Olivier Award

Career Trajectory

Laurence Olivier emerged from British repertory theatre in the late 1920s to become the defining Shakespearean actor of the twentieth century, commanding stages from the Old Vic to the National Theatre with a virtuosity that spanned tragedy, comedy, and the full Shakespearean canon. His career arc traced an ascent from West End success through wartime film triumphs—most notably his directorial and starring turn in *Henry V* (1944)—to his founding directorship of Britain's National Theatre from 1963 to 1973, where he established the institution as a cultural cornerstone. By the time of his death, he had accumulated the highest honors of the British theatre and film world, including a life peerage and the Order of Merit, cementing a legacy so towering that the Society of London Theatre renamed its annual awards in his honor.