Olivier (44 page)

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 O’Toole played Hamlet in the first production at the National Theatre. Olivier directed – an experience not greatly relished by either party.

Olivier’s Othello was one of his greatest roles. His interaction with Maggie Smith produced an unforgettable theatrical experience and much discomfort to
both parties.

Olivier took three and a half hours to make up as Othello: blackening every part of his body, whether visible to the audience or not.

With the architect, Denys Lasdun, in 1967, inspecting a model of the new
National Theatre.