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Post by hi224 on Jan 13, 2020 3:38:20 GMT
I am not sure who mine is way too many options but good ole Larry's in my top five perhaps.
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Post by Prime etc. on Jan 13, 2020 7:12:42 GMT
Peter Cushing Christopher Lee Patrick Troughton Freddie Jones
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Post by OldAussie on Jan 13, 2020 7:56:46 GMT
Peter O'Toole Claude Rains James Mason Alec Guinness
then maybe Larry...or Laughton....or Ustinov.....or someone I've forgotten.
like -
....Burton, Hawkins,
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Post by ck100 on Jan 13, 2020 8:06:58 GMT
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Post by politicidal on Jan 13, 2020 14:47:56 GMT
Nope, he's great but probably not in my top five. That'd probably include: Tim Curry, James Mason, Peter O'Toole, Claude Rains, and Alan Rickman. Unless I'm forgetting someone.
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Post by louise on Jan 13, 2020 15:22:12 GMT
He's one of mine. Particularly like him in Q Planes, Pride and Prejudice, and the Demi Paradise
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Post by cynthiagreen on Jan 13, 2020 20:20:13 GMT
I like him well enough but Laurence Harvey or Alan Bates would be my choice .... and I'm not even sure Larry Harvey was British....
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Post by Prime etc. on Jan 13, 2020 20:37:13 GMT
Olivier said the best screen actor he knew was Peter Cushing.
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Post by Doghouse6 on Jan 13, 2020 20:43:59 GMT
There's one not yet named in any replies from whom I always get a special charge. I'll watch anything he's in, so I suppose that qualifies him as a favorite: Robert Donat. He's convinced me on more than one occasion that he was the very best of his generation.
Here he is with Olivier himself in 1951's The Magic Box, a production featuring no fewer than two dozen (or more) leading lights of British theater and film, telling the story of William Friese-Greene, an unsung pioneer of flexible motion picture film.
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Post by hi224 on Jan 13, 2020 22:06:40 GMT
There's one not yet named in any replies from whom I always get a special charge. I'll watch anything he's in, so I suppose that qualifies him as a favorite: Robert Donat. He's convinced me on more than one occasion that he was the very best of his generation. Here he is with Olivier himself in 1951's The Magic Box, a production featuring no fewer than two dozen (or more) leading lights of British theater and film, telling the story of William Friese-Greene, an unsung pioneer of flexible motion picture film. Ben Whishaw, much like Donat feel like actors who had skill and were great but ultimately seem forgotten about by contemporary audiences.
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Post by snsurone on Jan 13, 2020 23:36:23 GMT
I am not sure who mine is way too many options but good ole Larry's in my top five perhaps. I hate people being labelled "best" or "worst" in anything, but especially in the arts. Does anyone else remember Rue McClanahan (as Blanche Deveraux) saying, "I'd like to see Mr. Sir Laurence Olivier in CANNONBALL RUN (in the role played by Burt Reynolds)! I may have gotten the quotation wrong; if I did, I apologize. And I don't believe there was a better Scrooge than Alistair Sim.
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Post by koskiewicz on Jan 14, 2020 17:18:51 GMT
I prefer Colin Firth and Oliver Reed
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Post by TheGoodMan19 on Jan 14, 2020 20:15:14 GMT
Trevor Howard
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Post by snsurone on Jan 14, 2020 21:41:39 GMT
No. I’ve actually never been a fan. He hammed it up too much...on screen at least. Yes, he was unbearably hammy late in his career. Would you believe that he actually got the Razzie as Worst Supporting Actor for his last movie role in THE JAZZ SINGER? Sadly, though, at that time he was failing, both physically and mentally. I'm not sure he really loved his third wife Joan Plowright; IMO, the real reason he divorced Vivien Leigh and married her was that Joan was a part of the "New Wave" of British theater, which Larry desperately wanted to be part of. In fact, he asked playwright John Osborne to write a play--"The Entertainer"--especially for him. While a number of people consider Lord O.'s performance in this play (and the subsequent movie) to be the best of his career, the sad truth was that the theater was now starring such younger actors as Anthony Hopkins, Derek Jacobi--and Joan Plowright. Laurence Olivier was simply well past his prime on the stage, and in order to earn a living, and pay those exorbitant British taxes, he had to ham it up in such crummy movies as THE BETSY, A LITTLE ROMANCE, and the execrable THE JAZZ SINGER. A sad finale, indeed.
