remembering Sir Laurence Olivier (1907-1989)

What a coincident! I just watched The Entertainer 1960.

I saw Olivier’s Richard III (1955) just last week and reviewed it in this week’s What Classics Did You See thread. I think it is his best Shakespeare film production. In that review I commented that “Olivier produces, directs, and stars as probably the world’s most famous sociopathic king. He surrounds himself with all kinds of major talent from the English theater and movies: Cedric Hardwicke as King Edward IV; John Gielgud as Richard’s older brother, the Duke of Clarence; Claire Bloom; Alec Clunes; Laurence Naismith; and, best of all, Ralph Richardson as Buckingham. Future “names” Michael Gough and Patrick Troughton have small roles. As an performer, as I have said before, that especially in Shakespeare Olivier has one foot in a past declamatory style of acting and the other in a more modern “naturalistic” style. In this way, Olivier was something of a transitional figure. Both of these styles are perfectly blended in his portrayal of King Richard. He seems to be having some fun with the character at times, making him darkly humorous. As director, he also knew who to hire behind the camera, namely cinematographer Otto Heller (Peeping Tom, The Ipcress File, Alfie) who gives the movie some vibrant colors. Like what I said about Olivier, the movie itself remains essential Shakespeare yet in ways seems to belong to an older fading generation.”

Another of his Shakespeare films (which I don’t think has come up yet) is the 1936 production of As You Like It, directed by Paul Czinner. This was Laurence Olivier’s first filmed Shakespeare and the only one where he was NOT Oscar nominated. Even though he was, at the time, the Golden Boy of the English stage, he was not yet World’s Greatest Actor. In fact, he wasn’t even top billed. Elisabeth Bergner (who is billed above the title) gets that privilege. Bergner was born in eastern Europe and grew up in Vienna. English wasn’t even her first language (although you couldn’t tell it unless you knew already). Olivier’s name doesn’t show up until the third title card after Bergner and the film title. This film gets a little slow and stuffy at times when the director takes a We Are Making A Classic attitude toward the material. A major example is in what is probably the play’s most famous lines, the “All the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players” speech. The actor who delivers these lines (Leon Quartermaine, also billed as “Dialogue Supervisor”) slams on the brakes and brings the story to a screeching halt as he gives a slow, declamatory, Royal Shakespeare Academy recitation that seems to go on for half an hour. Bergner and Sir Larry are the reasons to see this; they are delightful. Note: David Lean was the editor.

Another Fun Fact: Sir Larry’s 1944 film of Henry the Fifth was the first Shakespeare movie in color.

Olivier in As You Like It

I saw Olivier on stage twice … both times in BECKET.

The first time he played Becket with Anthony Quinn as Henry II.
Later that year, in a limited run engagement he played Henry II to Arthur Kennedy's Becket.


In my callow youth, I had no idea I was seeing "the GREATEST English Actor !" either time.

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FUNNY Bit from The Last Action Hero
Before the Hamlet sequence, wherein the Sir Laurence Olivier version Hamlet (1948) is played on a projector, the teacher who introduces the film is Joan Plowright, Olivier's third wife and widow. Noting her students' apparent ignorance of Olivier's storied career, she tells them they may remember him as Zeus in Clash of the Titans (1981), one of Olivier's final roles.

Speaking of scene stealing, there's a story I heard on the making of Dracula where Donald Pleasence does little bits of business like eating candy to draw attention to himself and in a scene with Olivier, the latter told him he knew what he was up to and to cut it out.


I have yet to see Inchon but reading this trivia got me intrigued:

"Olivier researched the role by traveling to Norfolk, Virginia to visit the MacArthur Museum, and speaking with Alexander Haig, who had served as aide-de-camp to MacArthur. Haig told Olivier that MacArthur's voice sounded like W. C. Fields, and Olivier tried to imitate this."

Unbelievably bad French Canadian accent in THE 49th PARALLEL aka THE INVADERS
"Greatest actor" or not !

Thats whats so odd really. Youd get two different types of vito honestly.

Olivier is never less than interesting, and often brilliant . I would like to have seen some of the early theater pieces.

Two of my favorites are not the acclaimed roles. One is the Devil’s Disciple. As Gentleman Johnny Burgoyne he has a lot of the good lines, but he absolutely romped off with the film the minute he showed up and since his costars were Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster ,this was no mean feat. His portrayal of the General was a wonderful blend of tge best of mannered drawing room comedy and modern realism as befits a Shaw comedy.

The other is his appearance in Bridehead Revisited as Lord Marchmain, the father who abandoned his family and set the story in motion. His part required him to be rather brash and humorous, and to play an epic death bed scene which brings the family full circle. Every character is hang8ng wordlessly on his final breaths and all he has is his hand. He manages to hold the whole cast and the audience using only his hand. It’s a dazzling technical display that is at the same time so moving it draws tears whenever I see it. His performance is the main thing missing from the recent film remake. Oh there are many missteps in casting, in characterization and motivation, but missing that key moment, failure to make the deathbed scene work, was the ultimate failure.