Laurence Olivier (1907-1989) British, Framed Photo and Autograph. Photo at top with the signature in a separated space in the middle and a commemorative sign at bottom. Gold sticker from the Walt Disney World Co. bottom left, and a Certificate of Authenticity numbered #160815 from Walt Disney World Co. on the back. 

Overall Size: 20 1/4 x 14 1/4 in. 

Photo Size: 9 x 7 in. 

#24 #5371 . 

Laurence Kerr Olivier was born in Dorking, Surrey, England on May 22nd, 1907. His early years were nomadic as his father Gerard was a priest in the Church of England who moved frequently for temporary work. Gerard’s dramatic sermons and brief experience acting in his own youth left his son with a similar desire, and he participated in many plays throughout his childhood, eventually obtaining a scholarship to study at the Central School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art. He worked for several small theater companies after graduating in 1925, joining the Birmingham Repertory Company in 1926. After a series of theatrical flops and bad luck he took some roles in films to make quick money for his impending marriage to Jill Esmond in 1930. Although he vocally expressed his distaste for the medium, it quickly became the source of his rising stardom, for which he was always somewhat bitter. The next ten years were filled with roles in plays on the West End and eventually Broadway, while his marriage quickly deteriorated after the birth of their son and dragged out until their divorce in 1940. His film career was divided between British pictures as well as regular work for both Fox Studios and RKO, and his only solace came from the companionship of Vivien Leigh, whom he had met and begun an affair with in 1936, finally marrying her six months after his divorce from Jill. During World War II he lived in Britain and taught himself to fly, hoping to serve with the Royal Air Force, but wound up mainly acting in British propaganda films and directing film adaptations of Shakespeare instead. He and his contemporaries Ralph Richardson and John Gielgud soon made up a trio of male actors who dominated the British stage of the mid-20th Century. His involvement in the avant-garde English Stage Company in the 1950s and role as the founding director of Britain’s National Theatre from 1963 to 1973 launched numerous careers and made him an unparalleled success. By 1960 Leigh was threatening suicide due to his affair with the actress Joan Plowright, and they divorced in December, allowing him to marry Plowright the following year. He and Plowright remained together the rest of their lives, and had three children. In his later years he had tremendous success in television films, shows, and other appearances, and he received numerous official state honors including a knighthood, a life peerage, and the Order of Merit. He won three Academy Awards, one for Best Actor for Hamlet in 1948 and the other two honorary, the first for his role in Henry V in 1947 and the second in 1979 for his lifetime contribution to the art of film. As producer for Hamlet he also collected the award for Best Picture in 1949, making him one of the only people to ever achieve both honors for a single project. He also won two British Academy Film Awards, five Emmy Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards, with only one nomination for a Tony Award which he did not win. He is commemorated in the Laurence Olivier Awards, given annually by the Society of London Theatre, and was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960. The last 22 years of his life were plagued by illness, including thrombosis and dermatomyositis, and he died of renal failure on July 11th, 1989 at his home in Ashurst, West Sussex, with his ashes buried in Poets’ Corner of Westminster Abbey.