Laurence Olivier

According to English writer Charles Bennett, who met Olivier in 1927, Laurence Olivier could say William Shakespeare's words as effortlessly as if he were "really thinking them." Laurence Kerr Olivier was born to Agnes Louise (Crookenden) and Gerard Kerr Olivier, a High Anglican priest, in Dorking, Surrey, England. His surname was derived from a great-great-grandfather of French Huguenot descent.

One of Olivier's early triumphs on the London stage as a Shakespearean actor occurred in 1935 when he portrayed "Romeo" and "Mercutio" in alternate performances of "Romeo and Juliet" alongside John Gielgud. A young Englishwoman who was just starting out on the stage fell in love with Olivier's Romeo. In a special performance at Kronberg Castle in Elsinore, Denmark, in 1937, she played "Ophelia" alongside his "Hamlet." After both of them returned from filming pictures in America that were great box office blockbusters in 1939, she became his second wife in 1940. In the films, Fire Over England (1937), 21 Days (1940), and That Hamilton Woman, Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier were screen lovers (1941).

In 1944, Olivier and Leigh flew to Scotland with Charles C. Bennett to explore the true-life story of a Scottish girl convicted of killing her French boyfriend. Bennett said that Olivier investigated the case "with all the zeal of Sherlock Holmes," and that "we found information, never known or offered at the trial, that would most surely have sent the young girl to the gallows." The cinematic project was later shelved. Throughout their two-decade marriage, Olivier and Leigh performed on stage in England and America and made films whenever they needed money.

Detailed information:
Born: May 22, 1907, in Dorking, Surrey, England, UK
Died: July 11, 1989, in Steyning, West Sussex, England, UK (renal failure)
Birth Name: Laurence Kerr Olivier
Nicknames: Larry