0:00:17 > 0:00:19With smouldering good looks
0:00:19 > 0:00:21and a strong athletic presence,
0:00:21 > 0:00:23Laurence Olivier had a reputation
0:00:23 > 0:00:27as the greatest actor of the 20th century.
0:00:27 > 0:00:29In films like Wuthering Heights and Rebecca,
0:00:29 > 0:00:33he raised the acting bar to new levels.
0:00:33 > 0:00:38And for years, he led a life of high drama off the screen too.
0:00:38 > 0:00:41With a tempestuous marriage to Vivien Leigh,
0:00:41 > 0:00:44he became half of one of Hollywood's
0:00:44 > 0:00:46original super couples.
0:00:46 > 0:00:50Olivier was the youngest actor to ever be knighted,
0:00:50 > 0:00:52and the first to become a life peer -
0:00:52 > 0:00:57but famously insisted on being called not "sir", not "Lord",
0:00:57 > 0:01:00but simply "Larry".
0:01:01 > 0:01:04His acting talent and his future destiny
0:01:04 > 0:01:06were both apparent from an early age -
0:01:06 > 0:01:09something he talks about in this interview.
0:01:09 > 0:01:12First, on location at The Old Vic theatre,
0:01:12 > 0:01:14and then later from the BBC studios
0:01:14 > 0:01:18on the programme Great Acting with Kenneth Tynan.
0:01:18 > 0:01:20When you were 10 years old,
0:01:20 > 0:01:23Ellen Terry said, "The boy who pays the part of Brutus
0:01:23 > 0:01:24"is already a great actor".
0:01:24 > 0:01:26Can you remember playing Brutus?
0:01:26 > 0:01:28Oh, yes, I do. I do indeed.
0:01:28 > 0:01:31My father had a story about Forbes-Robertson.
0:01:31 > 0:01:33I never believed it, but my father used to tell it,
0:01:33 > 0:01:35so I'll tell it, for what it's worth.
0:01:35 > 0:01:37I don't know what it's worth in truth,
0:01:37 > 0:01:40but he said that he met Forbes-Robertson on that occasion,
0:01:40 > 0:01:43and as he put it, Forbes-Robertson had tears in his eyes
0:01:43 > 0:01:46when my father said, "My little boy isn't bad, is he?" or something.
0:01:46 > 0:01:49And, um, he said that Forbes-Robertson said,
0:01:49 > 0:01:53"My dear man, he IS Brutus," he says.
0:01:53 > 0:01:55Well, I don't see how I can have been at 10, but still.
0:01:55 > 0:01:58Your father was a high Anglican clergyman.
0:01:58 > 0:02:00He was a high Anglican clergyman.
0:02:00 > 0:02:02- Did he have a great deal of influence on your life?- Oh, yes.
0:02:02 > 0:02:04Oh, yes, very much. Very much.
0:02:04 > 0:02:06You see, both my brother and I started,
0:02:06 > 0:02:09at least, with a great sense of ritual.
0:02:09 > 0:02:11And it was these elaborate rituals
0:02:11 > 0:02:13that gave you the idea, perhaps, of acting?
0:02:13 > 0:02:17Yes. Oh, yes. And my father's great prowess in the pulpit.
0:02:17 > 0:02:20Did your father approve of you going on the stage?
0:02:20 > 0:02:22Well, as a matter of fact,
0:02:22 > 0:02:25although my relationship with him
0:02:25 > 0:02:29had been extremely distant, all my youth -
0:02:29 > 0:02:31I was terrified of him,
0:02:31 > 0:02:34he was a very frightening father figure, Victorian father figure -
0:02:34 > 0:02:38I absolutely worshipped and adored my mother,
0:02:38 > 0:02:41who died when I was 13 years old.
0:02:41 > 0:02:44I often think and say that perhaps I've never got over it.
0:02:44 > 0:02:48Anyway, my father had to take over, not knowing me very much.
0:02:48 > 0:02:50I think, to him, I was rather an unnecessary child.
0:02:50 > 0:02:52I don't blame him at all,
0:02:52 > 0:02:56because I was probably very fat an absolutely brainless.
0:02:56 > 0:03:02But finally, when my brother went to India as an Indian rubber planter -
0:03:02 > 0:03:04not as an Indian rubber planter,
0:03:04 > 0:03:07but as an English rubber planter in India -
0:03:07 > 0:03:10I was filled with the glamour of what my brother was doing,
0:03:10 > 0:03:13and when we were seeing him off on his boat in Tilbury,
0:03:13 > 0:03:17we got back home to Letchworth, where my father was rector,
0:03:17 > 0:03:22I said, "Well, when can I follow Dickie to India, Father, please?
0:03:22 > 0:03:25"About one or two years? I don't want to go to the university."
0:03:25 > 0:03:27And my father said, "You're talking nonsense.
0:03:27 > 0:03:29"You're going to be an actor."
0:03:29 > 0:03:31- And this was a complete surprise to you?- Yes, it was.
0:03:31 > 0:03:34I was amazed, A, that he'd thought things out for me at all,
0:03:34 > 0:03:37and B, that he'd thought things out that far.
