Biography
Laurence Olivier was an English actor and director. Born Laurence Kerr Olivier on 22 May 1907 in Dorking, Surrey, he died on 11 July 1989.
He trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama and began his professional career in repertory theatre in the mid-1920s. His first major West End success was in Noël Coward's Private Lives (1930). In 1935 he appeared opposite John Gielgud and Peggy Ashcroft in a celebrated production of Romeo and Juliet. During the 1940s he served as co-director of the Old Vic company alongside Ralph Richardson.
Olivier appeared in more than fifty films. He played Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights (1939) and Maxim de Winter in Rebecca (1940). He directed and starred in Shakespeare film adaptations including Henry V (1944) and Hamlet (1948). From 1963 to 1973 he was founding director of the National Theatre. He was knighted in 1947 and created Baron Olivier in 1970.
