Erik Visits a (Non) American Grave, Part 2,062

This is the grave of Laurence Olivier.

Born in 1907 in Dorking, Surrey, England, Olivier had a somewhat unusual entrance into being one of the greatest actors to ever live, or at least be filmed. So often, when I write these posts, there’s a story of some resistance from family, or alternatively, having stage mothers or fathers. In this case, Olivier’s father was an Anglican minister, totally high church guy, not the kind of person you might expect to support a career choice like his son would make. But Olivier did your standard school productions. Now, since he went to very good schools, famous people were at these things and they were like, who is that 10 year old who is an astounding actor? And his father was like, sure you should act. In fact, in 1924, as Olivier was about to graduate from St. Edward’s School, he wanted to go to India, where his brother was working in the rubber industry. His father that would be lunacy, you need to act. And so he did.

Olivier went to acting school for a year but by 1925 was working pretty consistently. He already loved Shakespeare and really believed it should be spoken as naturally as possible, which led to some early criticism of his work as he figured out how to do that. He spent the second half of the 20s working in stage productions, often failed. He didn’t choose the best parts at this point. He wanted to get married and he needed to earn more money. So he started taking a few movie roles, the first being 1930s’ The Temporary Widow. Now, Olivier hated the idea of film in these years. He thought it was anemic to great acting. Maybe that’s true. I don’t think it is, but what do I know about first rate acting? Not much. But I am glad he made these choices to take the money so I can see his work today.

I have no problem with Olivier being a snob about the movies, but since everyone recognized him as the greatest actor of his generation (this is not a claim I am making necessarily), he had the ability to take these roles of classic British literature and put them on screen for the masses. This led to many of his most iconic film roles. William Wyler’s 1937 version of Wuthering Heights was one of the first examples. But even before that, Olivier had starred in Paul Czinner’s 1936 adaptation of Shakespeare’s As You Like It, which got him a ton of accolades for his work and expanded his popularity.

And as Olivier became The Great Actor, he would do his own work to bring Shakespeare to the screen in the best way he thought possible. So he directed three major Shakespeare adaptations. The first was Henry V, in 1944, which got made in part because the British government thought some Shakespeare would make the folks feel better as World War II was dragging on forever, In fact, the film has a dedication: to the :Commandos and Airborne Troops of Great Britain the spirit of whose ancestors it has been humbly attempted to recapture.” Olivier of course played the title role.

Then in 1948, Olivier brought Hamlet to the silver screen. Now, by this time, Olivier understood Hollywood well. He knew he had to cut the play down, by a lot. That’s always been the question with Hamlet adaptations–how much of the very long play do you show? Olivier cut it to 155 minutes, which angered purists but was still 2 1/2 hours of film. No one questioned what Olivier brought to the screen in it though, setting the standard for Shakespeare adaptations that no one would approach systematically until Kenneth Branagh in the 90s.

Then there was Olivier’s version of Richard III, released in 1955. One of the most fun of Shakespeare plays to be adapted, basically every version of it is good, but again, Olivier set the gold standard. This got shown on NBC in the United States and as such, though reviews were less glowing than of his other adaptations, might have done more to educate the American public on Shakespeare than anything ever filmed, before or since. Can you imagine the American public watching a Shakespeare adaptation on network TV in 2026??????

Of course it wasn’t just classical roles that Olivier brought to the film world. Alfred Hitchcock cast him to great effect in 1940’s Rebecca, which became the only film Hitchcock directed that won a Best Picture Oscar (that is crazy by the way; Rebecca is great, but is it even a top 5 Hitch? Top 10, sure). And as he aged, Olivier was happy to do more regular roles for money in the movies. Some were good, such as his role in Stanley Kubrick’s Spartacus. A lot of these roles were pretty whatever. He also started doing a lot of TV adaptations of literature too, including O’Neill’s A Long Day’s Journey into Night in 1973, Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in 1976, Waugh’s Brideshead’s Revisited in 1981, and Shakespeare’s King Lear in 1983, which also starred John Hurt.

Now, I am basically ignoring Olivier’s entire stage career for this post. That’s ridiculous, but the post is long enough as it is and also I can’t actually watch any of that (or not much, I supposed some footage exists). This is like ignoring John Madden’s coaching career to focus on his broadcasting. It makes no sense. And yet, I’m going with what I know here. But let’s not forget his role in reopening the Old Vic in London in 1944, reviving London theater as the war moved to its conclusion and which also toured Germany in 1945 and the commonwealth after the war as a soft power kind of thing. He worked with his wife Vivien Leigh in all sorts of things during these years–the stage, the long tours–but it was a tough marriage, with work overwhelming both of them and her depression and constant affairs making it tough. Not that he was any saint either. They divorced in 1960.

Of course Olivier received every gold standard honor one could. He was knighted in 1947. Yet he only won one Best Actor role, for Hamlet. He was nominated nine times for Best Actor, which remains tied for the most ever with Spencer Tracy.

There’s so, so much more to say about Olivier, his legacy, and Shakespeare on screen. But let’s leave it comments.

Olivier died in 1989. He was 82 years old.

Laurence Olivier is in Westminister Abbey, London, England.

If you would like this series to visit some of the people who competed with Olivier for Best Actor, you can donate to cover the required expenses here. Jimmy Stewart, nominated in 1939 for Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and of course won in 1940 for The Philadelphia Story, competing against Olivier multiple times, is in Glendale, California. Raymond Massey, also nominated in 1940 for Abe Lincoln in Illinois, is in New Haven, Connecticut. Previous posts in this series are archived here and here.