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service. The Abbey won and he is buried there alongside theatre immortals David Garrick and Henry Irving, and beneath the bust of Shakespeare. Olivier was born 27 May 1907 to a prep-school father, who opened his own school before becoming a minister. By Peter Pinne Olivier’s mother secured a place for him in a minor public school where he played Brutus in Olivier by Philip Ziegler (MacLehose Julius Caesar and Kate in The Taming $49.00). of the Shrew. A very young Sybil “I couldn’t believe anyone as goodThorndike described his performance looking as that could be such a in the latter as “wonderful - a bad rivetingly good actor,” said John Mills tempered little bitch”. He spent two to Noël Coward about Laurence years at Birmingham Rep where he Olivier’s performance in the original acted alongside Peggy Ashcroft and production of Coward’s Private Lives. Ralph Richardson. He played Uncle Jane Lapotaire recalls how, when Vanya at 20. By the mid-30s he had playing the minor part of the butler in tackled six major Shakespearian roles Feydeau’s farce A Flea in her Ear, he at the Old Vic in eight months. turned “a play about a woman who Olivier’s sexual appetite was voracious. thinks her husband is unfaithful to He seduced almost every woman he her” into “a play about a butler who came in contact with and it continued works for a woman who thinks her throughout his three marriages, and, husband is unfaithful to her”. despite ill-health, into his 70s. It was Anecdotes like these abound in Philip frequently rumoured that he was biZiegler’s book Olivier, which was short sexual and had affairs with Marlon Brando and Danny Kaye, but Ziegler -listed for the Sheridan Morley Prize for theatrical biography in 2014. refutes these claims. He was married Although there have been over 40 three times, all to actresses; his first books written about Olivier, what marriage was to Jill Esmond, who later sets Ziegler’s apart is him having turned out to be lesbian, his second, access to long-time literary editor of The Spectator Mark and probably his one true love was to the bi-polar Gone Amory’s over 50 hours of tapes recorded in 1979 for a with the Wind star Vivien Leigh, and his third was to Joan book he was commissioned to ghost write for Olivier, but Plowright. which Olivier ended up writing himself. Olivier became a Hollywood star in the 1930s in Frequently called “the greatest stage actor of the Wuthering Heights, Pride and Prejudice and Alfred twentieth century”, the charismatic, earthy and outspoken Hitchcock’s first movie version of Rebecca. Following the Olivier succeeded beyond his wildest dreams, becoming the success of his 1945 film adaptation of Henry V (Olivier first member of the acting profession to be made a peer. received a special Academy Award for his outstanding When he died on 11 July 1989, St Paul’s Cathedral and achievement as actor, producer and director in bringing Westminster Abbey vied for the right to conduct the burial Henry V to the screen), he made two more Shakespearian film adaptations; Hamlet and Richard III, which were both highly acclaimed. Later movies included The Boys from Brazil, Sleuth, Marathon Man, Spartacus and The Prince and the Showgirl with Marilyn Monroe. He also made memorable movies of his stage performances in Long Days Journey into Night and as Archie Rice in The Entertainer. Olivier and Leigh were treated like royalty when they toured Australasia with the Old Vic at the height of their popularity in 1948. The tour included R.B. Sheridan’s School for Scandal with Leigh as Lady Teazle and Olivier as Sir Peter, Richard III, which London had seen in 1944, and Thornton Wilder’s The Skin of our Teeth with Leigh as Sabina the maid and Olivier as Antrobus. The tour was hugely successful, playing to over 300,000 people and grossing £226,318. Probably Olivier’s greatest achievement was establishing Britain’s National Theatre in 1963, which he ran until his retirement due to iIl-health. During his tenure he employed as dramaturge the enfant terrible Kenneth Tynan, a disciple 48 Stage Whispers November - December 2015