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Post by Doghouse6 on Jan 14, 2020 23:25:53 GMT
There's one not yet named in any replies from whom I always get a special charge. I'll watch anything he's in, so I suppose that qualifies him as a favorite: Robert Donat. He's convinced me on more than one occasion that he was the very best of his generation. Here he is with Olivier himself in 1951's The Magic Box, a production featuring no fewer than two dozen (or more) leading lights of British theater and film, telling the story of William Friese-Greene, an unsung pioneer of flexible motion picture film. Ben Whishaw, much like Donat feel like actors who had skill and were great but ultimately seem forgotten about by contemporary audiences. I'm not familiar with Wishaw, having seen very few new films since the turn of the century, so I had to look him up. Still young, I see, so he's got a lot of years ahead of him. Donat's at rather a disadvantage among most named on the thread; appearances in just twenty features from 1932 until '58, when he died at only 53.
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Post by hi224 on Jan 15, 2020 1:45:48 GMT
Ben Whishaw, much like Donat feel like actors who had skill and were great but ultimately seem forgotten about by contemporary audiences. I'm not familiar with Wishaw, having seen very few new films since the turn of the century, so I had to look him up. Still young, I see, so he's got a lot of years ahead of him. Donat's at rather a disadvantage among most named on the thread; appearances in just twenty features from 1932 until '58, when he died at only 53. You should definitely check more of his work.
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Post by telegonus on Jan 15, 2020 8:27:47 GMT
I am not sure who mine is way too many options but good ole Larry's in my top five perhaps. Olivier's way up there for me. I can't think of anyone truly better than he was. As for personal charm, likability, versatility way outside even Olivier's range, even credibility, there are a bunch of actors I prefer to Lord Larry: Leslie Howard, Robert Donat, Trevor Howard; and then the personal faves, ranging from Jack Hawkins to Alec Guinness, John Mills to Robert Shaw. There are so many others. Yet at his best, and in classical roles especially, for my money Olivier tops 'em all. His work in modern drama is very fine, nuanced and rather "studious" I sense (like he really did his homework), and always original, whether he's playing Chekhov, Eugene O'Neill or Harold Pinter. Actors I regard as Olivier's equals, with not a one of them superior to the other as I see it: Ralph Richardson and John Gieldgud.
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Post by snsurone on Jan 15, 2020 12:00:03 GMT
Yes, he was unbearably hammy late in his career. Would you believe that he actually got the Razzie as Worst Supporting Actor for his last movie role in THE JAZZ SINGER? Sadly, though, at that time he was failing, both physically and mentally. I'm not sure he really loved his third wife Joan Plowright; IMO, the real reason he divorced Vivien Leigh and married her was that Joan was a part of the "New Wave" of British theater, which Larry desperately wanted to be part of. In fact, he asked playwright John Osborne to write a play--"The Entertainer"--especially for him. While a number of people consider Lord O.'s performance in this play (and the subsequent movie) to be the best of his career, the sad truth was that the theater was now starring such younger actors as Anthony Hopkins, Derek Jacobi--and Joan Plowright. Laurence Olivier was simply well past his prime on the stage, and in order to earn a living, and pay those exorbitant British taxes, he had to ham it up in such crummy movies as THE BETSY, A LITTLE ROMANCE, and the execrable THE JAZZ SINGER. A sad finale, indeed. I heard the great love of his life was Danny Kaye. I don’t know if that’s true or not. Depends on your source, I suppose. Donald Spoto, in his biography, claimed the two did have a passionate affair, but that was denied by others, including Tarquin Olivier, Larry's son from his first marriage.
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Post by hi224 on Jan 15, 2020 15:04:53 GMT
Yes, he was unbearably hammy late in his career. Would you believe that he actually got the Razzie as Worst Supporting Actor for his last movie role in THE JAZZ SINGER? Sadly, though, at that time he was failing, both physically and mentally. I'm not sure he really loved his third wife Joan Plowright; IMO, the real reason he divorced Vivien Leigh and married her was that Joan was a part of the "New Wave" of British theater, which Larry desperately wanted to be part of. In fact, he asked playwright John Osborne to write a play--"The Entertainer"--especially for him. While a number of people consider Lord O.'s performance in this play (and the subsequent movie) to be the best of his career, the sad truth was that the theater was now starring such younger actors as Anthony Hopkins, Derek Jacobi--and Joan Plowright. Laurence Olivier was simply well past his prime on the stage, and in order to earn a living, and pay those exorbitant British taxes, he had to ham it up in such crummy movies as THE BETSY, A LITTLE ROMANCE, and the execrable THE JAZZ SINGER. A sad finale, indeed. I heard the great love of his life was Danny Kaye. I don’t know if that’s true or not. any good books on affair?.
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Post by snsurone on Jan 15, 2020 16:16:04 GMT
I heard the great love of his life was Danny Kaye. I don’t know if that’s true or not. any good books on affair?. Well, Michael Korda wrote a thoroughly crappy novel called C urtain whose main characters were (very loosely) based on Laurence Olivier, Danny Kaye, Vivien Leigh, and David Selznick. I read it to kill time during jury duty. Korda also penned a novel called Queenie, whose title character was (supposedly) based on his aunt by marriage, Merle Oberon, who starred with Lord O. in WUTHERING HEIGHTS.
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