Olivier, Laurence Kerr, Baron Olivier of Brighton 1907-89
English actor, producer and director

Laurence Olivier was born in Dorking. His first professional appearance was as the Suliot officer in Chapman's Byron in 1924, and he joined the Old Vic Company in 1937. He played all the great Shakespearean roles, while his versatility was underlined by a virtuoso display as a broken-down low comedian in The Entertainer (1957). After war service he became co-director of the Old Vic Company (1944); and he produced, directed and played in acclaimed films of Henry V, Hamlet and Richard III. He played memorable roles in several other films, including Wuthering Heights (1939), Rebecca (1940), The Prince and the Showgirl (which he directed, 1957), Sleuth (1972) and Marathon Man (1976).

Olivier was knighted in 1947. He was divorced from his first wife, Jill Esmond, in 1940 and in the same year married Vivien Leigh. They were divorced in 1960, and the following year he married Joan Plowright. In 1962 he undertook the directorship of a new venture, the Chichester Festival, where he was highly successful; later the same year he was appointed director of the National Theatre, where among many successes he directed and acted a controversial but outstanding Othello (1964). He was director of the National Theatre until 1973, and then Associate Director for a year. After 1974 he appeared chiefly in films and in television productions (notably as Lord Marchmain in Brideshead Revisited, 1982, and as King Lear in 1983). He was made a life peer in 1970 and was awarded the Order of Merit in 1981.

Bibliography: Olivier published his autobiography, Confessions of an Actor, in 1982, and there is a memoir of him, My Father Laurence Olivier (1992), written by his son Tarquin Olivier.