| Laurence Olivier | |
|---|---|
 Olivier in Spartacus (1960) | |
|
Born |
May 22, 1907 |
|
Died |
11 July, 1989 |
|
Occupation |
Actor/director/producer/screenwriter |
|
Years active |
1926 - 1988 |
Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered British actors of the 20th century. He married Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh and Joan Plowright.
Olivier played a wide variety of roles on stage and screen from Greek tragedy, Shakespeare and Restoration comedy to modern American and British drama. He was the first artistic director of the National Theatre of Great Britain and its main stage is named in his honour. He is generally regarded to be the greatest actor of the 20th century, in the same category as David Garrick, Richard Burbage, Edmund Kean and Henry Irving in their own centuries. Olivier's AMPAS acknowledgments are considerable