"I believe in the theater," said the new Baron of Brighton in his maiden speech to the House of Lords in 1971. "I believe in it as the first glamourizer of thought." That was the theater to Laurence Olivier, and that was Olivier to all who fell under the glamorous spell he wove. More immediately and lastingly than any other modern actor, Olivier picked words off the playscript page, flung them passionately into the dark and secured them in the minds of theatergoers. Brilliance, for once, had its rewards. As critic Kenneth Tynan proclaimed in 1966, "Laurence Olivier at his best...
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