27 Facts About Laurence Olivier Award

1. Laurence Olivier Award published two highly-regarded volumes of memoirs, Confessions of an Actor and On Acting (1986).

2. Laurence Olivier Award enrolled at the Central School of Dramatic Art in 1924, then began his professional career with the Birmingham Repertory Theatre Company.

3. Laurence Olivier Award spoke with WAMC about what winning the award means to her.

4. Laurence Olivier Award's acting technique was minutely crafted, and he was known for changing his appearance considerably from role to role.

5. Laurence Olivier Award was appointed Knight Bachelor in the 1947 Birthday Honours for services to the stage and to films.

6. Laurence Olivier Award seems to have thrown away technique this time—his is a breathtakingly pure Lear.

7. In 1969 Laurence Olivier Award appeared in two war films, portraying military leaders.

8. Laurence Olivier Award had intended to step down from the directorship of the National Theatre at the end of his first five-year contract, having, he hoped, led the company into its new building.

9. In 1967 Laurence Olivier Award was caught in the middle of a confrontation between Chandos and Tynan over the latter's proposal to stage Rolf Hochhuth's Soldiers.

10. In 1961 Laurence Olivier Award accepted the directorship of a new theatrical venture, the Chichester Festival.

11. Laurence Olivier Award had seen the play earlier in the run and disliked it, but Miller was convinced that Osborne had talent, and Olivier reconsidered.

12. Laurence Olivier Award was set on playing Malvolio in his own particular rather extravagant way.

13. In 1948 Laurence Olivier Award led the Old Vic company on a six-month tour of Australia and New Zealand.

14. In January 1947 Laurence Olivier Award began working on his second film as a director, Hamlet, in which he took the lead role.

15. Laurence Olivier Award played the warrior Hotspur in the first and the doddering Justice Shallow in the second.

16. Laurence Olivier Award was tiring of Leigh's suffocating adulation, and she was drinking to excess.

17. Laurence Olivier Award secured the casting of Leigh to replace Cherry Cottrell as Ophelia.

18. In 1912, when Laurence Olivier Award was five, his father secured a permanent appointment as assistant rector at St Saviour's, Pimlico.

19. Laurence Olivier Award was knighted in 1947 and in 1970 was made a life peer, the first actor to be so honored.

20. In 1962, Laurence Olivier Award was appointed director of the National Theatre of England, which became one of the finest repertory companies in the world.

21. In 1982 Laurence Olivier Award wrote his autobiography Confessions of an Actor; another book, On Acting, was published in 1986.

22. Laurence Olivier Award was discharged from the service to join the Old Vic's management in rebuilding the company after the difficult war years.

23. On July 11, 1989, Laurence Olivier Award succumbed to complications from a muscle disorder.

24. In 1970 Laurence Olivier Award was elevated to the peerage as Lord Olivier of Brighton—becoming the first actor to achieve such a status.

25. Laurence Olivier Award was named the first director of the state-subsidized National Theatre.

26. Laurence Olivier Award was discharged from the armed service to join the Old Vic's artistic management in rebuilding the company's reputation and solvency after the lean war years.

27. Laurence Olivier Award took film playing less seriously after his Hollywood days is evident in two wartime propagandist roles, a Russian in The Demi-Paradise and a French-Canadian trapper in 49th Parallel.