Laurence Olivier

3 films · 1944 to 1955

Born 22 May 1907, Dorking · Died 11 July 1989

Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier was an English actor and director. He and his contemporaries John Gielgud, Michael Redgrave and Ralph Richardson made up a quartet of male actors who dominated the British stage of the mid-20th century. He also worked in films throughout his six-decade career, playing more than fifty cinema roles. Late in his career, Olivier had considerable success in television roles. Olivier's family had no theatrical connections, but his father, a clergyman, decided that his son should become an actor. After attending a drama school in London, Olivier learned his craft in a succession of acting jobs during the late 1920s. In 1930 he had his first important West End success in Noël Coward's Private Lives, and he appeared in his first film.

Biography adapted from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.