Edward's in Oxford, continued to display thespian talent and, upon graduation, his father advised he pursue a theatrical career.Īt 17, he won a scholarship to the Central School of Speech and Drama, but soon began a two-year stint with the Birmingham Repertory Company. In 1922, the school company staged its version of "The Taming of the Shrew" at a Stratford-on-Avon Shakespeare birthday festival, with Olivier drawing mainstream raves for his shrewish Katharina (in true Shakespearean drag). He would be devastated two years later when his mother died of a brain tumor. Gerard soon moved the family to the bleaker urban scape of London to minister its Dickensian slums, though his considerable inheritance afforded "Larry" a series of parochial schools, including All Saints Church's "choir school," which began refining his penchant for the arts, and saw him play Brutus in "Julius Caesar" at age 10. Gerard Olivier - she a warm and doting woman, he an austere and stolid High Anglican minister. He was born Laurence Kerr Olivier on in Dorking, Surrey, England, the third child of Agnes and Rev. His legacy as the definitive Heathcliff and Hamlet, his acclaim even a generation later as the vengeful cuckold in "Sleuth" (1972) and a ruthless Nazi doctor in "Marathon Man" (1976), would see him earn 14 Oscar nominations, three statues, five Emmys out of nine nominations, two British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) awards out of 10 nominations - only a few indicators of his titanic impact on his craft and indeed on Western culture.
In an age when the "legitimate" theater held firm to primacy over motion pictures, and classical theater over modern, Laurence Olivier crossed seamlessly between both, even bridging the gap between popular culture and the Shakespearean and classic drama canon of which he was master.
He was by wide consensus the greatest actor of the 20th century.
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