Labels:text | human face | person | clothing | man | letter OCR: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ Olivier, Laurence Laurence Olivier One of the greatest stage performers of the 20th century, Laurence Olivier was a powerful Shakespearean actor, an acclaimed film star and film director, a founder of the English National Theatre, and the first British actor to be made a peer of the realm. Olivier began acting at school, and by his early 20s was a leading actor in London. The late 1930s saw him become a Hollywood star, playing romantic leads in films such as "Wuthering Heights" (1939) and "Rebecca" (1940). As a director his adaptation of "Henry V" (1944) for the screen caught the mood of wartime Britain and transformed the way Shakespeare was filmed. His direction of the English National Theatre in the 1960s and 1970s generated memorable productions of plays such as Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya." Laurence Olivier, British actor and director, Olivier used elaborate makeup and a 1907-89 great variety of theatrical techniques, and his work was energetic and exciting - his performances in the Shakespearean roles of Richard III and Othello being widely viewed as definitive. CHRONOLOGY