0:03:37 > 0:03:39And that he'd had the...
0:03:39 > 0:03:42I secretly knew that he was right, that I ought to be an actor.
0:03:42 > 0:03:45Have you found it difficult to find bits of yourself
0:03:45 > 0:03:48in the evil characters you've played?
0:03:48 > 0:03:53What you need to make up your make-up as an actor
0:03:53 > 0:03:57is...observation...
0:03:58 > 0:03:59..intuition.
0:04:00 > 0:04:04You must, at its most highfaluting...
0:04:06 > 0:04:08..the most highfaluting expression of it,
0:04:08 > 0:04:12the actor is as important as the illuminator
0:04:12 > 0:04:14of the human heart.
0:04:14 > 0:04:16He's as important as the psychiatrist or the doctor.
0:04:16 > 0:04:19Minister, if you like.
0:04:19 > 0:04:22That's putting him very high and mightily.
0:04:23 > 0:04:25At the opposite end of that pole,
0:04:25 > 0:04:29you've got to find in the actor a man who will not be too proud
0:04:29 > 0:04:35to scavenge that tiniest little bit of human circumstance -
0:04:35 > 0:04:40observe it, use it, find it, use it - some time or another.
0:04:40 > 0:04:42Frequently observe things.
0:04:42 > 0:04:45And, thank God, if they haven't got a very good memory
0:04:45 > 0:04:47for anything else, they've got a memory for little details.
0:04:47 > 0:04:50And I've had things in the back of my mind for as long as 18 years
0:04:50 > 0:04:52before I've used them.
0:04:52 > 0:04:55And perhaps in those little tiny things
0:04:55 > 0:04:58may be the key to a whole characterisation.
0:04:58 > 0:05:02We're going to look now at a scene from the film of Richard III.
0:05:02 > 0:05:06It's the scene after Richard has successfully made love
0:05:06 > 0:05:09to the widow of one of his victims.
0:05:11 > 0:05:15Was ever woman in this humour wooed?
0:05:15 > 0:05:18Was ever woman in this humour won?
0:05:25 > 0:05:28My dukedom to a widow's chastity,
0:05:28 > 0:05:30I do mistake my person all this while.
0:05:30 > 0:05:33Upon my life, she finds, although I cannot,
0:05:33 > 0:05:35myself to be a proper man.
0:05:39 > 0:05:42I'll be at charges for a looking glass.
0:05:42 > 0:05:46And entertain some score or two of tailors to study fashions
0:05:46 > 0:05:48to adorn my body.
0:05:48 > 0:05:50Since I am crept in favour with myself,
0:05:50 > 0:05:54I will maintain it to some little cost.
0:05:55 > 0:05:58Shine out, fair sun,
0:05:58 > 0:06:00till I have bought a glass,
0:06:00 > 0:06:04that I may see my shadow as I pass.
0:06:04 > 0:06:07Did you know at the time that that was going to be
0:06:07 > 0:06:10one of the key performances of your career?
0:06:10 > 0:06:13No. No.
0:06:15 > 0:06:17A lot of...
0:06:17 > 0:06:18things contributed.
0:06:18 > 0:06:21When I said, talking about scavenging just now,
0:06:21 > 0:06:25one thing that may lead an actor to be successful in a part -
0:06:25 > 0:06:27it may, not always, but may -
0:06:27 > 0:06:31is to try to be unlike somebody else in it.
0:06:31 > 0:06:34At the time, when I took over that part first of all,
0:06:34 > 0:06:37Donald Wolfit had made an enormous success
0:06:37 > 0:06:40in the part only 18 months previously.
0:06:40 > 0:06:42I didn't want to play the part at all
0:06:42 > 0:06:46because I thought it was much too close to this colleague's success.
0:06:46 > 0:06:48And, er...
0:06:48 > 0:06:52I had seen it, and when I was learning it,
0:06:52 > 0:06:55I could hear nothing but Donald's voice in my mind's ear,
0:06:55 > 0:06:58and see nothing but him in my mind's eye.
0:07:00 > 0:07:02And so I thought, "This won't do.
0:07:02 > 0:07:04"I've just got to think of something else."
0:07:04 > 0:07:07My first thought, I'd always had images, pictures I'd heard,
0:07:07 > 0:07:11imitations of old actors imitating Henry Irving,
0:07:11 > 0:07:16and so I did right away
0:07:16 > 0:07:19an imitation of these old actors
0:07:19 > 0:07:21imitating Henry Irving's voice.
0:07:21 > 0:07:26That's why I took on that sort of narrow kind of vocal address.
0:07:26 > 0:07:29Then I thought about looks,
0:07:29 > 0:07:32and I thought about the Big Bad Wolf.
0:07:32 > 0:07:36And I thought about a director under whom I had suffered
0:07:36 > 0:07:39in extremis in New York called Jed Harris.
0:07:39 > 0:07:41The physiognomy of the Big Bad Wolf
0:07:41 > 0:07:43was said to have been founded upon Jed Harris,
0:07:43 > 0:07:45and so hence the nose,
0:07:45 > 0:07:49which originally was very much bigger than it was finally in the film.
