Inchon

Laurence Olivier has been variously lauded as the greatest Shakespearean interpreter of the 20th century, the greatest classical actor of the era, and the greatest actor of his generation. Olivier was the son of an Anglican minister, who, despite his well-documented severity, was an unabashed theater lover, enthusiastically encouraging young Olivier to give acting a try. The boy made his first public appearance at age nine, playing Brutus in an All Saint’s production of Julius Caesar. Much has been made of the fact that the 15-year-old Olivier played Katherine in a St. Edward’s School production of The Taming of the Shrew; though, two years after The Taming of the Shrew, he enrolled at the Central School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art, where one of his instructors was Claude Rains. Olivier made his professional London debut the same year in The Suliot Officer, and joined the Birmingham Repertory in 1926; by the time Olivier was 20, he was playing leads. His subsequent West End stage triumphs included Journey’s End and Private Lives. In 1929, he made his film debut in the German-produced A Temporary Widow. He married actress Jill Esmond in 1930, and moved with her to America when Private Lives opened on Broadway. Signed to a Hollywood contract by RKO in 1931, Olivier was promoted as “the new Ronald Colman,” but he failed to make much of an impression onscreen. By the time Greta Garbo insisted that he be replaced by John Gilbert in her upcoming Queen Christina (1933), Olivier was disenchanted with the movies and vowed to remain on-stage. He graduated to full-fledged stardom in 1935, when he was cast as Romeo in John Gielgud’s London production of Romeo and Juliet. It was around this time that Olivier reportedly became fascinated with the works of Sigmund Freud, which led to his applying a “psychological” approach to all future stage and screen characters. Whatever the reason, Olivier’s already superb performances improved dramatically, and, before long, he was being judged on his own merits by London critics, and not merely compared (often disparagingly) to Gielgud or Ralph Richardson.

It was in collaboration with his friend Richardson that Olivier directed his first play in 1936, which was also the year he made his first Shakespearean film, playing Orlando in Paul Czinner’s production of As You Like It. Now a popular movie leading man, Olivier starred in such pictures as Fire Over England (1937), 21 Days (1938), The Divorce of Lady X (1938), and Q Planes (1939). He returned to Hollywood in 1939 to star as Heathcliff in Samuel Goldwyn’s glossy (and financially successful) production of Wuthering Heights, earning the first of 11 Oscar nominations. He followed this with leading roles in Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca (1940), MGM’s Pride and Prejudice (1940), and Alexander Korda’s That Hamilton Woman (1941), co-starring in the latter with his second wife, Vivien Leigh. Returning to England during World War II, Olivier served as a parachute officer in the Royal Navy. Since he was stationed at home, so to speak, he was also able to serve as co-director (with Ralph Richardson) of the Old Vic. His most conspicuous contribution to the war effort was his joyously jingoistic film production of Henry V (1944), for which he served as producer, director, and star. Like all his future film directorial efforts, Henry V pulled off the difficult trick of retaining its theatricality without ever sacrificing its cinematic values. Henry V won Olivier an honorary Oscar, not to mention major prizes from several other corners of the world. Knighthood was bestowed upon him in 1947, and he served up another celluloid Shakespeare the same year, producing, directing and starring in Hamlet. This time he won two Oscars: one for his performance, the other for the film itself.

The ‘50s was a transitional decade for Olivier: While he had his share of successes: his movie singing debut in The Beggar’s Opera (1953) and his 1955 adaptation of Richard III, he also suffered a great many setbacks, both personal (his disintegrating relationship with Vivien Leigh) and professional (1957’s The Prince and the Showgirl, which failed despite the seemingly unbeatable combination of Olivier’s directing and Marilyn Monroe’s star performance). In 1956, Olivier boldly reinvented himself as the seedy, pathetically out-of-step music hall comic Archie Rice in the original stage production of John Osborne’s The Entertainer. It was a resounding success, both on-stage and on film, and Olivier reprised his role in a 1960 film version directed by Tony Richardson. Thereafter, Olivier deliberately sought out such challenging, image-busting roles as the ruthless, bisexual Crassus in Spartacus (1960) and the fanatical Mahdi in Khartoum (1965). He also achieved a measure of stability in his private life in 1961 when he married actress Joan Plowright. In 1962, he was named the artistic director of Britain’s National Theatre, a post he held for ten years. To periodically replenish the National’s threadbare bank account, Olivier began accepting roles that were beneath him artistically, but which paid handsomely; in the early ’70s, he even hawked Polaroid cameras on television. During this period, he was far more comfortable before the cameras than in the theater, suffering as he was from a mysterious bout of stage fright. He also committed two more directorial efforts to film, Othello (1965) and Dance of Death (1968), both of which were disappointingly stage-bound. In 1970, he became Lord Olivier and assumed a seat in the House of Lords the following year. Four years later, suffering from a life-threatening illness, he made his last stage appearance. In 1979, he was once more honored at Academy Awards time, receiving an honorary Oscar “for the full body of his work.” His last appearance was in the 1988 film War Requiem.

