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Olivier was still capable of greatness. In 1982 he answered a last call from Shakespeare, playing King Lear for TV, in a magnificent portrayal that was also a literally death-defying gift to posterity. The boy of nine, mesmerized by the poetry of a 16th century playwright, was now a frail old man of 75, leaving a record of his transcendence for the electronic age and ages to come. The greatest actor of the century knew how to leave them begging for more.