0:07:49 > 0:07:53And so with one or two extraneous externals,
0:07:53 > 0:07:58I began to build up a character - a characterisation.
0:07:58 > 0:08:04I'm afraid I do work mostly from the outside in.
0:08:04 > 0:08:09I usually collect, whether consciously or unconsciously,
0:08:09 > 0:08:13I usually collect a lot of details, a lot of characteristics,
0:08:13 > 0:08:17and find a creature swimming about somehow in the middle of them.
0:08:17 > 0:08:19Your excursions into contemporary plays,
0:08:19 > 0:08:22things like The Sleeping Prince by Mr Rattigan,
0:08:22 > 0:08:24John Osborne's The Entertainer.
0:08:24 > 0:08:26I adore The Entertainer.
0:08:26 > 0:08:30I think it's the most wonderful part that I've ever played.
0:08:30 > 0:08:34Let's have a look now at a scene from The Entertainer film.
0:08:34 > 0:08:38It's a scene in which the middle-aged
0:08:38 > 0:08:42and unsuccessful musical comic Archie Rice,
0:08:42 > 0:08:44knowing that his career is coming to an end,
0:08:44 > 0:08:46talks to his daughter on the empty stage
0:08:46 > 0:08:50of an empty seaside theatre where they're performing.
0:08:51 > 0:08:55You think I'm just a tatty old music hall actor.
0:08:55 > 0:08:58But you know, when you're up here...
0:08:59 > 0:09:01..when you're up here...
0:09:02 > 0:09:07..you think you love all those people around you out there.
0:09:08 > 0:09:09But you don't.
0:09:11 > 0:09:14You don't love them like...
0:09:14 > 0:09:17JAZZ MUSIC PLAYS
0:09:18 > 0:09:20Oh, if you learn it properly,
0:09:20 > 0:09:23you'll get yourself a technique... and smile down,
0:09:23 > 0:09:25you smile, and look the friendliest,
0:09:25 > 0:09:27jolliest thing in the world.
0:09:27 > 0:09:33But you will be just as dead and...used up,
0:09:33 > 0:09:35just like everybody else.
0:09:37 > 0:09:39You see this face?
0:09:39 > 0:09:45This face can split open with warmth and humanity.
0:09:45 > 0:09:48It can sing,
0:09:48 > 0:09:51tell the worst and funniest stories in the world
0:09:51 > 0:09:57to a great mob of dead, drab irks.
0:09:59 > 0:10:01And it doesn't matter.
0:10:02 > 0:10:07It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter, because look - look at my eyes.
0:10:09 > 0:10:12I'm dead behind these eyes.
0:10:14 > 0:10:15I'm dead.
0:10:17 > 0:10:22Just like the whole dumb, shoddy lot out there.
0:10:22 > 0:10:26Archie Rice was influenced by a Negro blues singer.
0:10:26 > 0:10:30Are there any actors who have influenced you to that degree?
0:10:30 > 0:10:32Yes, lots of them.
0:10:33 > 0:10:37I've mentioned Fairbanks, Barrymore.
0:10:37 > 0:10:40It was Hamlet I first saw when I was 17 years old.
0:10:40 > 0:10:42Um...
0:10:42 > 0:10:46Noel Coward, in his way, influenced me a great deal.
0:10:46 > 0:10:49He lent me a bit of stern professionalism.
0:10:49 > 0:10:53Of all people I've ever watched with the greatest delight,
0:10:53 > 0:10:57I think, was in another field entirely with Sid Field.
0:10:57 > 0:11:00I wouldn't like anybody to think that I was imitating Sid Field
0:11:00 > 0:11:03- when I was doing The Entertainer. - There were a lot of things in it.
0:11:03 > 0:11:04Little things.
0:11:04 > 0:11:07But Sid Field was a great comic, and this man is a lousy one.
0:11:07 > 0:11:11But I know when I imitate Sid Field now, to this day,
0:11:11 > 0:11:14I still borrow from him freely and unashamedly.
0:11:14 > 0:11:17I watch... I had...
0:11:17 > 0:11:21I watch all my colleagues very carefully.
0:11:21 > 0:11:24Admire them all for different qualities which they have.
0:11:24 > 0:11:29And I think the most interesting thing to see
0:11:29 > 0:11:32is that an actor is most successful
0:11:32 > 0:11:34when not only all his virtues
0:11:34 > 0:11:40but all his disadvantages come into useful play in a part.
0:11:42 > 0:11:45Laurence Olivier's first love was always the stage,
0:11:45 > 0:11:48which perhaps explains why his move into films
0:11:48 > 0:11:51in the 1930s wasn't easy.
0:11:51 > 0:11:54It had taken two attempts to crack Hollywood
0:11:54 > 0:11:57before his talents were able to fully flourish.
0:11:57 > 0:12:00In this interview from Line-Up Film Night,
0:12:00 > 0:12:02we see him talking about that journey,
0:12:02 > 0:12:05and how he eventually combined roles
0:12:05 > 0:12:09of film producer, director, and actor.
