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106-664: The prize was introduced in 1949 as the Golden Lion of Saint Mark (which was one of the best known symbols of the ancient Republic of Venice ). In 1954, the prize was permanently named Golden Lion. The prize awarded as the Golden Lion was in 1949. Previously, the equivalent prize was the Gran Premio Internazionale di Venezia (Grand International Prize of Venice) , awarded in 1947 and 1948. No Golden Lions were awarded between 1969 and 1979. According to

212-585: A life peerage (1970) and the Order of Merit (1981). For his on-screen work he received two Academy Awards , two British Academy Film Awards , five Emmy Awards and three Golden Globe Awards . The National Theatre's largest auditorium is named in his honour, and he is commemorated in the Laurence Olivier Awards , given annually by the Society of London Theatre . He was married three times, to

318-470: A Soviet engineer who helps improve British-Russian relationships. In 1943, at the behest of the Ministry of Information, Olivier began working on Henry V . Originally he had no intention of taking the directorial duties, but ended up directing and producing, in addition to taking the title role. He was assisted by an Italian internee, Filippo Del Giudice , who had been released to produce propaganda for

424-467: A call to arms as such, but formed a powerful reminder of what Britain was defending." The music for the film was written by William Walton , "a score that ranks with the best in film music", according to the music critic Michael Kennedy . Walton also provided the music for Olivier's next two Shakespearean adaptations, Hamlet (1948) and Richard III (1955). Henry V was warmly received by critics. The reviewer for The Manchester Guardian wrote that

530-402: A certain fine arrogance towards the world in his playing are just right" in the role, while the reviewer for The Times wrote that Olivier "is a good embodiment of Heathcliff ... impressive enough on a more human plane, speaking his lines with real distinction, and always both romantic and alive." After returning to London briefly in mid-1939, the couple returned to America, Leigh to film

636-541: A couple of walking corpses." Later he would comment that he "lost Vivien" in Australia, a reference to Leigh's affair with the Australian actor Peter Finch , whom the couple met during the tour. Shortly afterwards Finch moved to London, where Olivier auditioned him and put him under a long-term contract with Laurence Olivier Productions . Finch and Leigh's affair continued on and off for several years. Although it

742-636: A crime comedy with Lilian Harvey , and in May he spent four nights working on another comedy, Too Many Crooks . During work on the latter film, for which he was paid £60, he met Laurence Evans, who became his personal manager. Olivier did not enjoy working in film, which he dismissed as "this anaemic little medium which could not stand great acting", but financially it was much more rewarding than his theatre work. Olivier and Esmond married on 25 July 1930 at All Saints, Margaret Street, although within weeks both realised they had erred. Olivier later recorded that

848-590: A dislike for Oberon, led to tensions on set. The director, William Wyler , was a hard taskmaster, and Olivier learned to remove what Billington described as "the carapace of theatricality" to which he was prone, replacing it with "a palpable reality". The resulting film was a commercial and critical success that earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor and created his screen reputation. Caroline Lejeune , writing for The Observer , considered that "Olivier's dark, moody face, abrupt style, and

954-486: A fool, you're not going to India, you're going on the stage." In 1924 Gerard Olivier, a habitually frugal man, told his son that he must gain not only admission to the Central School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art , but also a scholarship with a bursary to cover his tuition fees and living expenses. Olivier's sister had been a student there and was a favourite of Elsie Fogerty , the founder and principal of

1060-432: A great deal of the art of performing from him. As a young man Gerard Olivier had considered a stage career and was a dramatic and effective preacher. Olivier wrote that his father knew "when to drop the voice, when to bellow about the perils of hellfire, when to slip in a gag, when suddenly to wax sentimental ... The quick changes of mood and manner absorbed me, and I have never forgotten them." In 1916, after attending

1166-399: A lack of feeling, a charge that the actor strongly rejected, but which was often made throughout his later career. During the run of Cyrano , Richardson was knighted , to Olivier's undisguised envy. The younger man received the accolade six months later, by which time the days of the triumvirate were numbered. The high profile of the two star actors did not endear them to the new chairman of

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1272-585: A lease on the St James's Theatre . In January 1950 he produced, directed and starred in Christopher Fry 's verse play Venus Observed . The production was popular, despite poor reviews, but the expensive production did little to help the finances of Laurence Olivier Productions. After a series of box-office failures, the company balanced its books in 1951 with productions of Shaw 's Caesar and Cleopatra and Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra which

1378-517: A likeness of Ronald Colman , and Colman's moustache, voice and manner are "perfectly reproduced". Olivier returned to RKO to complete his contract with the 1932 drama Westward Passage , which was a commercial failure. Olivier's initial foray into American films had not provided the breakthrough he hoped for; disillusioned with Hollywood, he returned to London, where he appeared in two British films, Perfect Understanding with Gloria Swanson and No Funny Business —in which Esmond also appeared. He

1484-597: A lion is derived from Mark's description of John the Baptist as "...The voice of the one who cries in the wilderness: Prepare Ye the way of the Lord, make straight his paths", which artists compared to a roaring lion. The wings come from Ezekiel 1:10 and the application of the prophet's vision of four winged creatures to the evangelists. These appear again in Revelation 4:7. A second connection of Mark and lions comes from

