Olivier by Philip Ziegler Page A

John Gielgud alternated in the parts of Romeo and Mercutio.
    Tarquin Olivier, showing early signs of the intrepidity that marked his life.
    With Cherry Cottrell as Ophelia in “Hamlet”.
    Olivier followed Hamlet with Toby Belch in “Twelfth Night”: a part, as he himself remarked “designed to demonstrate my staggering versatility”.
    As Henry V. “He’s a scoutmaster,” Ralph Richardson said. “But he raised scoutmastership to godlike proportions.”
    As Macbeth, conceived by Michel Saint-Denis. “Larry’s make-up comes on,” remarked Vivien Leigh, “then Banquo comes on, then Larry comes on.”
    With Vivien Leigh in “Fire Over England”, the film that brought them together.
    Sybil Thorndike as Volumnia to Olivier’s Coriolanus at the Old Vic in 1938. She refused to play the part unless Olivier promised to act in “a natural, straightforward way”.
    In “Wuthering Heights”. “Thees actor es the ogliest actor in pictures,” Sam Goldwyn protested.
    With Greer Garson in “Pride and Prejudice” –
     “I thought darling Greer was as wrong as could be”, Olivier remarked.
    Planning “Rebecca” with Hitchcock and Joan Fontaine. Olivier disliked Fontaine from the start, deeming her “skinny and unattractive”.
    Making-up for “Lady Hamilton”. Olivier attached enormous importance to this operation and would spend hours in front of the mirror.
    Olivier directed, produced and starred in “Henry V”. “He would play each part himself as he conceived it and expect the actors to copy it,” said Dallas Bower.
    “This day is called the Feast of Crispian” – the speech with which Olivier is above all identified and a recording of which was played at his memorial service.
    With Ralph Richardson in Hamburg on an E.N.S.A. tour shortly after the end of the war.
    Vivien’s Leigh’s dressing room in Sydney, smothered in flowers. Though Olivier grumbled about their reception in Australia they were, in fact, fêted wherever they went.
    Perched rather uncomfortably between his first wife, Jill Esmond, and his second, Vivien Leigh.
    On the set of the film of “Hamlet” in 1948. Vivien Leigh had wanted to play Ophelia, but instead Jean Simmons, described by Olivier as a “ravishing sixteen-year-old”, was given the part.

As Lear, in a production he also directed, with Alec Guinness as the Fool. “Frankly, Lear is an easy part . . .” Olivier proclaimed boldly. It isn’t.
    Olivier and Leigh as Caesar and Cleopatra in 1951. Already there were signs that their relationship was under strain.
    Swashbuckling in “The Beggar’s Opera”. “I hope and pray,” Olivier wrote, “that my personal flop will be the worst that I will ever disenjoy.”
    Vivien Leigh and her soon-to-be lover, Peter Finch, flying off to Ceylon to film “Elephant Walk” in 1953. She was eventually replaced by Elizabeth Taylor, although she still appears in many long shots and with her back to the camera.
    Malvolio to Vivien Leigh’s Viola in the 1955 “Twelfth Night” at Stratford.
    Olivier, Gielgud considered, was “the finest Macbeth I have ever seen”. Leigh’s performance was “almost the best thing I ever saw her do – but on a small scale”.
    With Claire Bloom as Lady Anne in “Richard III”. She was not merely seduced by Richard III on stage but by Olivier off it.
    Dressed as Richard III and being painted by Salvador Dalí. The portrait is now in the Dalí Museum in Barcelona.
    The Oliviers with Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe in 1956.
    With Marilyn Monroe on the set of “The Sleeping Prince”. Olivier had expected to have an affair with Monroe but ended up hating her with consuming ferocity.
    With Maggie Smith in Ionesco’s “Rhinoceros”. “What a perfectly bloody play,” protested Noël Coward, but others thought it a masterpiece of the theatre of the absurd.
    With Joan Plowright in the film of “The Entertainer”. By this time Olivier’s marriage with Vivien Leigh was all but over.
    Peter