Laurence Olivier
Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM (22 May 1907 – 11 July 1989) was an English actor and director who, along with his contemporaries Ralph Richardson, Peggy Ashcroft and John Gielgud, dominated the British stage of the mid-20th century. He also worked in films throughout... Read full bio →
Featured Characters
Roles you can spot in Whatthemovie snapshots
28 Years Later
A group of survivors of the rage virus live on a small island. When one of the group leaves the island on a mission into the mainland, he discovers secrets, wonders, and horrors that have mutated not only the infected but other survivors.
Nothing Like a Dame
Dames Judi Dench, Eileen Atkins, Joan Plowright, and Maggie Smith get together for tea to reminisce and discuss their acting careers.
Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood
A deliciously scandalous portrait of unsung Hollywood legend Scotty Bowers, whose bestselling memoir chronicled his decades spent as sexual procurer to the stars.
Trumbo
The career of screenwriter Dalton Trumbo is halted by a witch hunt in the late 1940s when he defies the anti-communist HUAC committee and is blacklisted.
Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff
In 2001 Jack Cardiff (1914-2009) became the first director of photography in the history of the Academy Awards to win an Honorary Oscar. But the first time he clasped the famous statuette in his hand was a half-century earlier when his Technicolor camerawork was awarded for Powell and Pressburger's Black Narcissus. Beyond John Huston's The Afric...
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
Set in New York City circa 1939, the film centers on a reporter who notices that the world's scientists are disappearing. Teamed with a skilled pilot and an adventurous colleague, it's up to her to thwart the plans of a mad scientist bent on world domination.
The Kid Stays in the Picture
Documentary about legendary Paramount producer Robert Evans (the film shares the same name as Evans's famous 1994 autobiography).
The Filth and the Fury
A film about the career of the notorious punk rock band, the Sex Pistols.
War Requiem
During World War I, British soldier Owen is mortified by the examples of cruelty that surround him in the trenches. He combats these terrifying images by maintaining hope in his love for an army nurse. But he also begins to accept his fate as another battlefield sacrifice.
Crazy About the Movies: Marilyn Monroe - Beyond the Legend
Her story is well-known - the lonely child who yearned for affection and approval which she finally seemed to find as Hollywood's greatest love goddess. But even though she scaled heights few could even dream of, she was one of the loneliest of stars.
Wild Geese II
A group of mercenaries is hired to spring Rudolf Hess from Spandau Prison in Berlin.
The Ebony Tower
A young artist goes to interview an older painter who lives in the south of France with two young women. He gets caught up in the painter's Bohemian lifestyle and begins to examine his own attitudes towards life and art.
The Bounty
An idyllic voyage to Tahiti in 1789 turns a crew aboard the H.M.S. Bounty against its captain when they find a tropical paradise.
The Jigsaw Man
An MI6 defector's appearance is changed by the KGB before he's sent back to Britain to recover top-secret documents.
King Lear
Aging King Lear invites disaster when he abdicates to his two disloyal and obsequious daughters while rejecting the one who truly loves him.
Clash of the Titans
A film adaption of the myth of Perseus and his quest to battle both Medusa and the Kraken monster to save the Princess Andromeda.
Brideshead Revisited
The life, friendships and romances of the protagonist Charles Ryder-including his friendship with the Flytes, a family of wealthy English Catholics who live in a palatial mansion called Brideshead Castle.
The Jazz Singer
Neil Diamond stars as Yussel in this tale of a young Jewish cantor who strives to make a career in music.
Dracula
Throughout history he has filled the hearts of men with terror, and the hearts of women with desire. The story of the greatest lover who ever lived, died, and lived again.
A Little Romance
A young American girl and a young French boy meet in Paris and fall in love, with the assistance of an old man and his stories.
The Boys from Brazil
The Betsy
Ruthless patriarch Loren hires racecar driver Angelo to build a more efficient vehicle against the wishes of his grandson. But things get even messier when Angelo romances two women in Loren's life -- his great-granddaughter and his grandson's mistress.
Jesus of Nazareth
Dramatizes the Birth, Life, Ministry, Crucifixion, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, largely according to the Holy Bible's New Testament Gospels.
A Bridge Too Far
A movie about the failed attempt to capture several bridges in The Netherlands in World War II in a campaign called Operation Market-Garden.
The Seven-Per-Cent Solution
Concerned about his friend's cocaine use, Dr. Watson tricks Sherlock Holmes into travelling to Vienna, where Holmes enters the care of Sigmund Freud. Freud attemts to solve the mysteries of Holmes' subconscious, while Holmes devotes himself to solving a mystery involving the kidnapping of Lola Deveraux.
Marathon Man
A graduate student and obsessive runner in New York is drawn into a mysterious plot involving his brother, a member of the secretive Division. This film, famous for its excruciating "Is it safe?" torture scene by a Nazi dentist, is a spy classic with an all star cast.
Sleuth
Sleuth is a thriller from director Joseph L. Mankiewicz starring Michael Caine and Laurence Olivier.
Lady Caroline Lamb
Lady Caroline Lamb, dissatisfied in her marriage, has an affair with the dashing Romantic poet Lord Byron.
Nicholas and Alexandra
Biography of the last Russian Monarch, Tsar Nicholas II and his Tsarina, Alexandra.Czar Nicholas II, the inept monarch of Russia, insensitive to the needs of his people, is overthrown and exiled to Siberia with his family.
Three Sisters
Nearly a thousand miles away from their beloved Moscow, Chekhov's Three Sisters live in virtual exile. Olga, a schoolmistress, attempts to support her siblings and the home that is the sole legacy of their late father.
