Laurence Olivier

Acting

Born 1907-05-22 Died 1989-07-11 Dorking, Surrey, England, UK 160 credits Academy Awards 2 Primetime Emmy Awards 3 Golden Globe Awards 2 BAFTA Awards 4 David di Donatello for best foreign production 2 David di Donatello for Best Foreign Actor 2 Academy Honorary Award 2 Donaldson Awards 1

Awards

Won 2 Academy Awards

Academy Awards 2 won · 10 nominated

1979 Best Actor Nominated The Boys from Brazil
1977 Best Supporting Actor Nominated Marathon Man
1973 Best Actor Nominated Sleuth
1966 Best Actor Nominated Othello
1961 Best Actor Nominated The Entertainer
1957 Best Actor Nominated Richard III
1949 Best Director Nominated Hamlet
1949 Best Actor Won Hamlet
1949 Best Picture Won Hamlet
1947 Best Actor Nominated Henry V
1941 Best Actor Nominated Rebecca
1940 Best Actor Nominated Wuthering Heights

Primetime Emmy Awards 3 won

1984 Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie Won King Lear
1982 Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie Won Patsy Cline: Walkin' After Midnight, Brideshead Revisited
1960 Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie Won The Moon and Sixpence

Golden Globe Awards 2 won

1977 Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture Won Marathon Man
1949 Best Actor in a Leading Role Won Hamlet

BAFTA Awards 4 won

1976 BAFTA Fellowship Won
1970 Best Actor in a Supporting Role Won Oh! What a Lovely War
1956 Best Film Won Richard III
1955 Best British Film Won Richard III

Tony Awards 1 nominated

1958 Best Actor in a Play Nominated

David di Donatello for best foreign production 2 won

1957 best foreign production Won Richard III
— best foreign production Won

David di Donatello for Best Foreign Actor 2 won

1957 Best Foreign Actor Won Richard III
— Best Foreign Actor Won

Academy Honorary Award 2 won

1979 Academy Honorary Award Won
1947 Academy Honorary Award Won

Donaldson Awards 1 won

— Donaldson Awards Won

Award data from Wikidata (CC0). Coverage may be incomplete.

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Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM (22 May 1907 – 11 July 1989) was an English actor and director who, along with his contemporaries Ralph Richardson, Peggy Ashcroft and John Gielgud, dominated the British stage of the mid-20th century. He also worked in films throughout his career, playing more than fifty cinema roles. Late in his career, he had considerable success in television roles. His family had no theatrical connections, but Olivier's father, a clergyman, decided that his son should become an actor. After attending a drama school in London, Olivier learned his craft in a succession of acting jobs during the late 1920s. In 1930 he had his first important West End success in Noël Coward's Private Lives, and he appeared in his first film. In 1935 he played in a celebrated production of Romeo and Juliet alongside Gielgud and Ashcroft, and by the end of the decade he was an established star. In the 1940s, together with Richardson and John Burrell, Olivier was the co-director of the Old Vic, building it into a highly respected company. There his most celebrated roles included Shakespeare's Richard III and Sophocles's Oedipus. In the 1950s Olivier was an independent actor-manager, but his stage career was in the doldrums until he joined the avant garde English Stage Company in 1957 to play the title role in The Entertainer, a part he later played on film. From 1963 to 1973 he was the founding director of Britain's National Theatre, running a resident company that fostered many future stars. His own parts there included the title role in Othello (1965) and Shylock in The Merchant of Venice (1970). Among Olivier's films are Wuthering Heights (1939), Rebecca (1940), and a trilogy of Shakespeare films as actor-director: Henry V (1944), Hamlet (1948), and Richard III (1955). His later films included The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968), Sleuth (1972), Marathon Man (1976), and The Boys from Brazil (1978). His television appearances included an adaptation of The Moon and Sixpence (1960), Long Day's Journey into Night (1973), Love Among the Ruins (1975), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1976), Brideshead Revisited (1981) and King Lear (1983). Olivier's honours included a knighthood (1947), a life peerage (1970) and the Order of Merit (1981). For his on-screen work he received four Academy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, five Emmy Awards and three Golden Globe Awards. The National Theatre's largest auditorium is named in his honour, and he is commemorated in the Laurence Olivier Awards, given annually by the Society of London Theatre. He was married three times, to the actresses Jill Esmond from 1930 to 1940, Vivien Leigh from 1940 to 1960, and Joan Plowright from 1961 until his death.