Editing Laurence Olivier (section)

===National Theatre===
====1963–1968====
At around the time the Chichester Festival opened, plans for the creation of the National Theatre were coming to fruition. The British government agreed to release funds for a new building on the [[South Bank]] of the Thames.{{sfn|Billington| 2004}} [[Oliver Lyttelton, 1st Viscount Chandos|Lord Chandos]] was appointed chairman of the National Theatre Board in 1962, and in August Olivier accepted its invitation to be the company's first director. As his assistants, he recruited the directors [[John Dexter]] and [[William Gaskill]], with [[Kenneth Tynan]] as literary adviser or "[[dramaturge]]".{{sfn|Holden|1988|pp=356 and 368}} Pending the construction of the new theatre, the company was based at the Old Vic. With the agreement of both organisations, Olivier remained in overall charge of the Chichester Festival during the first three seasons of the National; he used the festivals of 1964 and 1965 to give preliminary runs to plays he hoped to stage at the Old Vic.{{sfn|Darlington|1968|p=90}}

The opening production of the National Theatre was ''Hamlet'' in October 1963, starring [[Peter O'Toole]] and directed by Olivier. O'Toole was a guest star, one of occasional exceptions to Olivier's policy of casting productions from a regular company. Among those who made a mark during Olivier's directorship were [[Michael Gambon]], [[Maggie Smith]], [[Alan Bates]], Derek Jacobi and [[Anthony Hopkins]]. It was widely remarked that Olivier seemed reluctant to recruit his peers to perform with his company.<ref name="times-obit"/> Evans, Gielgud and [[Paul Scofield]] guested only briefly, and Ashcroft and Richardson never appeared at the National during Olivier's time.{{efn|Billington describes Olivier's attitude to Richardson and others as "most ungenerous".{{sfn|Billington|2004}}}} [[Robert Stephens]], a member of the company, observed, "Olivier's one great fault was a paranoid jealousy of anyone who he thought was a rival".<ref name="lewis-sunday-times"/>

In his decade in charge of the National, Olivier acted in thirteen plays and directed eight.<ref name="nt-olivier"/> Several of the roles he played were minor characters, including a crazed butler in [[Feydeau]]'s ''[[A Flea in Her Ear]]'' and a pompous solicitor in [[Somerset Maugham|Maugham]]'s ''Home and Beauty''; the vulgar soldier Captain Brazen in [[George Farquhar|Farquhar]]'s 1706 comedy ''[[The Recruiting Officer]]'' was a larger role but not the leading one.<ref name="recruiting-officer"/>

Apart from his Astrov in the ''Uncle Vanya'', familiar from Chichester, his first leading role for the National was Othello, directed by Dexter in 1964. The production was a box-office success and was revived regularly over the next five seasons.{{sfn|Holden|1988|p=403}} His performance divided opinion. Most of the reviewers and theatrical colleagues praised it highly; [[Franco Zeffirelli]] called it "an anthology of everything that has been discovered about acting in the past three centuries."{{sfn|Holden|1988|pp=379 and 382}} Dissenting voices included ''[[The Sunday Telegraph]]'', which called it "the kind of bad acting of which only a great actor is capable&nbsp;... near the frontiers of self-parody";{{sfn|Holden|1988|p=379}} the director [[Jonathan Miller]] thought it "a condescending view of an Afro Caribbean person".<ref name=walker/> The burden of playing this demanding part at the same time as managing the new company and planning for the move to the new theatre took its toll on Olivier. To add to his load, he felt obliged to take over as Solness in ''[[The Master Builder]]'' when the ailing Redgrave withdrew from the role in November 1964.{{sfn|Holden|1988|p=385}}{{efn|Because of this additional commitment, Olivier had to drop his plan to direct Coward's ''[[Hay Fever (play)|Hay Fever]]''.{{sfn|Coward|1983|p=566}} The author took over the production with a cast, headed by Edith Evans, that Coward said could successfully have played the Albanian telephone directory.{{sfn|Morley|1974|p=369}}}} For the first time Olivier began to suffer from [[stage fright]], which plagued him for several years.{{sfn|Bragg|1989|pp=107–108}} The National Theatre production of ''Othello'' was released [[Othello (1965 British film)|as a film]] in 1965, which earned four Academy Award nominations, including another for Best Actor for Olivier.<ref name="Oscar: Othello"/>

During the following year Olivier concentrated on management, directing one production (''[[The Crucible]]''), taking the comic role of the foppish Tattle in [[William Congreve|Congreve]]'s ''[[Love for Love]]'', and making one film, ''[[Bunny Lake is Missing]]'', in which he and Coward were on the same bill for the first time since ''Private Lives''.{{sfn|Day|2005|p=159}} In 1966, his one play as director was ''[[Juno and the Paycock]]''. ''The Times'' commented that the production "restores one's faith in the work as a masterpiece".<ref name="paycock"/> In the same year Olivier portrayed the [[Mahdi]], opposite Heston as [[Charles George Gordon|General Gordon]], in the film ''[[Khartoum (film)|Khartoum]]''.{{sfn|Darlington|1968|p=44}}

