LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Laurence Olivier: Roles
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Olivier made his directorial debut with a film of Shakespeare's Henry V. At first, he did not believe he was up to the task, instead trying to offer it to William Wyler, Carol Reed, and Terence Young. The film was shot in Ireland (due to the fact that it was neutral), with the Irish plains having to double for the fields of Agincourt. During the shooting of one of the battle scenes, a horse collided with a camera that Olivier was attending. Olivier had had his eye to the viewfinder, and when the horse crashed into his position, the camera smashed into him, cutting his lip, and leaving a scar that would be prominent in later roles.
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Olivier finally returned to Britain in 1941 and joined the Fleet Air Arm, for whom he completed 456 flying hours. He ... continued to act, starring in a host of patriotic films, such as The 49th Parallel and Henry V. His final role, however, was as the unnamed soldier in War Requiem, the 1998 Derek Jarman film that conveyed the powerful anti-war message of poet Wilfred Owen.
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The first thing Olivier had to do was rewrite and condense Shakespeare's second longest text into a coherent and flowing film script. This he did by concentrating mainly on his own character's rise and fall, cutting a number of characters out, Queen Margaret most noticeably, making the women's roles smaller, and reordering some of the scenes in order to help the cinematic flow of events.
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A poster from HAMLET (1948), produced, directed by, and starring Olivier in his only Best Actor winning role. To date, he is one of only two actor/directors ever to direct himself to an acting Oscar. (Roberto Benigni for LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL (1997) is the other.)
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