1590-549: A long line of Protestant clergymen. Gerard Olivier had begun a career as a schoolmaster, but in his thirties he discovered a strong religious vocation and was ordained as a priest of the Church of England . He belonged to the high church , ritualist wing of Anglicanism and was known as "Father Olivier". Some Anglican congregations did not like this style, and the only church posts he was offered were temporary, usually deputising for regular incumbents in their absence. This meant

1696-449: A major step up in his career. For the first weeks of the run Gielgud played Mercutio and Olivier played Romeo , after which they exchanged roles. The production broke all box-office records for the play, running for 189 performances. Olivier was enraged at the notices after the first night, which praised the virility of his performance but fiercely criticised his speaking of Shakespeare's verse, contrasting it with his co-star's mastery of

1802-418: A mixed reception, although The Times thought Olivier's Astrov "a most distinguished portrait" and Richardson's Vanya "the perfect compound of absurdity and pathos". In Richard III , according to Billington, Olivier's triumph was absolute: "so much so that it became his most frequently imitated performance and one whose supremacy went unchallenged until Antony Sher played the role forty years later". In 1945

1908-432: A moment, leaving the impression of a man who cannot make up his own mind; here, you feel rather, is an actor-producer-director who, in every circumstance, knows exactly what he wants, and gets it". Campbell Dixon , the critic for The Daily Telegraph thought the film "brilliant ... one of the masterpieces of the stage has been made into one of the greatest of films." Hamlet became the first non-American film to win

2014-438: A nomadic existence, and for Laurence's first few years, he never lived in one place long enough to make friends. In 1912, when Olivier was five, his father secured a permanent appointment as assistant rector at St Saviour's, Pimlico . He held the post for six years, and a stable family life was at last possible. Olivier was devoted to his mother, but not to his father, whom he found a cold and remote parent, though he learned

2120-453: A reputation for crashing aircraft, which Olivier rapidly eclipsed. Olivier and Leigh settled in a cottage just outside RNAS Worthy Down , where he was stationed with a training squadron; Noël Coward visited the couple and thought Olivier looked unhappy. 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

2226-420: A sense of balance, of right and wrong. He would make me read; I never used to read anything at all. I remember he said, "Right, my boy, Wuthering Heights , Of Human Bondage and The Old Wives' Tale by Arnold Bennett . That'll do, those are three of the best. Read them". I did. ... Noël also did a priceless thing, he taught me not to giggle on the stage. Once already I'd been fired for doing it, and I

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2332-422: A series of preparatory schools, Olivier passed the singing examination for admission to the choir school of All Saints, Margaret Street , in central London. His elder brother was already a pupil and Olivier gradually settled in, though he felt himself to be something of an outsider. The church's style of worship was (and remains) Anglo-Catholic , with emphasis on ritual, vestments and incense. The theatricality of

2438-467: 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. In 1935 he played in a celebrated production of Romeo and Juliet alongside Gielgud and Peggy Ashcroft , and by the end of the decade he was an established star. In the 1940s, together with Richardson and John Burrell , Olivier

2544-573: A suppressed love for Othello . Olivier was willing to co-operate, but Richardson was not; audiences and most critics failed to spot the supposed motivation of Olivier's Iago, and Richardson's Othello seemed underpowered. After that comparative failure, the company had a success with Coriolanus starring Olivier in the title role. The notices were laudatory, mentioning him alongside great predecessors such as Edmund Kean , William Macready and Henry Irving . The actor Robert Speaight described it as "Olivier's first incontestably great performance". This

2650-539: A tale recounted by Severus ibn al-Muqaffa : "Once a lion and lioness appeared to John Mark and his father Arostalis while they were traveling in Jordan . The father was very scared and begged his son to escape, while he awaited his fate. John Mark assured his father that Jesus Christ would save them and began to pray. The two beasts fell dead and as a result of this miracle, the father believed in Christ." In some depictions

2756-515: A tour of Europe in mid-1937 they returned to separate film projects— A Yank at Oxford for her and The Divorce of Lady X for him—and moved into a property together in Iver , Buckinghamshire. Olivier returned to the Old Vic for a second season in 1938. For Othello he played Iago , with Richardson in the title role. Guthrie wanted to experiment with the theory that Iago's villainy is driven by

2862-535: A trio of male actors who dominated the British stage of the mid-20th century. He also worked in films throughout his career, playing more than fifty cinema roles. Late in his career he 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

2968-578: A visit from the Comédie-Française playing works by Molière , Racine , Marivaux and Musset in French. Darlington considers a 1951 production of Othello starring Orson Welles as the pick of Olivier's productions at the theatre. While Leigh made Streetcar in 1951, Olivier joined her in Hollywood to film Carrie , based on the controversial novel Sister Carrie ; although the film

3074-697: A year and was going badly for Britain. After his wedding Olivier wanted to help the war effort. He telephoned Duff Cooper , the Minister of Information under Winston Churchill , hoping to get a position in Cooper's department. Cooper advised him to remain where he was and speak to the film director Alexander Korda , who was based in the US at Churchill's behest, with connections to British Intelligence. Korda—with Churchill's support and involvement—directed That Hamilton Woman , with Olivier as Horatio Nelson and Leigh in