0:12:09 > 0:12:12When you began to make a name for yourself in the West End
0:12:12 > 0:12:14in the early '30s,
0:12:14 > 0:12:17it was rather surprisingly not in classical roles at all,
0:12:17 > 0:12:20but in light comedy and rather matinee idol parts.
0:12:20 > 0:12:23One thinks of the fact that you played opposite Noel Coward
0:12:23 > 0:12:25in Private Lives, that you played Beau Geste.
0:12:25 > 0:12:27Not opposite Noel Coward,
0:12:27 > 0:12:30but it was alongside him and way down the corridor.
0:12:30 > 0:12:35But I had done quite some juvenile leading roles,
0:12:35 > 0:12:37I suppose you'd call them,
0:12:37 > 0:12:43from about 1928 to 1930, that sort of thing,
0:12:43 > 0:12:46and then I joined up with Noel in Private Lives,
0:12:46 > 0:12:49and played that terrible part, Victor Prynne.
0:12:49 > 0:12:53Which I must say he had the decency to apologise about since.
0:12:53 > 0:12:57And it was very exciting to be in a hit for the first time.
0:12:57 > 0:13:00I mean, with such glamour figures as Gertie Lawrence and Noel,
0:13:00 > 0:13:03you can imagine how glorious it was.
0:13:03 > 0:13:05And then we went to New York with it,
0:13:05 > 0:13:09and then it was in New York while we were playing there
0:13:09 > 0:13:11that my wife - my first wife, Jill - was in the play.
0:13:11 > 0:13:14Then she and I signed up with Hollywood,
0:13:14 > 0:13:18and we had little
0:13:18 > 0:13:21not terribly demanding approaches from all the studios,
0:13:21 > 0:13:24but the one we chose was RKO.
0:13:24 > 0:13:27Because that was sold us by the lady who sold the idea to us
0:13:27 > 0:13:29because that was the youngest studio.
0:13:29 > 0:13:32It was better for youngish people to belong to a younger studio.
0:13:32 > 0:13:36I don't think it worked out at all. I did three pictures in two years.
0:13:36 > 0:13:41And the first of it... The first of which was an extraordinary...
0:13:41 > 0:13:42I would hate to see it now.
0:13:42 > 0:13:47..it was called Friends And Lovers, with Adolphe Menjou -
0:13:47 > 0:13:49"Adolphe", as he was called -
0:13:49 > 0:13:52Lili Damita, Erich von Stroheim, and myself.
0:13:53 > 0:13:56And then I played two other films there in two years.
0:13:56 > 0:14:00That's all I did, and I came back... home, rather in disgust.
0:14:00 > 0:14:04But of course they had that terrible Wall Street crash,
0:14:04 > 0:14:08and the film industry had gone through a fearsome time.
0:14:08 > 0:14:11I did start about three or four other pictures,
0:14:11 > 0:14:14but about the second day, little men with black coats and spectacles
0:14:14 > 0:14:16would come down onto the floor and say,
0:14:16 > 0:14:18"That's it. That's all. Wrap it up."
0:14:18 > 0:14:20And then when you went back to Hollywood
0:14:20 > 0:14:22towards the end of the '30s, of course,
0:14:22 > 0:14:24you began to make tremendous successes
0:14:24 > 0:14:26in films like Rebecca and Wuthering Heights.
0:14:26 > 0:14:28Did that change the whole picture of Hollywood for you?
0:14:28 > 0:14:31The man who changed Hollywood for me, and the whole idea of it...
0:14:31 > 0:14:32I was very snobbish about films.
0:14:32 > 0:14:35I did them to make money and said so, all over the place.
0:14:35 > 0:14:39Much to the disgust of the Sam Goldwyns of this world.
0:14:39 > 0:14:43But the man who changed me was the man I quarrelled with
0:14:43 > 0:14:46most bitterly of all, really, and that was William Wyler.
0:14:46 > 0:14:49And you'd be amazed at the scenes
0:14:49 > 0:14:52between Merle and myself and Willie Wyler
0:14:52 > 0:14:54that took place beneath
0:14:54 > 0:14:57that heart-throbbing romance called Wuthering Heights.
0:14:57 > 0:14:59You'd be amazed at the temperament and the spit and the fury
0:14:59 > 0:15:03and the passion and the rages with each other we went through.
0:15:03 > 0:15:09And we were very narky with each other on the floor,
0:15:09 > 0:15:14but it was he who said, persuaded me, simply with patient talking.
0:15:14 > 0:15:17He wasn't a pleasant director to work with,
0:15:17 > 0:15:20but he was a very interesting man to talk to.
0:15:20 > 0:15:23He was much more coherent off the floor than on it.
0:15:23 > 0:15:30But he told me that I must understand there wasn't anything
0:15:30 > 0:15:32that could not be done in that medium,
0:15:32 > 0:15:34if you found a way to do it.
0:15:34 > 0:15:37And it was he who persuaded me
0:15:37 > 0:15:41that you could even do Shakespeare successfully on a film.
