Worlds — A Story: Laurence Olivier

The Cinema

His love began twenty years ago... and it endures still!

There is no doubt that Laurence Olivier revived the English stage. He is considered today the finest actor in the world — yet he too has known failure and fear... How, then, did he cut his way to fame and glory?!

Laurence Olivier and his wife Vivien Leigh confess that among their loveliest memories is that holiday they spent together on the shore of the Riviera in 1938; for though twenty years have passed over it, it remains clear and sweet in their imagination... They crossed France in an old car of Vivien's and set down their baggage on a quiet shore in the bay of Saint-Raphaël. And there, in the last summer before the last war, they swam lazily and stretched out on the red sands in the blaze of the July sun... and they were the two happiest creatures alive! They passed the time recalling the events of the two past years, since they had first met, and how their relations had grown into an intimate love and understanding.

Their story began in London. Vivien saw Laurence for the first time in a small café, where he sat at supper after finishing a performance... Vivien had already won success in the play "The Mask of Virtue" and had drawn all eyes with her beauty, her vivacity, and her charm... And when her companion John Buckmaster remarked that Laurence looked strange without his mustache, she was astonished to find herself defending him and opposing her companion's opinion!

The connection might well have stopped at the point of admiration, but circumstances willed that they be brought together again. For Sir Alexander Korda, who was searching for a girl to play the role of "Cynthia," Queen Elizabeth's attendant, in the film "Fire Over England," chose Vivien Leigh — and chose Laurence Olivier for the role of the young man who makes love to her! And so their first real acquaintance was a sweet trial that paved the way for the birth of a true feeling between two gifted young people.

While making this film, Laurence found himself taken by Vivien's beauty and the gentleness of her talk, and his expectations were confounded, for he had supposed he would end at odds with her, as in his previous experiences with his leading ladies; but this leading lady was different from them all, and with her he was another man... Could this be love? He was overjoyed that the shooting of the film took three months, and when the last scene was finished, the two of them knew with certain knowledge that Cupid's arrow had struck both their hearts at once.

This truth was not hidden from public opinion; the journalists and photographers showed it no mercy and let no opportunity pass without snapping their picture together and commenting upon it! — especially as Laurence was in those days the focus of the world's attention after his great triumph in Shakespeare's "Hamlet." Vivien played "Ophelia"; Laurence was then 31 years old, and Vivien six years his junior... And though she met with success in "Hamlet" and in the cinema, up to that time it was to her beauty that people pointed, not to her "ability as an actress"... And when her tie with Laurence grew firm, she came to aspire beyond this — to become something more than a "doll" adorning the stage... she wanted to become an "actress"!

Laurence sensed this ambition stirring in Vivien, and it delighted him beyond measure; he resolved to help her climb the ladder of fame as far as he was able... His love for her grew day by day, and with that love grew his faith in her and in her extraordinary artistic gifts.

All these were memories the two lovers were recalling on the Riviera shore in France, when the telegraph brought him word to hasten to Hollywood to play the hero opposite Greta Garbo in the film "Queen Christina"; and the choice of the English actor for this role in particular was considered a compliment to him...

When Laurence met Greta for the first time he felt her coldness and her want of emotional response; in vain he tried to draw near to her, but his attempts went for nothing, the test scenes were failures, and one morning the director informed him, with regret, that Greta had turned away from him and asked for her old friend John Gilbert in his place!... Thus Laurence registered a crushing failure, whose cause may well have been that Greta herself wished to serve Gilbert and restore his popularity as a screen star, and cared nothing for the name of Laurence, though he was then at the height of his brilliance!

So Laurence returned to the Riviera, to the company of his beloved Vivien, to enjoy with her the purest happiness... Then Hollywood summoned him a second time, for the lead in "Wuthering Heights," and he met Merle Oberon. He hesitated long before consenting to accept the role, and Vivien understood by instinct that she herself was the cause of his hesitation, because he was anxious to remain at her side; but she refused to be a stumbling block in the path of his glory and fame, and urged him to go — and he went.

The two lovers had begun to think seriously of their fate. Both were married... Laurence had a son and Vivien a daughter — and for this reason their marrying each other, at that particular stage of their lives, was not a thing easily arranged...

...At first Olivier met great difficulty in harmonizing with Merle Oberon during the love scenes of "Wuthering Heights," and he would explain it by nothing except his longing for Vivien and his yearning to have her share this role with him. The director and the critics were hard on him and on his acting, and he himself confessed that his acting in those days was "theatrical" rather than "cinematic," inclined to exaggeration of expression... But after a violent struggle he emerged victorious, as we know, and "Wuthering Heights" came out a cinematic marvel.

From these trials he profited afterward in his films: "Henry V," "Hamlet," "Richard III," and lastly "The Prince and the Showgirl." All this while his letters flowed without pause to Vivien in London, carrying a longing that grew greater day by day; and Vivien could do nothing but yield to his repeated pleas — she boarded the airplane to Hollywood, and what a great surprise it was for the lovesick lover!

And in Hollywood Vivien's own story begins, for she was chosen from among a thousand girls for the role of Scarlett O'Hara in the film "Gone with the Wind," and she won the great success we have all heard of. Then she took part in other films, and Olivier too played in films of his own. Then came the Second War, with the possibility of his being called back to England for service and of their being parted from each other — a threat to their bond — until Korda arrived from England with an idea in his head: to cast the two of them together in "Lady Hamilton," which was carried out in the best possible way.

After this film, and after the great fame the two of them had won, they found themselves obliged to marry in secret; and they carried on their acting life with diligence and application until they became two of the greatest stars of the cinema and won the world's prizes... And through it all their love renews itself and grows year after year; they are still two great stars, and two faithful lovers — contrary to what is commonly said of the great stars of the cinema.