3180-502: Is Leòn de San Marco . The Venetian lion appears in two distinct forms. One is as a winged animal resting on water, to symbolise dominance over the seas, holding St. Mark's Gospel under a paw. These animals can be seen all around the Mediterranean, usually on top of a classical stone column. The other form is known as the lion "in moleca", in the form of a crab. Here the lion is depicted full-faced with its wings circled around

3286-497: Is going to make a big name for himself". For the rest of 1929 Olivier appeared in seven plays, all of which were short-lived. Billington ascribes this failure rate to poor choices by Olivier rather than mere bad luck. In 1930, with his impending marriage in mind, Olivier earned some extra money with small roles in two films. In April he travelled to Berlin to film the English-language version of The Temporary Widow ,

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3392-532: Is how you cheapen yourself." He accepted and moved to Hollywood, despite some misgivings. His first film was the drama Friends and Lovers , in a supporting role, before RKO loaned him to Fox Studios for his first film lead, a British journalist in a Russia under martial law in The Yellow Ticket , alongside Elissa Landi and Lionel Barrymore . The cultural historian Jeffrey Richards describes Olivier's look as an attempt by Fox Studios to produce

3498-604: The Academy Award for Best Picture , while Olivier won the Award for Best Actor. In 1948 Olivier led the Old Vic company on a six-month tour of Australia and New Zealand. He played Richard III, Sir Peter Teazle in Sheridan's The School for Scandal and Antrobus in Thornton Wilder 's The Skin of Our Teeth , appearing alongside Leigh in the latter two plays. While Olivier was on the Australian tour and Richardson

3604-773: The Birmingham Repertory Company . His biographer Michael Billington describes the Birmingham company as "Olivier's university", where in his second year he was given the chance to play a wide range of important roles, including Tony Lumpkin in She Stoops to Conquer , the title role in Uncle Vanya , and Parolles in All's Well That Ends Well . Billington adds that the engagement led to "a lifelong friendship with his fellow actor Ralph Richardson that

3710-672: The British Film Institute 's (BFI's) Screenonline . The following year Olivier appeared alongside Vivien Leigh in the historical drama Fire Over England . He had first met Leigh briefly at the Savoy Grill and then again when she visited him during the run of Romeo and Juliet , probably early in 1936, and the two had begun an affair sometime that year. Of the relationship, Olivier later said that "I couldn't help myself with Vivien. No man could. I hated myself for cheating on Jill, but then I had cheated before, but this

3816-655: The title role . Korda saw that the relationship between the couple was strained. Olivier was tiring of Leigh's suffocating adulation, and she was drinking to excess. The film, in which the threat of Napoleon paralleled that of Hitler , was seen by critics as "bad history but good British propaganda", according to the BFI. Olivier's life was under threat from the Nazis and pro-German sympathisers. The studio owners were concerned enough that Samuel Goldwyn and Cecil B. DeMille both provided support and security to ensure his safety. On

3922-523: The 1939 film Wuthering Heights , alongside Merle Oberon and David Niven . In less than a month Leigh had joined him, explaining that her trip was "partially because Larry's there and partially because I intend to get the part of Scarlett O'Hara "—the role in Gone with the Wind in which she was eventually cast. Olivier did not enjoy making Wuthering Heights , and his approach to film acting, combined with

4028-548: The 1980s, the Golden Lion has been presented to a number of Asian filmmakers, particularly in comparison to the Cannes Film Festival's top prize, the Palme d'Or, which has only been awarded to five Asian filmmakers since 1980. The Golden Lion, by contrast, has been awarded to ten Asians during the same time period, with two of these filmmakers winning it twice. Ang Lee won the Golden Lion twice within three years during

4134-401: The 2000s, once for an American film and once for a Chinese-language film. Zhang Yimou has also won twice. Other Asians to win the Golden Lion since 1980 include Jia Zhangke , Hou Hsiao-hsien , Tsai Ming-liang , Trần Anh Hùng , Takeshi Kitano , Kim Ki-duk , Jafar Panahi , Mira Nair , and Lav Diaz . Russian filmmakers have also won the Golden Lion several times, including since the end of

4240-753: The Allied cause. The decision was made to film the battle scenes in neutral Ireland, where it was easier to find the 650 extras. John Betjeman , the press attaché at the British embassy in Dublin, played a key liaison role with the Irish government in making suitable arrangements. The film was released in November 1944. Brooke, writing for the BFI, considers that it "came too late in the Second World War to be

4346-457: The Biennale's official website, this hiatus was a result of the 1968 Lion being awarded to the radically experimental Die Artisten in der Zirkuskuppel: Ratlos ; the website says that the awards "still had a statute dating back to the fascist era and could not side-step the general political climate. Sixty-eight produced a dramatic fracture with the past". Fourteen French films have been awarded