0:15:41 > 0:15:43When I came to make Wuthering Heights -
0:15:43 > 0:15:46I'm sorry, Henry V -
0:15:46 > 0:15:49and he was a major in the army,
0:15:49 > 0:15:52staying at Claridge's hotel,
0:15:52 > 0:15:55which so many majors in the American army seemed able to do.
0:15:55 > 0:16:00And I asked him if he would direct Henry V.
0:16:00 > 0:16:03He said, "Well, it's sweet of you. No, thanks. I can't."
0:16:03 > 0:16:06He said, "You'd better do it yourself."
0:16:06 > 0:16:08And so that's the way it turned out.
0:16:08 > 0:16:11But if it hadn't been for him, I'd never have thought of making Henry V.
0:16:11 > 0:16:14And is it true that before him, and before Wuthering Heights,
0:16:14 > 0:16:15you had in fact been turned down
0:16:15 > 0:16:18for the lead opposite Greta Garbo in Queen Christina?
0:16:18 > 0:16:20Yes, that's true. But she was right.
0:16:20 > 0:16:24I wasn't up to her standard at all. I hadn't got...
0:16:24 > 0:16:26I hadn't got the stature necessary to be her leading man.
0:16:26 > 0:16:29Anything like it. She was absolutely right.
0:16:29 > 0:16:31She was very sweet to me years later,
0:16:31 > 0:16:35and sort of I had apologetic messages through George Cukor and people,
0:16:35 > 0:16:38and I said, "Please tell her she was absolutely right.
0:16:38 > 0:16:40"I wasn't up...
0:16:40 > 0:16:42"I wasn't... Couldn't hold a candle to her."
0:16:42 > 0:16:45I was too young for her. I was about two or three years younger.
0:16:45 > 0:16:49I was very light. I was only about 25, I think.
0:16:49 > 0:16:51And she was not light.
0:16:51 > 0:16:53She had immense personality.
0:16:53 > 0:16:55Colossal experience.
0:16:55 > 0:16:59Tremendous presence, and was a great, great artist,
0:16:59 > 0:17:02and completely understood every single thing
0:17:02 > 0:17:05that was to be thought or understood about her medium.
0:17:05 > 0:17:07She was a mistress of it. Queen of it.
0:17:07 > 0:17:10I didn't know anything about it. Little, little, little.
0:17:10 > 0:17:12But what I knew was no match for her.
0:17:12 > 0:17:14She was quite right to fire me.
0:17:14 > 0:17:16Of course I nearly cut my throat
0:17:16 > 0:17:19and nearly threw myself out of windows afterwards
0:17:19 > 0:17:22because it was very highly publicised, as you could imagine, at the time.
0:17:22 > 0:17:24However, one gets over these things.
0:17:26 > 0:17:29And when you came, in more successful years, to make Henry V
0:17:29 > 0:17:31and Hamlet and Richard III,
0:17:31 > 0:17:34those three films over which you had control,
0:17:34 > 0:17:36- not just as actor but also as director...- Yes.
0:17:36 > 0:17:39..they are the three, I think, for which you will be always remembered.
0:17:39 > 0:17:42Is that just coincidence, or is it always better
0:17:42 > 0:17:44to have one actor in charge of one film?
0:17:44 > 0:17:47Well, I think it had not been done very much except by Orson Welles,
0:17:47 > 0:17:50marvellously and masterfully,
0:17:50 > 0:17:52in Citizen Kane.
0:17:52 > 0:17:57And that film in which he really made a landmark in films,
0:17:57 > 0:18:00that really was a landmark.
0:18:00 > 0:18:04And it was a marvellous herculean task he undertook
0:18:04 > 0:18:07and fulfilled brilliantly.
0:18:07 > 0:18:10And he was the subject of great admiration,
0:18:10 > 0:18:12and absolutely unstinted admiration,
0:18:12 > 0:18:14I'm sure, the world over,
0:18:14 > 0:18:16except possibly in his own country,
0:18:16 > 0:18:20where people who likened themselves to the character he played
0:18:20 > 0:18:24were a little bit offended about it, I think.
0:18:24 > 0:18:26But in the realm of film, I mean,
0:18:26 > 0:18:28Orson's name will go down to posterity I'm sure
0:18:28 > 0:18:30as being one of the masters.
0:18:30 > 0:18:32And...
0:18:33 > 0:18:36..I suppose in England,
0:18:36 > 0:18:39I suppose I was about the first actor
0:18:39 > 0:18:41to produce and direct his own film.
0:18:41 > 0:18:43I think I was.
0:18:43 > 0:18:45I wouldn't like to swear that, but I think I was.
0:18:45 > 0:18:47Do you think you learnt much from him directly
0:18:47 > 0:18:49in terms of acting and directing?
0:18:49 > 0:18:51Or was it just the same...?
0:18:51 > 0:18:56Oh, no, I didn't mean that. No, his style.
0:18:56 > 0:19:00He created a style in Citizen Kane,
0:19:00 > 0:19:02which you can say if you like -
0:19:02 > 0:19:03I wouldn't mind anybody saying -
0:19:03 > 0:19:06I sort of copied in Hamlet.