In 1967 Olivier was caught in the middle of a confrontation between Chandos and Tynan over the latter's proposal to stage [[Rolf Hochhuth]]'s ''[[Rolf Hochhuth#Soldiers|Soldiers]]''. As the play speculatively depicted Churchill as complicit in the assassination of the Polish prime minister [[Władysław Sikorski]], Chandos regarded it as indefensible. At his urging the board unanimously vetoed the production. Tynan considered resigning over this interference with the management's artistic freedom, but Olivier himself stayed firmly in place, and Tynan also remained.{{sfn|Holden|1988|pp=396–397}} At about this time Olivier began a long struggle against a succession of illnesses. He was treated for [[prostate cancer]] and, during rehearsals for his production of Chekhov's ''[[Three Sisters (play)|Three Sisters]]'' he was hospitalised with pneumonia.{{sfn|Coleman|2006|pp=382–383}} He recovered enough to take the heavy role of Edgar in [[Strindberg]]'s ''[[The Dance of Death (Strindberg)|The Dance of Death]]'', the finest of all his performances other than in Shakespeare, in Gielgud's view.{{sfn|Bragg|1989|p=108}}

====1968–1974====
Olivier had intended to step down from the directorship of the National Theatre at the end of his first five-year contract, having, he hoped, led the company into its new building. By 1968 because of bureaucratic delays construction work had not even begun, and he agreed to serve for a second five-year term.{{sfn|Holden|1988|p=405}} His next major role, and his last appearance in a Shakespeare play, was as [[Shylock]] in ''The Merchant of Venice'', his first appearance in the work.{{efn|With the exception of a walk-on role in a matinée performance of scenes from the play in 1926, with Thorndike as Portia.<ref name="merchant-1926"/>}} He had intended Guinness or Scofield to play Shylock, but stepped in when neither was available.{{sfn|Coleman|2006|p=397}} The production by Jonathan Miller, and Olivier's performance, attracted a wide range of responses. Two different critics reviewed it for ''The Guardian'': one wrote "this is not a role which stretches him, or for which he will be particularly remembered"; the other commented that the performance "ranks as one of his greatest achievements, involving his whole range".<ref name="guardian-merchant1"/><ref name="guardian-merchant2"/>

In 1969 Olivier appeared in two war films, portraying military leaders. He played Field Marshal [[John French, 1st Earl of Ypres|French]] in the First World War film ''[[Oh! What a Lovely War]]'', for which he won another BAFTA award,<ref name=BAFTA/> followed by Air Chief Marshal [[Hugh Dowding]] in ''[[Battle of Britain (film)|Battle of Britain]]''.{{sfn|Munn|2007|p=222}} In June 1970 he became the first actor to be created a peer for services to the theatre.<ref name="Guard: Peerage 1"/><ref name="Guard: Peerage 2"/> Although he initially declined the honour, [[Harold Wilson]], the incumbent prime minister, wrote to him, then invited him and Plowright to dinner, and persuaded him to accept.{{sfn|Olivier|1994|pp=303–304}}

[[File:Laurence Olivier Allan Warren.jpg|thumb|alt=elegantly ageing man in cravat|right|Laurence Olivier in 1972, during the production of ''[[Sleuth (1972 film)|Sleuth]]'']]
After this Olivier played three more stage roles: James Tyrone in [[Eugene O'Neill]]'s ''[[Long Day's Journey into Night]]'' (1971–72), Antonio in [[Eduardo de Filippo]]'s ''Saturday, Sunday, Monday'' and John Tagg in [[Trevor Griffiths]]'s ''The Party'' (both 1973–74). Among the roles he hoped to play, but could not because of ill-health, was Nathan Detroit in the musical ''[[Guys and Dolls]]''.{{sfn|Holden|1988|p=220}} In 1972 he took leave of absence from the National to star opposite [[Michael Caine]] in [[Joseph L. Mankiewicz]]'s film of [[Anthony Shaffer (writer)|Anthony Shaffer]]'s ''[[Sleuth (1972 film)|Sleuth]]'', which ''[[The Illustrated London News]]'' considered to be "Olivier at his twinkling, eye-rolling best";<ref name="ILN: Sleuth"/> both he and Caine were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor, losing to [[Marlon Brando]] in ''[[The Godfather]]''.<ref name="Oscar: Sleuth"/>

The last two stage plays Olivier directed were [[Jean Giradoux]]'s ''[[Amphitryon 38|Amphitryon]]'' (1971) and Priestley's ''[[Eden End]]'' (1974).{{sfn|Holden|1988|pp=465–466}} By the time of ''Eden End'', he was no longer director of the National Theatre; Peter Hall took over on 1 November 1973.{{sfn|Hall| 1984|p=50}} The succession was tactlessly handled by the board, and Olivier felt that he had been eased out—although he had declared his intention to go—and that he had not been properly consulted about the choice of successor.{{sfn|Hall|1984|pp=8–9}} The largest of the three theatres within the National's new building was named in his honour, but his only appearance on the stage of the Olivier Theatre was at its official opening by the Queen in October 1976, when he made a speech of welcome, which Hall privately described as the most successful part of the evening.{{sfn|Hall|1984|p=266}}