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4452-768: The Central School in 1925, Olivier worked for small theatrical companies; his first stage appearance was in a sketch called The Unfailing Instinct at the Brighton Hippodrome in August 1925. Later that year, he was taken on by Sybil Thorndike (the daughter of a friend of Olivier's father) and her husband Lewis Casson as a bit-part player, understudy and assistant stage manager for their London company. Olivier modelled his performing style on that of Gerald du Maurier , of whom he said, "He seemed to mutter on stage but had such perfect technique. When I started I

4558-463: The English premiere of Tennessee Williams 's A Streetcar Named Desire , with Leigh in the central role of Blanche DuBois. The play was condemned by most critics, but the production was a considerable commercial success, and led to Leigh's casting as Blanche in the 1951 film version . Gielgud, who was a devoted friend of Leigh's, doubted whether Olivier was wise to let her play the demanding role of

4664-569: The Fisherman (1968), Sleuth (1972), Marathon Man (1976) and The Boys from Brazil (1978). His television appearances included an adaptation of The Moon and Sixpence (1960), Long Day's Journey into Night (1973), Love Among the Ruins (1975), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1976), Brideshead Revisited (1981) and King Lear (1983). Olivier's honours included a knighthood (1947),

4770-556: The Golden Lion, more than that of any other nation. However, there is considerable geographical diversity in the winners. Eight American filmmakers have won the Golden Lion, with awards for John Cassavetes and Robert Altman (both times the awards were shared with other winners who tied), as well as Ang Lee ( Brokeback Mountain was the first winning US film not to tie), Darren Aronofsky , Sofia Coppola , Todd Phillips , Chloé Zhao , and Laura Poitras . Although prior to 1980, only three of 21 winners were of non-European origin, since

4876-669: The Golden Lions or the major awards of the Venice Film Festival: Four directors have won the award twice: Lion of Saint Mark The Lion of Saint Mark , representing Mark the Evangelist , pictured in the form of a winged lion , is an aspect of the Tetramorph . On the pinnacle of St Mark's Cathedral he is depicted as holding a Bible , and surmounting a golden lion which is the symbol of

4982-776: The Lion of St. Mark in recognition of their previous positions as Patriarchs of Venice. It is also visible in several places in the Giuliano-Dalmata area of Rome (including the church of San Marco Evangelista in Agro Laurentino ), which was settled by refugees from the Julian March (formerly Venetian territory) after the Second World War . The name of the Lion of Saint Mark in the Venetian language

5088-503: The Old Vic company. The theatre, in an unfashionable location south of the Thames , had offered inexpensive tickets for opera and drama under its proprietor Lilian Baylis since 1912. Her drama company specialised in the plays of Shakespeare, and many leading actors had taken very large cuts in their pay to develop their Shakespearean techniques there. Gielgud had been in the company from 1929 to 1931 and Richardson from 1930 to 1932. Among

5194-485: The Old Vic governors, Lord Esher . He had ambitions to be the first head of the National Theatre and had no intention of letting actors run it. He was encouraged by Guthrie, who, having instigated the appointment of Richardson and Olivier, had come to resent their knighthoods and international fame. In January 1947 Olivier began working on his second film as a director, Hamlet (1948), in which he also took

5300-507: The Oliviers played in London and then took to Broadway. Olivier was thought by some critics to be under par in both his roles, and some suspected him of playing deliberately below his usual strength so that Leigh might appear his equal. Olivier dismissed the suggestion, regarding it as an insult to his integrity as an actor. In the view of the critic and biographer W. A. Darlington , he was simply miscast both as Caesar and Antony, finding

5406-645: The Shrew (1922). From All Saints, Olivier went on to St Edward's School, Oxford , from 1921 to 1924. He made little mark until his final year, when he played Puck in the school's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream ; his performance was a tour de force that won him popularity among his fellow pupils. In January 1924, his brother left England to work in India as a rubber planter. Olivier missed him greatly and asked his father how soon he could follow. He recalled in his memoirs that his father replied, "Don't be such

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5512-613: The USSR. Still, to date 33 of the 54 winners were European men (including Soviet/Russian winners). Since 1949, only seven women have ever won the Golden Lion for directing: Margarethe von Trotta , Agnès Varda , Mira Nair , Sofia Coppola , Chloé Zhao , Audrey Diwan , and Laura Poitras (though in 1938, German director Leni Riefenstahl won the Festival when its highest award was the Coppa Mussolini). In 2019, Joker became

5618-622: The actors whom Olivier joined in late 1936 were Edith Evans , Ruth Gordon , Alec Guinness and Michael Redgrave . In January 1937 Olivier took the title role in an uncut version of Hamlet in which once again his delivery of the verse was unfavourably compared with that of Gielgud, who had played the role on the same stage seven years previously to enormous acclaim. The Observer ' s Ivor Brown praised Olivier's "magnetism and muscularity" but missed "the kind of pathos so richly established by Mr Gielgud". The reviewer in The Times found

5724-476: The actresses Jill Esmond from 1930 to 1940, Vivien Leigh from 1940 to 1960, and Joan Plowright from 1961 until his death. Olivier was born in Dorking , Surrey, the youngest of the three children of Agnes Louise ( née Crookenden) and Reverend Gerard Kerr Olivier. He had two older siblings: Sybille and Gerard Dacres "Dickie". His great-great-grandfather was of French Huguenot descent, and Olivier came from