0:19:06 > 0:19:09In that...during that,
0:19:09 > 0:19:14Gregg Toland developed this deep focus work,
0:19:14 > 0:19:16which had never been done before.
0:19:16 > 0:19:19As a matter of fact, I was in the very first deep focus shot ever,
0:19:19 > 0:19:22when Gregg Toland was photographing Wuthering Heights.
0:19:22 > 0:19:24And at the end of a certain take,
0:19:24 > 0:19:27which was Merle in the foreground in what we call a "three-shot",
0:19:27 > 0:19:30and I was full-length in the background.
0:19:30 > 0:19:35And he said, "Did you notice anything about that shot?"
0:19:35 > 0:19:37And I said, "No,"
0:19:37 > 0:19:40and I could bet my bottom dollar
0:19:40 > 0:19:43that Miss Oberon was in focus and I wasn't, that's all.
0:19:43 > 0:19:47And he said, "You're wrong about that.
0:19:47 > 0:19:49"That's a new sort of shot.
0:19:49 > 0:19:52"Didn't you feel your key light very strong?"
0:19:52 > 0:19:54I said, "Well, yes, I think I did."
0:19:54 > 0:19:56"You wait till the rushes."
0:19:56 > 0:20:00"You mean I shall be in focus AND Miss Oberon will be?" "Yeah."
0:20:00 > 0:20:03And that was the very first shot he'd ever tried it with.
0:20:03 > 0:20:05And that also was Wyler.
0:20:05 > 0:20:09And Wyler was always... always had Gregg Toland with him.
0:20:09 > 0:20:12And Orson very wisely took Gregg Toland.
0:20:12 > 0:20:14Now, there were a lot of shots in Hamlet.
0:20:14 > 0:20:16This is when it was final and we're getting to the point.
0:20:16 > 0:20:19There were a lot of shots in Hamlet which had very deep focus indeed,
0:20:19 > 0:20:20very deep focus.
0:20:20 > 0:20:23There was one shot of little Jean Simmons, as she was then.
0:20:23 > 0:20:26The back of her head is showing every hair in focus
0:20:26 > 0:20:28just right in the foreground,
0:20:28 > 0:20:32and I was, through a mirror, 120 feet away
0:20:32 > 0:20:35as Hamlet, and also in the shot.
0:20:35 > 0:20:39And that was the style, and I...
0:20:39 > 0:20:42I wouldn't like to say I would have thought of that style
0:20:42 > 0:20:44if it hadn't been for Orson.
0:20:44 > 0:20:46Three years after that interview,
0:20:46 > 0:20:48Olivier took on a role
0:20:48 > 0:20:50that would become one of his and the public's favourites,
0:20:50 > 0:20:53starring alongside Michael Caine
0:20:53 > 0:20:56in the classic thriller Sleuth.
0:20:56 > 0:20:58Here's a report from the film set,
0:20:58 > 0:21:01again by interviewer Sheridan Morley.
0:21:03 > 0:21:04CHATTER
0:21:06 > 0:21:07OK. That's all right.
0:21:11 > 0:21:13- MORLEY:- While the Sleuth team were filming at Athelhampton
0:21:13 > 0:21:15we went to watch them at work,
0:21:15 > 0:21:17and I had a number of tries at getting a few words
0:21:17 > 0:21:19with one of the film's co-stars, Laurence Olivier.
0:21:19 > 0:21:23- But he needed some persuading. - It's an invasion of privacy!
0:21:23 > 0:21:25The other star of Sleuth is Michael Caine,
0:21:25 > 0:21:27playing a part which, it's fair to say,
0:21:27 > 0:21:29is far above and beyond anything
0:21:29 > 0:21:32he has previously tried to do in 10 years of film stardom.
0:21:32 > 0:21:35- CAINE:- Can we get this before lunch, gentleman?
0:21:36 > 0:21:38Stand on the final step.
0:21:41 > 0:21:44- VOICEOVER:- Together, Olivier and Caine form a screen partnership
0:21:44 > 0:21:47which those who've already seen the film in America say is electric.
0:21:47 > 0:21:51In terms of the sheer length of your part, has Sleuth been a very difficult film for you?
0:21:51 > 0:21:55It's absolutely terrible! It's been... It's really very long.
0:21:55 > 0:21:57I didn't have time to learn it, I was terribly busy
0:21:57 > 0:22:00at the National, I didn't have time to learn it before we started.
0:22:00 > 0:22:02And really that's the only thing to do.
0:22:02 > 0:22:05What I'd have loved to have had time to do was to have taken it
0:22:05 > 0:22:08on a baby road tour or something, if they'd have allowed me to,
0:22:08 > 0:22:12- and played it for four weeks, possibly with Michael.- On the stage?
0:22:12 > 0:22:15Yes, it'd be been marvellous, made a bit of dough. We'd have known...
0:22:15 > 0:22:18We'd have known all the thoughts then, we'd have known
0:22:18 > 0:22:21all the different colours, we'd have known the signals along the line.
