Olivier

Terry Coleman

• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN: 9780805075366
• eBook ISBN: 9781429900225
• Subtopic: Film History & Criticism

Based on exclusive, unprecedented access, the definitive biography of Sir Laurence Olivier, the dashing, self-invented Englishman who became the greatest actor of the twentieth century
Sir Laurence Olivier met everyone, knew everyone, and played every role in existence. But Olivier was as elusive in life as he was on the stage, a bold and practiced pretender who changed names, altered his identity, and defied characterization.
In this mesmerizing book, acclaimed biographer Terry Coleman draws for the first time on the vast archive of Olivier's private papers and correspondence, and those of his family, finally uncovering the history and the private self that Olivier worked so masterfully all his life to obscure. Beginning with the death of his mother at age eleven, Olivier was defined throughout his life by a passionate devotion to the women closest to him. Acting and sex were for him inseparable: through famous romances with Vivien Leigh and Joan Plowright and countless trysts with lesser-known mistresses, these relationships were constantly entangled with his stage work, each feeding the other and driving Olivier to greater heights. And the heights were great: at every step he was surrounded by the foremost celebrities of the time, on both sides of the Atlantic—Richard Burton, Greta Garbo, William Wyler, Katharine Hepburn. The list is as long as it is dazzling.
Here is the first comprehensive account of the man whose autobiography, written late in his life, told only a small part of the story. In Olivier, Coleman uncovers the origins of Olivier's genius and reveals the methods of the century's most fascinating performer.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• 1. As the Olive Tree Flourishes
• 2. Sweet Singing, and “Whispering”
• 3. An Unanswered Wish to Be Liked
• 4. Our Particular Pet Devil, or What?
• 5. The Lick of Luxury of Those Lush Valleys
• 6. Matinee Idol to Roaring Italian Boy
• 7. Vivling and Dark Destruction
• 8. Hamlet and Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Kerr
• 9. The Making of Wuthering Heights
• 10. Gone With the Wind
• 11. Not Sceered, Just Proud
• 12. Not Ever Having Been an Actor
• 13. The Walrus and the Sceptered Isle
• 14. Kean’s Sword, and the Thrill
• 15. Buckingham Palace, 10:15
• 16. God and the Angel
• 17. Living Like Royals
• 18. Streetcar, Carrie, and the Cleos
• 19. Great God in Heaven, What Now?
• 20. Richard III and the Ménage à Trois
• 21. The Prince and the Showgirl
• 22. The King Comes to the Court
• 23. Dropping the Legend
• 24. New Wife, New National
• 25. Max Factor 2880, and Love of a Strange Strength
• 26. The Concrete Never-Never Land
• 27. Listening to That Man Breathing
• 28. The College of Cardinals, and Surprise
• 29. A Bit Worried About Time Running Out
• 30. “A Gesture Somewhere Round Glory”
• 31. Dracula—the Shame of It
• 32. Jobbing Actor, OM
• 33. That Damned Book
• 34. No Longer on an Even Keel
• 35. Uninsurable as God
• 36. St. Paul’s or Westminster Abbey
• Epilogue: Olivier Remembered
• Author’s Note: The Androgynous Actor
• A Chronology of Olivier’s Stage Career
• A Chronology of Olivier’s Films
• A Chronology of Olivier’s Work in Television
• The Olivier Family
• Also by Terry Coleman
• About the Author
• Acknowledgments
• Sources
• Notes
• Index
• Copyright