• "Olivier played noble people."--Vanessa Redgrave
• "He's a brilliant technician, but he never does the same thing twice."--Natalie Wood
• "Olivier's friendship was a great joy and solace to me, especially in the early years. Laurence had a wonderful gaiety, and I never laughed so much with anyone as with him."--Ralph Richardson
• "A man whose name has been spoken with undiminished admiration for several decades now, wherever in the world theatre exists. A romantic movie star,a sublime comedian, to many he is the greatest Shakespearian actor of our age. In a time of rockets that light up the theatrical sky and vanish in the night, this is a planet."--Arthur Miller
• "He had refused to be the narrator of the Laurence Harvey version (John Gielgud narrated the 1954 film). While he was in Rome sooting The Shoes of the Fisherman I decided to call on him. I wanted an important voice there. The prologue sets a kind of style, so I showed a rough copy of the script to larry and he loved it. He was in tears! He said, 'Can i do something?', and in five minutes he had done the narration, both the begining and the end. Then he wanted to do more, so while we were dubbing, he altered his voice and did the voice of Lord Montague for an italian actor who had played the part. He even dubbed in shouts for the crowd scenes and still he said, 'Give me more to do!' he was wonderful."--Director Fanco Zeffirelli, who got Larry to do the narration (unbilled in the credits) for his 1967 film version of Romeo and Juliet
• "Amazing thing. NO actor wants to see anyone before the show, ever. But I went round. There he was in his make-up. 'Sit down,' he said. 'You are my best friend, so I don't ever try to fool you. I'm just telling you that you're in for a very poor evening. I'm lousy in the part, I don't know it, and I just want you to know that I know.' So I went and had two double brandies. The curtain went up, out came his lordship, and said, 'Now is the winter of our discontent...' And the whole theatre froze. I was the performance of a lifetime."--John Mills, recalling Larry's nervousness on the opening night of his stage performance of Richard III, 1944. Larry had been despondent because a week before, Vivien Leigh had miscarried their child.
• "He was perhaps the greatest MacBeth we'll ever see."--Claire Bloom
• "One of the people I got to know years ago, which was a great privilege, was Laurence Oliver. He was like a laser - that was his power."--Sir Anthony Hopkins
• “Because of the theater I became an actor. When I was little my mother told me the story of Hamlet. I was obsessed with it, which she became aware of and began to record Laurence Olivier and other actors who captivated me with their style."--Ralph Fiennes
the photo booth: 23,000 images and counting.
tcm in august
• current contest
there are no current contests
• rare images of vivien leigh and laurence olivier for the gallery
• vintage and modern magazine/newspaper articles
• fan photos from vivien leigh and laurence olivier-related destinations in london, hollywood, or elsewhere
designed/maintained by: kendra
launched: april 8, 2007
version: 4.0