Olivier by Philip Ziegler

List of Illustrations
    SECTION ONE
    1. Olivier in 1914
    2. Olivier’s mother, Agnes
    3. Gerard Olivier, his father
    4. As Katherina in “The Taming of the Shrew”
    5. Olivier at eighteen
    6. As Uncle Vanya in 1927
    7. With Noël Coward, Gertrude Lawrence and Adrianne Allen in “Private Lives”
    8. Working out in 1931
    9. Arriving in New York in 1933 with Jill Esmond
    10. With John Gielgud and Edith Evans in “Romeo and Juliet”
    11. And with Peggy Ashcroft in the same production
    12. With Tarquin Olivier, his son by Jill Esmond
    13. With Cherry Cottrell in “Hamlet”
    14. As Sir Toby Belch in “Twelfth Night”
    15. As Henry V at the Old Vic
    16. As Macbeth, conceived by Michel Saint-Denis
    17. With Vivien Leigh in “Fire Over England”
    18. With Sybil Thorndike in “Coriolanus”
    19. As Heathcliff in “Wuthering Heights”
    20. With Greer Garson in “Pride and Prejudice”
    21. Planning “Rebecca” with Alfred Hitchcock and Joan Fontaine
    22. Making-up for “Lady Hamilton”
    23. Taking a break during the filming of “Henry V”
    24. The famous Saint Crispin’s Day speech from “Henry V”
    25. With Ralph Richardson in Hamburg
    26. In Vivien Leigh’s dressing room in Sydney, Australia
    27. With his first and second wives, Jill Esmond and Vivien Leigh
    28. On the set of “Hamlet” with Jean Simmons
    29. With the skull of poor Yorick
    SECTION TWO
    30. With Alec Guinness in “King Lear”
    31. With Vivien Leigh in “Caesar and Cleopatra”
    32. On horseback in “The Beggar’s Opera”
    33. Vivien Leigh and Peter Finch, her soon-to-be-lover, in 1953
    34. With Vivien Leigh in “Twelfth Night”
    35. With Vivien Leigh in “Macbeth”
    36. With Claire Bloom in “Richard III”
    37. Sitting for Salvador Dalí
    38. The Oliviers with Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe
    39. With Marilyn Monroe on the set of “The Sleeping Prince”
    40. With Maggie Smith in “Rhinoceros”
    41. With Joan Plowright in the film of “The Entertainer”
    42. Peter O’Toole as Hamlet in the National Theatre’s first production
    43. With Maggie Smith in “Othello”
    44. In full make-up as Othello
    45. With Denys Lasdun, the architect who designed the National Theatre
    46. As James Tyrone in “Long Day’s Journey into Night”
    47. With Kenneth Tynan, as imagined by cartoonist Mark Boxer
    48. With Lord Cottesloe at the National Theatre’s topping-out ceremony
    49. With Peter Hall on the Southbank site
    50. As John Tagg in “The Party”
    51. With Michael Caine in “Sleuth”
    52. With Sarah Miles in “Term of Trial”
    53. With Dustin Hoffman in “Marathon Man”
    54. With Gielgud and Richardson in a T.V. biopic of Wagner
    55. With Diana Quick in “Brideshead Revisited”
    56. With Joan Plowright
    57. On his eightieth birthday
    58. Olivier in 1982

OLIVIER

In 1914. He maintained that he was an unattractive child but here looks
     notably cherubic.
    Olivier’s much-loved mother Agnes, and feared and detested father Gerard.
    As Katherina (back, right) in “The Taming of the Shrew” – a performance improbably attended and praised by Ellen Terry, Sybil Thorndike and
     Theodore Komisarjevsky.
    Aged eighteen. “My mouth is like a tortoise’s arse,” he complained. “It’s an
     absolute slit.”
    As Uncle Vanya in 1927. Almost incredibly, he was only nineteen at the time.
    With Adrianne Allen, watching Noël Coward and Gertrude Lawrence slug it out in “Private Lives”. As the photograph suggests, his role was very much that of a looker-on.
    Working out in 1931. William Gaskill said that he had never met an actor so concerned about his physical appearance.
    Arriving in New York in 1933 with his first wife, Jill Esmond. Olivier thought he was on his way to co-star with Greta Garbo in “Queen Christina”. He was to be disappointed.
    Edith Evans as the Nurse in “Romeo and Juliet” seems notably ill at ease between Olivier (Romeo) and Gielgud (Mercutio).
    As Romeo to Peggy Ashcroft’s Juliet in 1935. He and