LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Laurence Olivier: Old Vic
built 124 days ago
For almost a decade, Olivier was among the cinema's most sought-after leading men. A master craftsman, he gloried in disguising himself with accents, putty noses and wigs. But in the 1950s, the ground shifted under him. Marlon Brando's new, more natural style made Olivier and his "craft" seem old-fashioned. He'd been all but written off as a dinosaur when he answered his critics by playing a seedy, vaudeville has-been in The Entertainer—starting with a plummy accent, then letting it disappear as he virtually deconstructed his own art.
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The son of an Anglican minister, Olivier attended All Saints Choir School, where at age nine he made his theatrical debut as Brutus in an abridgement of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. Five years later he played the female lead in The Taming of the Shrew at Oxford's St. Edward's School, repeating this performance at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. These early stage appearances did not go unnoticed by the theatrical notables of the era, who encouraged Olivier to consider acting as a profession. At first he dismissed the notion, hoping to follow the example of his older brother by managing an Indian rubber plantation; but his father, who had heretofore been ambivalent on the subject of acting, all but demanded that young Laurence embark upon a stage career.
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Olivier made his American theatrical debut in a short-lived melodrama in New York City in 1929. In 1930 and 1931 he appeared in Private Lives, by English playwright Noel Coward, in both London and New York City. In 1937 and 1938 he was a member of the Old Vic Shakespearean repertory company in London. Olivier was codirector of the Old Vic company from 1944 to 1949; in 1946 he appeared triumphantly with the company in the United States. In the theater Olivier played classical roles ranging from Greek tragedy to Restoration comedy; he ... appeared in various contemporary plays.
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Leigh played Ophelia to Olivier's Hamlet in an Old Vic Theatre production, and Olivier later recalled an incident during which her mood rapidly changed as she was quietly preparing to go onstage. Without apparent provocation, she began screaming at him, before suddenly becoming silent and staring into space. She was able to perform without mishap, and by the following day, she had returned to normal with no recollection of the event. It was the first time Olivier witnessed such behaviour from her.[13]
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The other actors, perhaps guided by Olivier, give equally un-nuanced performances. Many of them are fine, reputable thespians, but their readings are fairly predictable. Polonius is a doddering old fool, Ophelia (the gorgeous Jean Simmons) is fair and fragile, Claudius is drunken and lascivious, and oblivious Gertrude dotes creepily on her fair-haired son. No real surprises, though it should be taken into account that Olivier was helping to make some of these molds as much as repeat them. Fans of the original Star Wars movie will enjoy watching Peter Cushing (who played Grand Moff Tarkin in the space opera) chew up the scenery as the swishy “waterfly,” Osric.
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Olivier was one of the founders of the National Theatre. He became first NT Director at the Old Vic before the South Bank building was constructed with his opening production of Hamlet in October 1963.
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