Category: laurence olivier

laurence olivier

Happy Birthday, Larry!

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Hamlet, 1937

Larry has had a profound effect on the acting world, particularly the British theatre, which was always his first love.  His big break came in 1930 when Noel Coward cast him as Victor Prynne in Private Lives.  In the mid-30’s he joined the Old Vic Company under Lillian Bayliss and gained a lot of attention for bringing a raw physical presence to Shakespeare, and he contrasted with John Gielgud who was strictly classical in his acting.  He became a matinee idol in late 30s/early 40s Hollywood films.  His good looks, romantic films, and new high profile marriage to Vivien Leigh would make him a superstar.

Larry’s real rise to fame on stage and in British cinema occurred during WWII.  His acting and directing of Henry V transformed Shakespeare for the screen and gave a strong patriotic voice to wartime Britain.  Meanwhile, he and Ralph Richardson were appointed directors of the Old Vic, and people were so excited to see Larry perform in person that they’d camp out on the street for a seat.  Richard III, King Lear, and Oedipus were three of the plays performed during this time that gained him renowned critical adoration as an actor.

In 1948, he and Vivien Leigh were appointed actor-ambassadors, and led the Old Vic on a 9-month acting tour of Australia and New Zealand.  It was a huge success and helped solidify the legend of The Oliviers.  In 1949, Larry became the first actor to direct himself to a Best Actor Oscar with Hamlet.

The 1950s brought a string of plays and films for Larry including his film version of Richard III, but it was John Osborne’s The Entertainer in 1958 that would take his career and his life in an entirely new direction.  By this time, his marriage to Vivien had all but broken up for good.  In 1961 he married his co-star Joan Plowright and set off to establish Britain’s National Theatre. Widely regarded as the best actor of his generation, Larry gave powerful performances in plays ranging from Othello to Long Day’s Journey Into Night, thrilling audiences and inspiring a new generation of great actors including Anthony Hopkins, Derek Jacobi, and Michael Gambon. He turned again to films when his health limited him on stage, and still turned out amazing performances, being nominated for Oscars for Marathon Man and The Boys from Brazil. Cary Grant presented him with a Lifetime Achievement Academy Award in 1979.

Larry passed away in 1989 at the age of 82, but has left behind a legacy of films and notoriety, especially in Britain. The Olivier Theatre, part of the National Theatre, was named after him. As were the Olivier Awards (Britain’s equivalent of the Tonys). Larry was a legend in his own time, and remains so for many in his profession today.

I personally never got a chance to see Larry on stage (I was but 5 when he died), but I love his films. I think he was an actor who grew into his skin in front of the camera. In the early days he did not appreciate the film medium, and it showed in his stagey performances, but he was remarkable later on. Some of my favorites include Wuthering Heights, Rebecca, Hamlet, Richard III, and Carrie.

Happy birthday, Larry! Thanks for being awesome!

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Laurence Olivier In Focus (Part 1)

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May 22nd is Laurence Olivier’s 103rd birthday, so I thought it would be fun to do a sort of “ode to Larry” and post some of my favorite Olivier photos in a series called “Laurence Olivier in Focus.”

This particular photo was taken during Larry’s service with the Fleet Air Arm during the war.  You can see he’s got his Navy blues on, and frankly he looks like he’s modeling that uniform, what with the popped collar and everything.  Very nice.  My favorite part of this picture, however, is that it’s made out to Vivien Leigh’s mother.  The inscription says “Darling Gertrude, with love, Larry.”  I’m sure Gertrude Hartley appreciated a nice, handsome military photo of her son-in-law.  Or perhaps Vivien asked him to send one.  Who knows!

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The Curious Life of Laurence Olivier

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If you’re looking for a great documentary on England’s greatest actor, look no further than Laurence Olivier: A Life.  Well, you can’t look any further because to my knowledge it’s the only documentary made about Laurence Olivier.  It also happens to be really good.  In the summer of 1982 at the age of 75, to coincide with the publication of Confessions of an Actor, Lord Olivier sat down with reporter Melvyn Bragg over a period of a few days to talk in depth, for the first time, about his life and career.