The Dance of Death
An egocentric artillery captain and his venomous wife engage in savage unremitting battles in their isolated island fortress of the coast of Sweden at the turn of the century.
Oh! What a Lovely War
The working-class Smiths change their initially sunny views on World War I after the three boys of the family witness the harsh reality of trench warfare.
David Copperfield
The legendary novel by Charles Dickens comes to life in this colorful interpretation directed by Delbert Mann.
Battle of Britain
In 1940, the Royal Air Force fights a desperate battle against the might of the Luftwaffe for control of the skies over Britain, thus preventing the Nazi invasion of Britain.
The Shoes of the Fisherman
After spending decades in a Siberian Gulag labor camp, Roman Catholic priest Kiril Lakota is set free by Russian leader Piotr Ilyich Kamenev at the height of the Cold War.
Romeo and Juliet
Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet fall in love against the wishes of their feuding families. Driven by their passion, the young lovers defy their destiny and elope, only to suffer the ultimate tragedy.
Khartoum
English General Charles George Gordon, a devout Christian, is appointed military governor of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan by Prime Minister Gladstone. Ordered to evacuate Egyptians from the Sudan, General Gordon stays on to protect the people of Khartoum, who are under threat of being conquered by a Muslim army.
Bunny Lake Is Missing
A woman reports that her young daughter is missing, but there seems to be no evidence that she ever existed.
The Entertainer
Archie Rice, an old-time British vaudeville performer sinking into final defeat, schemes to stay in show business.
Spartacus
Stanley Kubrick's film Spartacus hosts top-class cast and tells the story of rebellion of the slaves in ancient Rome. The film was awarded four Oscars and stands today as one of the greatest classics of the Sword and Sandal genre.
The Devil's Disciple
The Devil's Disciple is a 1959 film adaptation of the George Bernard Shaw play of the same title. The Anglo-American film was directed by Guy Hamilton who replaced Alexander Mackendrick and starred Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, and Laurence Olivier. Mary Grant designed the film's costumes.
The Prince and the Showgirl
An American showgirl becomes entangled in political intrigue when the Prince Regent of a foreign country attempts to seduce her.
Richard III
Shakespeare's powerful tale of the wicked deformed king and his conquests, both on the battlefield and in the boudoir.
A Queen Is Crowned
A lavish documentary film of Queen Elizabeth II's Coronation in 1953.
Carrie
Carrie's dreams of adventure in the big city are quickly squashed as she discovers all that awaits her there is a bleak life of grueling and poorly-paid factory work. That is, until a traveling salesman named Drouet steps into her life and changes her outlook...
The Magic Box
Now old, ill, poor, and largely forgotten, William Freise-Greene was once young and handsome William Green. He changed his name to include his first wife's for the photographic portrait work he excelled at.
Hamlet
Winner of four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor, Sir Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet continues to be the most compelling version of Shakespeare’s beloved tragedy. Olivier is at his most inspired—both as director and as the melancholy Dane himself—as he breathes new life into the words of one of the world’s greatest dramatists.
This Happy Breed
A middle-class family faces personal triumphs and tragedies when they move to a new home in the suburbs.
The Chronicle History of King Henry the Fift with His Battell Fought at Agincourt in France
Based on one the most popular historical plays by Shakespeare and made in order to boost moral of British troops during WW2, this movie is about English king Henry V and his military campaign in France in 1415.
The Demi-Paradise
Ivan Kouznetsoff, a Russian engineer, recounts during World War II his stay in England prior to the war working on a new propeller for ice-breaking ships. Naïve about British people and convinced by hearsay that they are shallow and hypocritical, Ivan is both bemused and amused by them.
That Hamilton Woman
The story of courtesan and dance-hall girl Emma Hamilton, including her relationships with Sir William Hamilton and Admiral Horatio Nelson and her rise and fall, set during the Napoleonic Wars.
49th Parallel
In the early days of World War II, a German U-boat is sunk in Canada's Hudson Bay. Hoping to evade capture, a small band of German soldiers led by commanding officer Lieutenant Hirth attempts to cross the border into the United States, which has not yet entered the war and is officially neutral.
Rebecca
Rebecca is the first Hollywood film from Alfred Hitchcock and received the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1941. A timeless tale of a woman who marries a widower and fears that she will never live up to the deceased wife. With excellently played rolls and a story that never seems wrong this film is a true classic.
Pride and Prejudice
The arrival of wealthy bachelors in town causes an uproar when families with single daughters aggressively seek engagements, including the Bennet family, with five eligible daughters.
21 Days
After Larry Darrent accidentally kills his lover's blackmailing husband, someone else is arrested for the crime. When he is found guilty, Larry and Wanda have just three weeks together before he must give himself up or let an innocent man go to the gallows.
Wuthering Heights
Young orphan Heathcliff is adopted by the wealthy Earnshaw family and moves into their estate, Wuthering Heights. Soon, the new resident falls for his compassionate foster sister, Cathy.
Q Planes
A quirky British Secret Service Agent named Major Hammond tries to discover who is using a secret weapon to steal experimental planes.
The Divorce of Lady X
The morning after a London barrister lets a mystery woman stay in his suite, a friend files for divorce.
Fire Over England
The film is a historical drama set during the reign of Elizabeth I (Flora Robson), focusing on the English defeat of the Spanish Armada, whence the title. In 1588, relations between Spain and England are at the breaking point.
As You Like It
Film version of Shakespeare's comedy of a young woman who disguises herself as a man to win the attention of the one she loves.
The Conquest of the Air
This documentary traces man's attempts to fly from ancient times through the 1930s.