5830-698: The city of Venice and formerly of the Venetian Republic . It is also found in the symbol of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria . It appears in both merchant and military naval flags of the Italian Republic . The Lion of Saint Mark is also the symbol of the award of the Venice Film Festival , the " Golden Lion ", and of the insurance company Assicurazioni Generali . The representation as

5936-401: The company staged Macbeth , with Olivier in the title role. The stylised production by Michel Saint-Denis was not well liked, but Olivier had some good notices among the bad. On returning from Denmark, Olivier and Leigh told their respective spouses about the affair and that their marriages were over; Esmond moved out of the marital house and in with her mother. After Olivier and Leigh made

6042-644: The company toured Germany, where they were seen by many thousands of Allied servicemen; they also appeared at the Comédie-Française theatre in Paris, the first foreign company to be given that honour. The critic Harold Hobson wrote that Richardson and Olivier quickly "made the Old Vic the most famous theatre in the Anglo-Saxon world." The second season, in 1945, featured two double bills. The first consisted of Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2 . Olivier played

6148-559: The completion of filming, Olivier and Leigh returned to Britain. He had spent the previous year learning to fly and had completed nearly 250 hours by the time he left America. He intended to join the Royal Air Force but instead made another propaganda film, 49th Parallel , narrated short pieces for the Ministry of Information, and joined the Fleet Air Arm because Richardson was already in the service. Richardson had gained

6254-559: The courtyard of the castle at Elsinore , where Shakespeare located the play. Olivier secured the casting of Leigh to replace Cherry Cottrell as Ophelia . Because of torrential rain the performance had to be moved from the castle courtyard to the ballroom of a local hotel, but the tradition of playing Hamlet at Elsinore was established, and Olivier was followed by, among others, Gielgud (1939), Redgrave (1950), Richard Burton (1954), Christopher Plummer (1964), Derek Jacobi (1979), Kenneth Branagh (1988) and Jude Law (2009). Back in London,

6360-531: The festival's Golden Crown award in 1940. After the end of the WWII, during the reestablishment of the festival, The Southerner , directed by Jean Renoir , won the main prize at the 1946 edition. During 1947 and 1948 the equivalent prize for the Golden Lion was the Gran Premio Internazionale di Venezia (Grand International Prize of Venice), awarded to Karel Steklý 's The Strike in 1947 and Laurence Olivier 's Hamlet in 1948. The following films received

6466-414: The film combined "new art hand-in-hand with old genius, and both superbly of one mind", in a film that worked "triumphantly". The critic for The Times considered that Olivier "plays Henry on a high, heroic note and never is there danger of a crack", in a film described as "a triumph of film craft". There were Oscar nominations for the film, including Best Picture and Best Actor, but it won none and Olivier

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6572-481: The final takes for Gone with the Wind , and Olivier to prepare for filming of Alfred Hitchcock 's Rebecca —although the couple had hoped to appear in it together. Instead, Joan Fontaine was selected for the role of Mrs de Winter, as the producer David O. Selznick thought that not only was she more suitable for the role, but that it was best to keep Olivier and Leigh apart until their divorces came through. Olivier followed Rebecca with Pride and Prejudice , in

6678-522: The first movie based on original comic book characters to win the prize. From 1934 until 1942, the highest award of the festival was the Coppa Mussolini for Best Italian Film and Best Foreign Film. Even though other awards were attributed to Nazi propaganda films, such as Jud Süß ( Suss, the Jew ), an Antisemitic production made at the behest of Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels , won

6784-595: The former boring and the latter weak. Darlington comments, "Olivier, in his middle forties when he should have been displaying his powers at their very peak, seemed to have lost interest in his own acting". Over the next four years Olivier spent much of his time working as a producer, presenting plays rather than directing or acting in them. His presentations at the St James's included seasons by Ruggero Ruggeri 's company giving two Pirandello plays in Italian, followed by

6890-446: The head and resembling the claws of a crustacean. It is emerging from water, so that the lion "in moleca" is associated with the lagoon and the city, whereas the standing winged lion is thought to be more associated with Venetian territory around the Mediterranean. The Latin words engraved on the book are Pax Tibi Marce Evangelista Meus , which means Peace unto you, Mark, my Evangelist . Other elements often included in depictions of

6996-563: The interim he had a great success playing a thinly disguised version of the American actor John Barrymore in George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber 's Theatre Royal . His success was vitiated by his breaking an ankle two months into the run, in one of the athletic, acrobatic stunts with which he liked to enliven his performances. Mr Olivier was about twenty times as much in love with Peggy Ashcroft as Mr Gielgud is. But Mr Gielgud spoke most of

7102-409: The lead role. The original play was heavily cut to focus on the relationships, rather than the political intrigue. The film became a critical and commercial success in Britain and abroad, although Lejeune, in The Observer , considered it "less effective than [Olivier's] stage work. ... He speaks the lines nobly, and with the caress of one who loves them, but he nullifies his own thesis by never, for

7208-421: The lion include a halo over his head, a book, or a sword in its paws. In British heraldry, "Lion of St. Mark" is commonly used to refer to all winged lions. These figures are depicted in arms as both passant and, more commonly, sejant, and also appear as supporters. The heraldist Arthur Charles Fox-Davies , however, defined the true Lion of St. Mark as being one used specifically within religious badges to signify

