LAURENCE OLIVIER
Widely considered to be the greatest English-speaking actor of the 20th Century, Olivier was the first thespian to be elevated to a life peerage. His Hollywood breakthrough came as Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights in 1939. He served in the Royal Navy in the Second World War and in 1944 directed his patriotic version of Henry V. After the war he revitalised the Old Vic and was producer-director of the National Theatre, accepting many rather questionable movie roles to fund this project. The main auditorium of the National Theatre is named after him, as are the annual awards bestowed by the Society of West End Theatre. He died in 1989 and became only the second actor to be interred in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey.
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Brian Robinson is a film archivist and historian at the British Film Institute. He has been described as 'a minor British institution' and 'a walking encyclopaedia on silent film'.
Communications Manager and Senior Programmer of the London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival, Brian has been at the BFI for 25 years. |