(From http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=2:105057~T1)

Stewart Terence Herbert Young (20 June 1915 – 7 September 1994) was a British film director best known for directing three films in the James Bond series, Dr. No (1962), From Russia with Love (1963), and Thunderball (1965).

Born in Shanghai, China, he was public-school educated. Like the fictional James Bond, he read oriental history at St Catharine’s College in the University of Cambridge. As a tank commander during World War II, Young participated in Operation Market Garden in Arnhem, Netherlands.

Young began his film career as a screenwriter in British films of the 1940s, working, for example, on Dangerous Moonlight (1941). In 1946, he was a co-director with Brian Desmond Hurst of Theirs is the Glory, which recaptured the fighting around Arnhem bridge. Arnhem, coincidentally, was home to the adolescent Audrey Hepburn. During the filming of Young’s film, Wait Until Dark, Hepburn and Young would joke that he was shelling his favorite star without even knowing it. Young’s first sole credit as director (and also Christopher Lee’s film debut) was Corridor of Mirrors (1948), an acclaimed film made in France.

After directing a few English films, Young began directing several films for Irving Allen and Albert R. Broccoli’s Warwick Films in the 1950s, including The Red Beret with Alan Ladd. Young was also a story editor at Warwick. This association led to his being offered the directorship of the first two James Bond films.

“Terence Young WAS James Bond” wrote Robert Cotton. There is little doubt that Young fitted the profile of Bond – the erudite, sophisticated lady killer, dressed in Savile Row suits, always witty, well-versed in wine, and comfortable at home and abroad. Cotton commented, “As Lois Maxwell related in one of Connery’s many biographies, ‘Terence took Sean under his wing. He took him to dinner, showed him how to walk, how to talk, even how to eat.’ Some of the cast remarked that Connery was simply doing a Terence Young impression, but Young and Connery knew they were on the right track.”

During the filming of From Russia with Love, Young and a photographer nearly drowned when their helicopter crashed into the sea while filming a key sequence. They were rescued by other members of the film crew. Young was back behind the camera thirty minutes after being rescued.

Young never made any films as popular as his mid sixties work that included The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders with husband and wife team Richard Johnson and Kim Novak, Thunderball and Wait Until Dark with Audrey Hepburn.

He made many films in Europe, including The Poppy Is Also a Flower (1965), Triple Cross (1967) – a story of Eddie Chapman starring Christopher Plummer, Mayerling (1968), L’Arbre de Noel (US: The Christmas Tree aka When Wolves Cry) starring William Holden (1969), and several films with Charles Bronson including Red Sun, Cold Sweat and The Valachi Papers. In addition to directing, Young also cowrote the screenplay of Atout coeur à Tokyo pour O.S.S. 117.

According to Young, he was offered and turned down the direction of For Your Eyes Only and Never Say Never Again.

Young also replaced the original directors of The Klansman and The Jigsaw Man. He undertook Sidney Sheldon’s Bloodline and Inchon (1981). Young was also the editor of The Long Days, a six hour Iraqi telenovela about the life of Saddam Hussein.

Young also directed Laurence Olivier in Inchon (1981) and The Jigsaw Man (1982). Olivier and Young had been friends since 1943 when Olivier had initially offered the direction of his film Henry V (1944) to Young, who declined.

His wife was the novelist Dorothea Bennett. He died of a heart attack at the age of 79 in Cannes. —Wikipedia