7314-466: The lion rests his front paws on the ground, often in cities with rivers or in ones close to water, indicating the Venetian balanced power on land and sea. Venetian tradition states that when Mark was traveling through Europe, he arrived at a lagoon in Venice, whereby an angel appeared to him and said, " Pax tibi Marce, evangelista meus. Hic requiescet corpus tuum. " ("Peace be with thee, O Mark, my evangelist. Here thy body will rest."). This tradition

7420-464: The marriage was "a pretty crass mistake. I insisted on getting married from a pathetic mixture of religious and animal promptings. ... She had admitted to me that she was in love elsewhere and could never love me as completely as I would wish." Olivier later recounted that following the wedding he did not keep a diary for ten years and never followed religious practices again, although he considered those facts to be "mere coincidence", unconnected to

7526-530: The mentally unstable heroine: "[Blanche] was so very like her, in a way. It must have been a most dreadful strain to do it night after night. She would be shaking and white and quite distraught at the end of it." I think I'm a fairly good manager now. ... I ran the St. James's theatre for eight years. I didn't run that at all well. ... I made mistake after mistake, but I dare say those mistakes taught me something. Olivier talking to Kenneth Tynan in 1966 The production company set up by Olivier took

7632-433: The most illustrious that has ever been assembled in this country". The Times said that the triumvirate's years were the greatest in the Old Vic's history; as The Guardian put it, "the governors summarily sacked them in the interests of a more mediocre company spirit". By the end of the Australian tour, both Leigh and Olivier were exhausted and ill, and he told a journalist, "You may not know it, but you are talking to

7738-548: The nuptials. In 1930 Noël Coward cast Olivier as Victor Prynne in his new play Private Lives , which opened at the new Phoenix Theatre in London in September. Coward and Gertrude Lawrence played the lead roles, Elyot Chase and Amanda Prynne. Victor is a secondary character, along with Sybil Chase; the author called them "extra puppets, lightly wooden ninepins, only to be repeatedly knocked down and stood up again". To make them credible spouses for Amanda and Elyot, Coward

7844-401: The performance "full of vitality", but at times "too light ... the character slips from Mr Olivier's grasp". After Hamlet , the company presented Twelfth Night in what the director, Tyrone Guthrie , summed up as "a baddish, immature production of mine, with Olivier outrageously amusing as Sir Toby and a very young Alec Guinness outrageous and more amusing as Sir Andrew ". Henry V

7950-554: The poetry far better than Mr Olivier ... Yet—I must out with it—the fire of Mr Olivier's passion carried the play along as Mr Gielgud's doesn't quite. Herbert Farjeon on the rival Romeos In 1935, under Albery's management, John Gielgud staged Romeo and Juliet at the New Theatre , co-starring with Peggy Ashcroft, Edith Evans and Olivier. Gielgud had seen Olivier in Queen of Scots , spotted his potential, and gave him

8056-496: The poetry. The friendship between the two men was prickly, on Olivier's side, for the rest of his life. In May 1936 Olivier and Richardson jointly directed and starred in a new piece by J. B. Priestley , Bees on the Boatdeck . Both actors won excellent notices, but the play, an allegory of Britain's decay, did not attract the public and closed after four weeks. Later in the same year Olivier accepted an invitation to join

8162-533: The role of Mr. Darcy . To his disappointment Elizabeth Bennet was played by Greer Garson rather than Leigh. He received good reviews for both films and showed a more confident screen presence than he had in his early work. In January 1940 Olivier and Esmond were granted their divorce. In February, following another request from Leigh, her husband also applied for their marriage to be terminated. On stage, Olivier and Leigh starred in Romeo and Juliet on Broadway. It

8268-625: The role of Stanhope in R. C. Sherriff 's Journey's End , in which he scored a great success at its single Sunday night premiere. He was offered the part in the West End production the following year, but turned it down in favour of the more glamorous role of Beau Geste in a stage adaptation of P. C. Wren 's 1929 novel of the same name. Journey's End became a long-running success; Beau Geste failed. The Manchester Guardian commented, "Mr. Laurence Olivier did his best as Beau, but he deserves and will get better parts. Mr. Olivier

8374-430: The saint, and to have a halo . [REDACTED] Media related to Lion of Saint Mark at Wikimedia Commons Laurence Olivier Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier OM ( / ˈ l ɒr ə n s ˈ k ɜːr ə ˈ l ɪ v i eɪ / LORR -ənss KUR ə- LIV -ee-ay ; 22 May 1907 – 11 July 1989) was an English actor and director. He and his contemporaries Ralph Richardson and John Gielgud made up

8480-513: The school. Olivier later speculated that it was on the strength of this connection that Fogerty agreed to award him the bursary. One of Olivier's contemporaries at the school was Peggy Ashcroft , who observed he was "rather uncouth in that his sleeves were too short and his hair stood on end but he was intensely lively and great fun". By his own admission he was not a very conscientious student, but Fogerty liked him and later said that he and Ashcroft stood out among her many pupils. After leaving

