Laurence Olivier

British actor, director and producer, considered by many to be the greatest actor of the twentieth century. He has received the greatest attention and honors of his field for his work in 121 stage roles and in 58 films, receiving no less than 11 Oscar nominations. The Founder of London's Royal National Theatre and the Festival Theatre in Chichester, he successfully adapted Shakespeare's plays to the medium of film, a landmark achievement that made the Bard available for mass distribution worldwide. Olivier was the youngest actor ever knighted, at 39 in 1946 by King George VI for his "invaluable service to the realm," and became Lord Olivier at 63, the first peerage ever given an actor. The first actor ever to be elevated to the British peerage, he was titled Sir Laurence Olivier, Baron of Brighton by Queen Elizabeth. Olivier wrote "Confessions of an Actor" in 1982.

The youngest of three children born to Parson Gerard Olivier and homemaker mother Agnes Crookenden, Olivier's early interest in acting began by imitating his father's melodramatic sermons in order to get his attention. Insightful Agnes recognized her delicate son's acting ability and encouraged him to recite monologues from plays, coaching him herself. While Olivier never did gain much of his taciturn father's attention, he became the center of his mother's world. She urged him to appear in plays at the boarding school he attended where, in his own words, he was a "muddled kind of boy, a weakling." Agnes was not alone in her praise of her son's talent. After watching young "Larry" appear as Brutus at age 12 in a school production of "Julius Caesar," actress Ellen Terry wrote in her diary "the boy who played Brutus is already a great actor."

The definitive blow of his life occurred the next year when his beloved mother died of a brain tumor.