0:22:21 > 0:22:23We'd have known why we did something,
0:22:23 > 0:22:26because something followed, and why to avoid doing something,
0:22:26 > 0:22:28because it would be obvious if we did it in such a way
0:22:28 > 0:22:30because something else followed, you know.
0:22:30 > 0:22:33All sorts of things that concern an actor all the time.
0:22:33 > 0:22:38And, er...it's been a great effort to learn it.
0:22:38 > 0:22:41I don't think I've let the production team down
0:22:41 > 0:22:45more than once or twice by just frankly not being able to learn it.
0:22:45 > 0:22:50My part is very hard, because very clever author, Tony Shaffer,
0:22:50 > 0:22:52as he is, has written it as an author
0:22:52 > 0:22:57speaking in the way that an author would like to speak.
0:22:57 > 0:23:01And therefore that's not quite... a very colloquial way of speaking.
0:23:01 > 0:23:05It's always rather... The mot juste is always just round the corner.
0:23:05 > 0:23:09And there's plenty of alliterative occasions, which are always
0:23:09 > 0:23:12probably hard for the author to find in the first place.
0:23:12 > 0:23:14He's got to sort of find it. Therefore you've got to find...
0:23:14 > 0:23:17It's not the word that immediately springs to mind.
0:23:17 > 0:23:19Those alliterative things are always difficult.
0:23:20 > 0:23:26- You know, I haven't congratulated you yet on your, er...game.- Oh!
0:23:26 > 0:23:30- It was jolly good. - You really think so? Good!
0:23:30 > 0:23:34I must say I was rather delighted with it myself. I say...
0:23:34 > 0:23:37Did you really think your last moment on Earth had come?
0:23:37 > 0:23:38Yes.
0:23:40 > 0:23:42You're not cross, are you?
0:23:42 > 0:23:44Cross?
0:23:44 > 0:23:47I don't understand. That's one of your words.
0:23:47 > 0:23:52Look, as I explained to you, when you were playing Doppler,
0:23:52 > 0:23:56I had to test your mettle to see if, as I suspected,
0:23:56 > 0:23:59you really were my sort of person.
0:23:59 > 0:24:02- A games-playing sort of person? - Exactly.
0:24:03 > 0:24:06- And am I? - There's no question about it.
0:24:06 > 0:24:10Compare your experience this weekend, my dear Milo,
0:24:10 > 0:24:12with any other moment in your life.
0:24:12 > 0:24:14If you're honest with yourself, you'll have to admit
0:24:14 > 0:24:18that you lived more intensely in my company than in anybody else's.
0:24:18 > 0:24:24Even with Marguerite. We know what it is to play a game, you and I.
0:24:25 > 0:24:26That's so rare.
0:24:27 > 0:24:33Two people brought together, equally matched, having the courage
0:24:33 > 0:24:35and the talents to make of life
0:24:35 > 0:24:39a continuing charade of bright fancies.
0:24:39 > 0:24:42Happy invention.
0:24:42 > 0:24:45To face out its emptiness...
0:24:45 > 0:24:49and its terrors by...playing.
0:24:49 > 0:24:53By just...playing.
0:24:55 > 0:24:58Larry, whom I've known for many, many years,
0:24:58 > 0:25:01of course I've never had the opportunity of working with
0:25:01 > 0:25:07but remains the dream choice to play, er, Andrew Wyke..
0:25:08 > 0:25:10..understood the character completely.
0:25:12 > 0:25:14Little bits of Andrew Wyke always reminded Larry,
0:25:14 > 0:25:18and me, of people we'd actually known.
0:25:20 > 0:25:25And, most importantly, in Larry I had this incredible, er...
0:25:27 > 0:25:31..Comstock Lode of experience and...
0:25:33 > 0:25:34..er...
0:25:36 > 0:25:42..his absolute...total command of every form of human expression
0:25:42 > 0:25:45and projection, er,
0:25:45 > 0:25:51to help keep the...the constant interplay of these two characters...
0:25:51 > 0:25:57..er...exciting. In other words, no two scenes could be played alike.
0:25:57 > 0:26:00This childlike grown-up man
0:26:00 > 0:26:04who's constantly going off into little fantasies,
0:26:04 > 0:26:08playing detectives, playing parts of charwomen.
0:26:09 > 0:26:14Larry, with his tremendous store of experience, I mean, he does
0:26:14 > 0:26:20everything from a Restoration rake to a 20th-century charwoman
0:26:20 > 0:26:26in the film, and does it almost en passant in the characterisation.
0:26:26 > 0:26:30And this is something you can't...you can't
0:26:30 > 0:26:31do near realistically.
0:26:31 > 0:26:33You can't find somebody off the street to do it,
0:26:33 > 0:26:36it had bloody better be as close to Laurence Olivier as you can get.
0:26:36 > 0:26:39But having Laurence Olivier playing Andrew Wyke
0:26:39 > 0:26:41must be fair competition for you.
0:26:41 > 0:26:44Is there a danger of being overshadowed by him?