8586-412: The second impressed most critics and audience members, though a minority felt that the transformation from Sophocles 's bloodily blinded hero to Sheridan 's vain and ludicrous Mr Puff "smacked of a quick-change turn in a music hall". After the London season the company played both the double bills and Uncle Vanya in a six-week run on Broadway. The third, and final, London season under the triumvirate

8692-655: The services appealed to Olivier, and the vicar encouraged the students to develop a taste for secular as well as religious drama. In a school production of Julius Caesar in 1917, the ten-year-old Olivier's performance as Brutus impressed an audience that included Lady Tree , the young Sybil Thorndike and Ellen Terry , who wrote in her diary, "The small boy who played Brutus is already a great actor." He later won praise in other schoolboy productions, as Maria in Twelfth Night (1918) and Katherine in The Taming of

8798-400: The trouble." In January 1953 Leigh travelled to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) to film Elephant Walk with Peter Finch. Shortly after filming started she suffered a breakdown, and returned to Britain where, between periods of incoherence, she told Olivier that she was in love with Finch, and had been having an affair with him; she gradually recovered over a period of several months. As a result of

8904-425: The war turning, Guthrie felt it time to re-establish the company in a London base and invited Richardson to head it. Richardson made it a condition of accepting that he should share the acting and management in a triumvirate. Initially he proposed Gielgud and Olivier as his colleagues, but the former declined, saying, "It would be a disaster, you would have to spend your whole time as referee between Larry and me." It

9010-409: The warrior Hotspur in the first and the doddering Justice Shallow in the second. He received good notices, but by general consent the production belonged to Richardson as Falstaff . In the second double bill it was Olivier who dominated, in the title roles of Oedipus Rex and The Critic . In the two one-act plays his switch from searing tragedy and horror in the first half to farcical comedy in

9116-419: Was Olivier's last appearance on a London stage for six years. In 1938 Olivier joined Richardson to film the spy thriller Q Planes , released the following year. Frank Nugent , the critic for The New York Times , thought Olivier was "not quite so good" as Richardson, but was "quite acceptable". In late 1938, lured by a salary of $ 50,000, the actor travelled to Hollywood to take the part of Heathcliff in

9222-654: Was an extravagant production, but a commercial failure. In The New York Times Brooks Atkinson praised the scenery but not the acting: "Although Miss Leigh and Mr Olivier are handsome young people they hardly act their parts at all." The couple had invested almost all their savings in the project, and its failure was a grave financial blow. They were married in August 1940, at the San Ysidro Ranch in Santa Barbara . The war in Europe had been under way for

9328-452: Was common knowledge that the Old Vic triumvirate had been dismissed, they refused to be drawn on the matter in public, and Olivier even arranged to play a final London season with the company in 1949, as Richard III, Sir Peter Teazle, and Chorus in his own production of Anouilh 's Antigone with Leigh in the title role. After that, he was free to embark on a new career as an actor-manager. In partnership with Binkie Beaumont he staged

9434-488: Was determined that two outstandingly attractive performers should play the parts. Olivier played Victor in the West End and then on Broadway ; Adrianne Allen was Sybil in London, but could not go to New York, where the part was taken by Esmond. In addition to giving the 23-year-old Olivier his first successful West End role, Coward became something of a mentor. In the late 1960s Olivier told Sheridan Morley : He gave me

9540-577: Was finally agreed that the third member would be the stage director John Burrell . The Old Vic governors approached the Royal Navy to secure the release of Richardson and Olivier; the Sea Lords consented, with, as Olivier put it, "a speediness and lack of reluctance which was positively hurtful." The triumvirate secured the New Theatre for their first season and recruited a company. Thorndike

9646-562: Was in 1946–47. Olivier played King Lear, and Richardson took the title role in Cyrano de Bergerac . Olivier would have preferred the roles to be reversed, but Richardson did not wish to attempt Lear. Olivier's Lear received good but not outstanding reviews. In his scenes of decline and madness towards the end of the play some critics found him less moving than his finest predecessors in the role. The influential critic James Agate suggested that Olivier used his dazzling stage technique to disguise

9752-414: Was in Hollywood, Esher terminated the contracts of the three directors, who were said to have "resigned". Melvyn Bragg in a 1984 study of Olivier, and John Miller in the authorised biography of Richardson, both comment that Esher's action put back the establishment of a National Theatre for at least a decade. Looking back in 1971, Bernard Levin wrote that the Old Vic company of 1944 to 1948 "was probably

9858-401: Was instead presented with a "Special Award". He was unimpressed, and later commented that "this was my first absolute fob-off, and I regarded it as such." Throughout the war Tyrone Guthrie had striven to keep the Old Vic company going, even after German bombing in 1942 left the theatre a near-ruin. A small troupe toured the provinces, with Sybil Thorndike at its head. By 1944, with the tide of

9964-548: Was joined by, among others, Harcourt Williams , Joyce Redman and Margaret Leighton . It was agreed to open with a repertory of four plays: Peer Gynt , Arms and the Man , Richard III and Uncle Vanya . Olivier's roles were the Button Moulder, Sergius, Richard and Astrov; Richardson played Peer, Bluntschli, Richmond and Vanya. The first three productions met with acclaim from reviewers and audiences; Uncle Vanya had