I had found a VHS copy (2 cassettes) on ebay about 8 years ago and hadn’t watched it in quite some time owing to the fact that I no longer have a VCR, and this doc. isn’t available on DVD.  Imagine my happiness when a fellow fan who visits vivandlarry.com sent me a DVD copy all the way from England!  Having some spare time last night, I made celery sticks with peanut butter and sat down for some quality time with my favorite old thespian.  I was not disappointed.

It’s fascinating to hear Laurence Olivier talk about acting because he was obviously so passionate about it, and confident in his abilities, even if he didn’t always like his work.  I do wish he’d talked more in-depth about his personal life, but I have to say I think he gave it quite a good shot in this film.  He spoke of how his father terrified and fascinated him at the same time, how he never really got over his mother’s death when he was 12 years old, and how he thought that experience in some way shaped who he had become as a grown man.  Larry had a rather rough childhood, but he was determined to make it in acting and he went out and did it, which is very admirable.  He didn’t talk much of Jill Esmond, but he did talk a fair amount about Vivien Leigh.  He explained how he wanted to marry her before going back to London during the war because they didn’t want to have to deal with leave and special circumstances in a changed environment.  He also talks about how he always knew she had what it took to be a great actress, but that it took some years before her talent (on stage) came out and shone as a light on its own.  He acknowledged that it was after their divorce that she really hit the mark on her own, and said she was “very remarkable” in the last few years of her life.  In the end, Larry turned out to be quite a character.

I thought the way he summed up his life with Vivien was quite interesting and to me, very telling as well, not in what he said, but the way he said it:

“It was a partnership that people felt mighty attracted by…and it involved all sorts of glorious luxuries like Notley Abbey.  There were great satisfactions about it, and then various, most unfortunate experiences with illness came upon us–not mine–but things began to become, unfortunately, very very difficult, but I don’t want to talk about that.  But  on the whole, it was–it was a life.  It was a rich experience, but if you’re asking me if I look upon it with a special roseate hue, no.  I like my life better now than I have ever liked it.”

Perhaps it is because I’m  a hopeless romantic, but every time I hear that clip I can’t help but think he’s lying when he says he doesn’t look back on his marriage to Vivien with a “roseate hue.”  It’s his tone of voice, he gets very quiet and sort of far away.  I don’t know, maybe he never did, but it’s certainly contrary to people claiming they caught him in his final years watching Vivien films on tv and weeping, saying “This was love.  This was the real thing.”

What do you think?

At any rate, I love the intimacy of this documentary, and I love the stories Larry tells.  I also love the commentary from a few of his famous friends: a drunken Ralph Richardson, a very eloquent John Gielgud, a very tan Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., and a very classy Sibyl Thorndike.  Unfortunately, I don’t think it quite gets tot he bottom of who Larry was as an individual, but I don’t think any biography has every quite gotten there, either.  Still, it is a very interesting portrait.

As I said, this documentary is unfortunately not on DVD (even though it should be since it won a bunch of Emmy’s), but perhaps I can make some copies to give away as contest prizes!

Rating: A

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Buried Treasures (Part 1)

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I have a pretty big collection of Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier things–mostly paper goods (photos, magazines, and such).  One of the items in my collection is a negative film strip that contains two photos of Laurence Olivier from 1946 when he and Vivien Leigh invited reporters to their cottage in London for a photo call.  Many of you know some of the photos from this shoot: Vivien is wearing a polka-dot skirt and blouse, and can be seen with Larry and their Siamese cat New sitting on the couch or out on the front landing.  The two negatives I have depict Larry in his study and out on the landing with New.

I’ve had these for about a year, and finally took them in to get developed today.  I feel like stores that actually professionally develop film are a dying breed since so many people have gone digital, so I had to drive all the way to Irvine to get these done.  I got a pretty good deal (about $9 per 8×10), and I’m really happy with the quality.  My friend Mark’s friend Jay is a professional photographer, and he advised me to get prints made because, he said, eventually the negatives will disintegrate. So I’m going to pass along that bit of info to you out there:  If you have old movie negatives or film stock, get it developed so you’ll have prints in the future.

Aren’t these lovely?  I’m really liking the contrast.

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Spotlight: David Niven

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The Oliviers’ Friends page at vivandlarry.com has been sadly dismal since the launch of this website. Part of it is my admitted laziness in updating new pages, but another part is also due to the fact that for some time I’ve been thinking of the best way to go about constructing said page. Just today, I figured it might be easiest to profile their famous friends here on the blog, and then link to these posts on the main website. How about it? Sounds good to me.