0:26:44 > 0:26:48Er, I think there's always a danger of being overshadowed.
0:26:48 > 0:26:51The thing is, I suppose you just rely on the lighting man
0:26:51 > 0:26:52and hope he can light shadows!
0:26:53 > 0:26:58Um, it's not something you worry about, especially in a two-man piece.
0:26:58 > 0:27:01There must eventually come a time when, er...
0:27:03 > 0:27:05..you get your own sort of turn
0:27:05 > 0:27:10and then it's very nice to have someone like Lord Olivier off camera.
0:27:13 > 0:27:15- Roy.- And Arnold.
0:27:15 > 0:27:19Roy. Have you got the glasses or have I got them?
0:27:19 > 0:27:22I must have left them upstairs.
0:27:22 > 0:27:26CAINE: 'He was cast first and was asked who he would like to play the part
0:27:26 > 0:27:28'and he said me.
0:27:29 > 0:27:33'I mean, I suppose presuming I wouldn't overshadow him!'
0:27:35 > 0:27:38Laurence Olivier would enjoy other successes in the '70s,
0:27:38 > 0:27:42with The Boys From Brazil and Marathon Man,
0:27:42 > 0:27:45his role in both earning him Oscar nominations.
0:27:47 > 0:27:50Another landmark was his 80th birthday.
0:27:50 > 0:27:53Amongst the celebrations was a pageant
0:27:53 > 0:27:57hosted by the National Theatre, and news and television tributes
0:27:57 > 0:27:59looked back on his life and his work.
0:28:01 > 0:28:05- VOICEOVER:- He was to show his genius again when he turned to television.
0:28:05 > 0:28:08- The boy here? - Yes, dear, he's here.- Mm!
0:28:10 > 0:28:12Don't let anyone ever deceive you
0:28:12 > 0:28:16into believing that the world was created in six days.
0:28:16 > 0:28:19Would you like your coffee now, dear?
0:28:19 > 0:28:23The evolution of the horse was the most tortuous process.
0:28:27 > 0:28:31This coffee's frozen. Like a sort of...Arctic mud.
0:28:32 > 0:28:36- Shall I make you some fresh, dear? - No...rather like it.
0:28:36 > 0:28:40In recent years, Lord Olivier battled cancer and heart disease.
0:28:40 > 0:28:43Each performance was a triumph over physical hardship.
0:28:43 > 0:28:46But as he approached his 80th birthday at his Sussex home
0:28:46 > 0:28:50his main concern was, of all things, the sudden onset of stage fright.
0:28:52 > 0:28:57I've suffered for the first time in my life from stage fright slightly.
0:28:57 > 0:28:59And that...that is a worry.
0:28:59 > 0:29:03I'd say most people get over that when they're about 17,
0:29:03 > 0:29:06but I never was frightened about anything when I was 17,
0:29:06 > 0:29:10and all the time until now I'm, you know...
0:29:10 > 0:29:16- I don't know where the hell I am. What am I, 77?- 80.- 80. Um...
0:29:16 > 0:29:20I begin to be a little nervous of personal appearances.
0:29:20 > 0:29:26It's not only vanity, because I know I'm not very pretty, but it's...
0:29:26 > 0:29:32I don't know what it is, I really can't account for it.
0:29:32 > 0:29:36I think it's just one of those naughty things that nature
0:29:36 > 0:29:41does to one, trips one up just when one's least expecting it.
0:29:42 > 0:29:45Staunchly supportive of his wife's acting career and those
0:29:45 > 0:29:48of their three children, who followed them into the profession,
0:29:48 > 0:29:52Lord Olivier once said his aim was to make the audience believe.
0:29:54 > 0:29:56As tributes pour in from the arts world,
0:29:56 > 0:29:59it's clear he succeeded as few actors have.
0:30:02 > 0:30:04God bless you, old cock.
0:30:06 > 0:30:07And you!
0:30:08 > 0:30:13Not surprisingly, Laurence Olivier acted right to the end.
0:30:14 > 0:30:18His final performance was in Derek Jarman's War Requiem.
0:30:18 > 0:30:21A year later, aged 82,
0:30:21 > 0:30:27he died at his home in Ashurst, West Sussex, with wife Joan Plowright
0:30:27 > 0:30:30and his family and beloved children by his side.
0:30:32 > 0:30:35His passing prompted tributes from across the globe,
0:30:35 > 0:30:39acting colleagues saying his death marked
0:30:39 > 0:30:42the closing of a very great book.
0:30:44 > 0:30:47Laurence Olivier left a towering legacy,
0:30:47 > 0:30:51not just in performances but also in the concrete walls
0:30:51 > 0:30:56of the National Theatre, of which he was the first artistic director.
0:30:56 > 0:31:00The announcement that his ashes will be buried in Westminster Abbey
0:31:00 > 0:31:02was a final, powerful indicator
0:31:02 > 0:31:05of the high esteem the nation had for him,
0:31:05 > 0:31:09and recognition of his devotion to his art
0:31:09 > 0:31:13and his enduring status as the greatest actor of his time.