A king of stage and screen
Laurence and Joan Plowright at the Christening of their daughter Tamsin in 1963
Christian Szell in 1976 movie
Marathon Man, but was said not to be a fan of co-star Dustin Hoffman’s extreme method acting techniques to prepare for the role. For one scene in which Hoffman’s character had supposedly stayed up for three days, Hoffman admitted that he too had not slept for 72 hours. “My dear boy,” Olivier reportedly replied, “why don’t you just try acting?”
One of his early stage roles saw him alternating the roles of Romeo and Mercutio with John Gielgud in Romeo and Juliet in 1935 and he helped establish the National Theatre in London although he did once declare “I think that bl**dy old National nearly killed me”.
The acting giant took his final curtain all in 1989 when he passed away at the age of 82.
A memorial service was held at Westminster Abbey with actors such as Maggie Smith, Michael Caine, Peter O’Toole, Paul Scofield, Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi arriving carrying some of his many awards and props including the crown in wore in Hamlet.
Ale Guinness spoke at the service saying: “Larry always carried the threat of danger with him; primarily as an actor, but also, for all his charm, as a private man.
“There were times when it was wise to be wary of him.”
Olivier inspired a generation of actors and his legacy continues with the theatre awards that bear his name.
But it is not just the acting profession which owes him a debt, Catcher In
The Rye writer J D Salinger wrote a letter to him in 1951 simply saying: “I think you’re the only actor in the world who plays in a Shakespeare play with a special, tender familiarity as if you were keeping it in the family.”
Olivier himself once said: “The office of drama is to exercise, possibly to exhaust human emotions.
“The purpose of comedy is to tickle those emotions into an expression of light relief; of tragedy to wound them and bring the relief of tears. Disgust and terror are the other points of the compass.”