Laurence Olivier

Laurence Kerr Olivier was born on May 22, 1907 in Dorking, a small town in Surrey (Great Britain). His father, an Anglican pastor who was passionate about the theater, instilled in him the love of the stage, since he was little. At school, he already memorized the texts of Shakespeare’s plays and played his most famous characters, both male and female. When he was just a teenager, he joined a London theater company. Such was his strength on stage that little by little he gained enormous prestige, especially after playing Hamlet.

With the advent of talkies, the big studios were in need of eloquent actors, so they offered substantial salaries to the greats of the theater. “The art of the dealer is to take a thing from where it is plentiful to where it pays dearly,” said Olivier, who landed a lucrative contract with RKO. The short Too Many Crooks marked his first on-screen appearance, and although Olivier starred in numerous titles throughout the 1930s, including Raoul Walsh ‘s The Yellow Card , he felt underappreciated by the cinema. In fact, it focused on the theater. Until in 1939, the teacher William Wyler thought that he was the ideal actor to play Heathcliff, the protagonist of Wuthering Heights ., unbeatable adaptation of Emily Brontë ‘s novel . Olivier earned an Oscar nomination, which went to Robert Donat that year , for Goodbye, Mr. Chips . In 1940, Olivier divorced his wife, the actress Jill Esmond , after cheating on her with Vivien Leigh , star of Gone with the Wind . “What is in the background to act, but to lie? And what is acting well, but lying convincing? ”, Said the interpreter, who completely convinced the public of his worth with Rebecca , by Alfred Hichcock. He played Maximiliam De Winter, a husband haunted by the memory of his deceased wife. He began his period of splendor, with titles as memorable asStronger Than Pride (adapted from Jane Austen ‘s “Pride and Prejudice” ), Lady Hamilton , Carrie (which put him back under Wyler’s command) and The Devil’s Disciple , which paired him with Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas . He even had time to make his debut as a director, in his famous trilogy of adaptations of Shakespeare’s works, which began in 1944, with Enrique V , co-directed by Reginald Beck and starring him, work for which he was awarded an honorary Oscar. For Hamlet , in which he doubled again, he was awarded a new statuette, for best actor, and closed the cycle with Ricardo III. She also directed and starred with Marilyn Monroe in The Prince and the Showgirl .

Created Sir in 1947 and Lord in 1971, Laurence Olivier had a third actress wife, Joan Plowright , a co-star in The Entertainer . He continued to rack up memorable performances late in his career, in such films as Othello , The Footprint , The Brazil Boys , Spartacus , The Kidnapping of Bunny Lake , Clash of the Titans , the Brideshead Return series, and Marathon Man , where he was a sadistic Nazi dentist. that scared Dustin Hoffman . He played his last role in War Requiem , from 1989, the year of his death.