10070-675: Was plagued by troubles, Olivier received warm reviews and a BAFTA nomination. Olivier began to notice a change in Leigh's behaviour, and he later recounted that "I would find Vivien sitting on the corner of the bed, wringing her hands and sobbing, in a state of grave distress; I would naturally try desperately to give her some comfort, but for some time she would be inconsolable." After a holiday with Coward in Jamaica, she seemed to have recovered, but Olivier later recorded, "I am sure that ... [the doctors] must have taken some pains to tell me what

10176-560: Was rebuilt. It was moved from its pedestal only at the end of the 1800s for restoration and during the Second World War for safekeeping. The Lion underwent careful restoration work in the 1990s. Restorers believe its body is roughly 2,300 years old. There are also lions carved in relief on the façade of the Doge's Palace , and at the Scuola Grande di San Marco The coats of arms of Popes Pius X , John XXIII , and John Paul I contain

10282-399: Was so busy doing a du Maurier that no one ever heard a word I said. The Shakespearean actors one saw were terrible hams like Frank Benson ." Olivier's concern with speaking naturally and avoiding what he called "singing" Shakespeare's verse was the cause of much frustration in his early career, as critics regularly decried his delivery. In 1926, on Thorndike's recommendation, Olivier joined

10388-405: Was something different. This wasn't just out of lust. This was love that I really didn't ask for but was drawn into." While his relationship with Leigh continued he conducted an affair with the actress Ann Todd , and possibly had a brief affair with the actor Henry Ainley , according to the biographer Michael Munn . In June 1937 the Old Vic company took up an invitation to perform Hamlet in

10494-562: Was tempted back to Hollywood in 1933 to appear opposite Greta Garbo in Queen Christina , but was replaced after two weeks of filming because of a lack of chemistry between the two. Olivier's stage roles in 1934 included Bothwell in Gordon Daviot 's Queen of Scots , which was only a moderate success for him and for the play, but led to an important engagement for the same management ( Bronson Albery ) shortly afterwards. In

10600-515: Was the co-director of the Old Vic , building it into a highly respected company. There his most celebrated roles included Shakespeare 's Richard III and Sophocles 's Oedipus . In the 1950s Olivier was an independent actor-manager, but his stage career was in the doldrums until he joined the avant-garde English Stage Company in 1957 to play the title role in The Entertainer , a part he later played on film . From 1963 to 1973 he

10706-608: Was the founding director of Britain's National Theatre , running a resident company that fostered many future stars. His own parts there included the title role in Othello (1965), and Shylock in The Merchant of Venice (1970). Among Olivier's films are Wuthering Heights (1939), Rebecca (1940) and a trilogy of Shakespeare films as actor/director: Henry V (1944), Hamlet (1948) and Richard III (1955). His later films included Spartacus (1960), The Shoes of

10812-723: Was the next play, presented in May to mark the Coronation of George VI . A pacifist, as he then was, Olivier was as reluctant to play the warrior king as Guthrie was to direct the piece, but the production was a success and Baylis had to extend the run from four to eight weeks. Following Olivier's success in Shakespearean stage productions, he made his first foray into Shakespeare on film in 1936, as Orlando in As You Like It , directed by Paul Czinner , "a charming if lightweight production", according to Michael Brooke of

10918-728: Was to have a decisive effect on the British theatre." While playing the juvenile lead in Bird in Hand at the Royalty Theatre in June 1928, Olivier began a relationship with Jill Esmond , the daughter of the actors Henry V. Esmond and Eva Moore . Olivier later recounted that he thought "she would most certainly do excellent well for a wife ... I wasn't likely to do any better at my age and with my undistinguished track-record, so I promptly fell in love with her." In 1928 Olivier created

11024-641: Was used as justification by Rustico da Torcello and Bon da Malamocco in 828 for stealing the remains of Mark from his grave in Alexandria , and moving them to Venice, where they were eventually interred in the Basilica of St. Mark . A fifteen-foot bronze statue of a lion stands atop a column of Egyptian granite in St. Mark's Square. It was brought to the lagoon during the 12th century, and remained there until Napoleon moved it to Paris. Returned in 1815, it fell and

11130-603: Was very nearly sacked from the Birmingham Rep. for the same reason. Noël cured me; by trying to make me laugh outrageously, he taught me how not to give in to it. My great triumph came in New York when one night I managed to break Noël up on the stage without giggling myself." In 1931 RKO Pictures offered Olivier a two-film contract at $ 1,000 a week; he discussed the possibility with Coward, who, irked, told Olivier "You've no artistic integrity, that's your trouble; this

11236-573: Was wrong with my wife; that her disease was called manic depression and what that meant—a possibly permanent cyclical to-and-fro between the depths of depression and wild, uncontrollable mania. He also recounted the years of problems he had experienced because of Leigh's illness, writing, "throughout her possession by that uncannily evil monster, manic depression, with its deadly ever-tightening spirals, she retained her own individual canniness—an ability to disguise her true mental condition from almost all except me, for whom she could hardly be expected to take

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