Let’s get to it, then!

March 1 marked the centenary of one of my all time favorite actors and personalities, David Niven. James David Graham Niven was born in London to a rather wealthy family. He was the youngest for four children and always a bit a troublemaker and a clown. After being sent to reform school owing to being expelled from Heatherdown and ruining his chances at being admitted to Eton, David found himself at the prestigious military school, Sandhurst, and then went into the Scottish Highland Light Infantry. He grew bored of the military after a few years and came to Hollywood in 1934. In his book, The Moon’s A Balloon, David recalls getting his first break in Hollywood with the help of none other than Clark Gable. How did this happen, you may ask? One of David’s first jobs upon landing in southern CA was helping out on fishing boats at Balboa (near Newport Beach, for my fellow OC neighbors). He claimed that Clark often went out on fishing trips on the boat he was working on, and took David under his wing. One of his first roles was a non-speaking part in the 1935 Academy Award-winning swashbuckler Mutiny on the Bounty, starring Gable and Charles Laughton.

David became friends with Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh in 1938 while filming Wuthering Heights for Sam Goldwyn. It was a friendship that would continue back in England during the war, and last the rest of their lives.

David and Vivien during the war
Basil Rathbone, Vivien Leigh, and David Niven

David was one of the first of the British actors in Hollywood to go back to the UK and enlist. In 1940, he had a true whirlwind wartime romance when he met and married Primula (Primmie) Rollo. The couple had two children, David Jr. (one of Vivien Leigh’s many godchildren) and Jamie.   In his autobiography, The Moon’s a balloon, he wrote of how good his famous friends were to Primmie, how Vivien and Primmie used to go furniture shopping together in Windsor, etc.  Sadly, Primmie was killed in a freak accident at Tyrone Power’s house in Hollywood in 1946.  During a game of hide and seek, Primmie opened a door she assumed led to a closet, but it turned out to be concrete steps down to the cellar.  She sustained head trauma during her fall and passed away in the hospital.  It was a life changing event for David, who spiraled into a deep depression and wrote about trying to commit suicide.

David visiting Vivien on the set of A Streetcar Named Desire

Not long after Primmie’s death, David married Hjordis Tersmeden, a Swedish model.  Though they made an excellent looking couple, and though he never mentioned anything negative about her in his own book, the recent authorized biography by Graham Lord (Niv) painted a different picture of their relationship.

Laurence Olivier, Mary Mills, David, Primmie Niven and ? in England, 1944

Despite the tragedies in his life, David became an A-lister in Hollywood, making many successful films including A Matter of Life and Death, Bachelor Mother, Casino Royale, Separate Tables (for which he won an Oscar),  Around the World in 80 Days, and The Bishop’s Wife.  But my favorite thing about David, aside from his many fabulous movies, is his sense of humor.  He once said, “Keep the circus going inside of you, keep it going, don’t ever take things too seriously.  It will all work out in the end.”  I feel like he had a witty quip for every situation.  Take this one for example:  when a streaker ran across the stage at the Academy Awards in which David was presenting, he candidly said “Isn’t it funny to think that the only laugh that man will ever get is by stripping down and showing his shortcomings.”

The Three Musketeers: Larry, David, John Mills in England

Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh adored David Niven, and he loved them in return.  After Vivien died, David wrote of how good a friend she was and how he admired her.  When David died, Larry said that of all the people who had gone before him, he’d miss David the most.

David and Larry snorkeling at Cap Farrat, France, 1960s

David died in 1983 from Lou Gehrig’s Disease at his chalet in Switzerland, but his spirit has never really left us.  His humor and presence are still very much alive in his films and the books he wrote.  If you haven’t read The Moon’s a Balloon or Bring on the Empty Horses, I’d really recommend both of them.  They’re sure to keep you up laughing into the wee hours of the night.

In 2009, I had the opportunity to speak with David Niven Jr. via phone about his dad and the Oliviers for a project I’m working on.  He was so sweet, and has the same sense of humor his dad had.  All in the family, I guess!

Hat’s off to you, David Niven, you were a gem.