Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. One of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century, he was the youngest actor to be knighted and the first to be elevated to the peerage. He married three times, to actresses Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright. Actor Spencer Tracy said that Olivier was 'the greatest actor in the English-speaking world'. Olivier played a wide variety of roles on stage and screen from Greek tragedy, Shakespeare and Restoration comedy to modern American and British drama. He was the first artistic... director of the National Theatre of Great Britain and its main stage is named in his honour. He is regarded by some to be the greatest actor of the 20th century, in the same category as David Garrick, Richard Burbage, Edmund Kean and Henry Irving in their own centuries. Olivier's AMPAS acknowledgments are considerable: twelve Oscar nominations, with two awards , plus two honorary awards including a statuette and certificate.
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| Birthdate: | May 22, 1907 |
| Birthplace: | Dorking |
| Date of death: | July 11, 1989 |
| Height: | 5' 10" |
| Education: | Central School of Speech and Drama |
| Religion: | Agnosticism |
| Also known as: | Laurence Kerr Olivier, Sir Laurence Olivier, Lawrence Olivier |