25 Facts About Laurence Olivier

1. Laurence Olivier picked up a supporting actor Academy Award for his role, which includes an infamous.

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

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

4. Laurence Olivier continued working in film into the 1980s, with roles in The Jazz Singer, Inchon (1981), The Bounty (1984) and Wild Geese II (1985).

5. In the mid-1970s Laurence Olivier became increasingly involved in television work, a medium of which he was initially dismissive.

6. Laurence Olivier was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, and won the Golden Globe of the same category.

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

8. In the same year Laurence Olivier portrayed the Mahdi, opposite Heston as General Gordon, in the film Khartoum.

9. In his decade in charge of the National, Laurence Olivier acted in thirteen plays and directed eight.

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

11. For his performance, Laurence Olivier was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor.

12. Laurence Olivier said that playing Archie "made me feel like a modern actor again".

13. The same year Laurence Olivier decided to direct and produce a film version of The Sleeping Prince, retitled The Prince and the Showgirl.

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

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

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

17. Laurence Olivier would have preferred the roles to be reversed, but Richardson did not wish to attempt Lear.

18. Laurence Olivier played King Lear, and Richardson took the title role in Cyrano de Bergerac.

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

20. Laurence Olivier spent much of his time taking part in broadcasts and making speeches to build morale, and in 1942 he was invited to make another propaganda film, The Demi-Paradise, in which he played a Soviet engineer who helps improve British-Russian relationships.

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

22. Laurence Olivier returned to the Old Vic for a second season in 1938.

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

24. For the rest of 1929 Laurence Olivier appeared in seven plays, all of which were short-lived.

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