Olivier (18 page)
Authors: Philip Ziegler
Olivier as a director could be fiercely protective of his actors and, most of all, his wife. On the first night James Agate was late coming back into the theatre after the interval and groped his way towards his seat. “Sit down, damn you!” snarled Olivier, striking Agate on the shoulder. “Who’s that?” asked the bemused critic. “You know who I am!” said Olivier menacingly. In spite of, or perhaps because of this, Agate gave the play an excellent review. “That’s the way we should treat critics,” Olivier told Binkie Beaumont with satisfaction. “We should do it more often.” Agate was not the only critic to praise the production; it got a rapturous reception and Vivien Leigh in particular was acclaimed for her performance. Best of all, Thornton Wilder came to one of the earlier performances. “I never knew I’d written such a play,” he said in awe.
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“The Skin of Our Teeth” opened in May 1945. It had already been a year of miracles for Olivier. There was more to come.
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 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”.