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• Laurence Olivier is an award-winning British film, television, and stage actor, director, and producer, best known for directing and performing in Shakespearean adaptations.

• Fast Facts

  1. Born: May 22, 1907
  2. Died: July 11, 1989
  3. Knighted in 1947
  4. Was married to Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright
  5. Won two Academy Awards for the film Hamlet in 1949
  6. The line "Is it safe?", that his chracter, Dr, Christian Szell says in The Marathon Man, was voted the 70th most famous movie quote by the American Film Institute

• Life and Career

  Born in 1907 in Dorking, Surrey, England, he was raised by a strict and religious father, who was Anglican priest. He performed in plays as a young boy which led to his attending the Central School of Dramatic Art when he was 17.

  He gained fame in the United States playing Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights and would have further success in Rebecca and Pride and Prejudice. His noted Shakespearean films are Henry V, Hamlet, Richard III and Othello.

  He was a founder of the National Theatre, and his influence on British theatre and actors, after a career that spanned six decades, has made him a respected part of the history of performing arts.

• Notable Films

  1. 1939: Wuthering Heights
  2. 1940: Rebecca
  3. 1944: Henry V
  4. 1948: Hamlet
  5. 1960: Spartacus
  6. 1960: The Entertainer
  7. 1972: Sleuth
  8. 1976: Marathon Man
  9. 1977: A Bridge Too Far
  10. 1978: The Boys from Brazil

• Related Mahalo Pages

  William Shakespeare | Kenneth Branagh | Orson Welles | Daniel Day-Lewis

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