Laurence Olivier Centenary: The Greatest Actor of the 20th Century?

Who was/is the world’s greatest actor? It’s the kind of question that doesn’t really have an answer. One thing is for sure though, any such discussion would definitely include two names – Marlon Brando and Laurence Olivier. The two were like chalk and cheese; one a classically trained Shakespearian actor the other an advocate of the “method” school.

Champions of both stars could doubtless give valid reasons why one or the other was the superior thespian, but there is one yardstick by which Olivier wins hands down – longevity. While Brando grew bored with both the industry and the parts he was given to play, Olivier just seemed to get better the older he got, receiving the last of his Oscar nominations while in his seventies.

Olivier started as a stage actor and had a tendency early on in his career to look down on film acting. He had success on stage with Romeo and Juliet alongside John Giulgud in 1935, although the two did not get on. His stage career in the '30s was a mixed bag, winning acclaim for Henry V, while his Hamlet earned him less flattering reviews.

While he may have had no love for screen acting, he was still happy to take the work (and the money), making his debut in 1930’s The Temporary Widow. His first major screen performance was as Heathcliff in William Wyler’s Wuthering Heights (1939) for which he received an Oscar nomination. The film marked a change in Olivier’s acting style as Wyler instructed the actor in the differences between theatre acting and screen acting, namely that you didn’t need to shout in order to be heard by the back row in a movie. The following year he scored another hit with Hitchcock’s adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca. The film earned him his second Oscar nomination.

In 1944 he fully embarrassed the film world by adapting Shakespeare’s Henry V for the screen. The film was a hit with both audiences and critics and Olivier received a special Honorary Award at the Oscars for his work as actor, producer, and director, although he felt this was merely a “fob-off” as the academy wouldn’t give all the major awards to a foreigner.

Four years later he made the second of his Shakespeare adaptations with the equally well-received Hamlet, this time picking up the Best Actor and Best Picture Award (he missed out on Best Director which went to John Huston for Treasure of the Sierra Madre). His performance in Richard III (1955) is widely considered to be one of his best and received widespread critical acclaim but the film was a commercial failure.

Article Author: Ian Woolstencroft

Ian Woolstencroft was brought up on a diet of John Wayne movies and Marvel Comics and still has a passion for both. Now as a blogcritic he finally understands what Spider-Man’s Uncle Ben meant when he said ‘With great power comes great responsibility.’ …

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