Editing Laurence Olivier (section)

===1907–1924: Early life and education===
[[File:Birthplace of Actor Sir Laurence Olivier, Wathen Road, Dorking - geograph.org.uk - 110689.jpg|thumb|upright|The house in Wathen Road, [[Dorking]], Surrey, where Olivier was born in 1907]]
Olivier was born in [[Dorking]], Surrey, the youngest of the three children of the Reverend Gerard Kerr Olivier and Agnes Louise (''née'' Crookenden).{{sfn|Billington|2004}} He had two older siblings: Sybille and Gerard Dacres "Dickie".{{sfn|Holden|1988|p=12}} His great-great-grandfather was of French [[Huguenot]] descent, and Olivier came from a long line of Protestant clergymen.{{efn|Gerard's father Henry Arnold Olivier (1826–1912) was a priest who had eight children, his other sons all achieving success in secular spheres: [[Sydney Olivier, 1st Baron Olivier|Sydney]] became [[Governor of Jamaica]] and later [[Secretary of State for India]], [[Herbert Arnould Olivier|Herbert]] was a successful portrait painter, and Henry (1850–1935) had a military career, ending as a [[colonel]].{{sfn|Holden|1988|p=11}}}} Gerard Olivier had begun a career as a schoolmaster, but in his thirties he discovered a strong religious vocation and was ordained as a priest of the [[Church of England]].{{sfn|Darlington|1968|p=13}} He belonged to the [[high church]], [[ritualist]] wing of [[Anglicanism]] and was known as "Father Olivier". Some Anglican congregations did not like this style,{{sfn|Darlington|1968|p=13}} and the only church posts he was offered were temporary, usually deputising for regular [[Incumbent (ecclesiastical)|incumbents]] in their absence. This meant a nomadic existence, and for Laurence's first few years, he never lived in one place long enough to make friends.{{sfn|Beckett|2005|p=2}}

In 1912, when Olivier was five, his father secured a permanent appointment as assistant [[Rector (ecclesiastical)|rector]] at [[St Saviour's, Pimlico]]. He held the post for six years, and a stable family life was at last possible.{{sfn|Holden|1988|p=14}} Olivier was devoted to his mother, but not to his father, whom he found a cold and remote parent,{{sfn|Beckett|2005|p=6}} though he learned a great deal of the art of performing from him. As a young man Gerard Olivier had considered a stage career and was a dramatic and effective preacher. Olivier wrote that his father knew "when to drop the voice, when to bellow about the perils of hellfire, when to slip in a gag, when suddenly to wax sentimental&nbsp;... The quick changes of mood and manner absorbed me, and I have never forgotten them."{{sfn|Kiernan|1981|p=12}}

[[File:All Saints, Margaret Street Church, London, UK - Diliff.jpg|thumb|left|alt=interior of ornate Victorian church|Interior of [[All Saints, Margaret Street]]]]
In 1916, after attending a series of preparatory schools, Olivier passed the singing examination for admission to the choir school of [[All Saints, Margaret Street]], in central London. His elder brother was already a pupil and Olivier gradually settled in, though he felt himself to be something of an outsider.{{sfn|Holden|1988|pp=17–18}} The church's style of worship was (and remains) [[Anglo-Catholic]], with emphasis on ritual, vestments and incense.{{sfn|Denny|1985|p=269}} The theatricality of the services appealed to Olivier,{{efn|In a biography of Olivier, [[Melvyn Bragg]] observes that all three of the great theatrical trinity of the century—[[Ralph Richardson]], [[John Gielgud]] and Olivier—went through deeply religious phases when young.{{sfn|Bragg|1989|p=34}}}} and the vicar encouraged the students to develop a taste for secular as well as religious drama.<ref name="tynan-interview"/> In a school production of ''[[Julius Caesar (play)|Julius Caesar]]'' in 1917, the ten-year-old Olivier's performance as Brutus impressed an audience that included [[Lady Tree]], the young [[Sybil Thorndike]] and [[Ellen Terry]], who wrote in her diary, "The small boy who played Brutus is already a great actor."{{sfnm|1a1=Findlater|1y=1971|1p=207|2a1=Beckett|2y=2005|2p=9}} He later won praise in other schoolboy productions, as Maria in ''[[Twelfth Night]]'' (1918) and Katherine in ''[[The Taming of the Shrew]]'' (1922).{{sfn|Kiernan|1981|p=20}}

From All Saints, Olivier went on to [[St Edward's School, Oxford]], from 1921 to 1924.{{sfn|Darlington|1968|pp=17–18}} He made little mark until his final year, when he played [[Puck (A Midsummer Night's Dream)|Puck]] in the school's production of ''[[A Midsummer Night's Dream]]''; his performance was a tour de force that won him popularity among his fellow pupils.{{sfn|Holden|1988|p=26}}{{efn|Olivier had not been especially popular until then, and noted in his diary at the time that he played "very well, to everyone's disgust".{{sfn|Barker|1984|p=15}}}} In January 1924, his brother left England to work in India as a rubber planter. Olivier missed him greatly and asked his father how soon he could follow. He recalled in his memoirs that his father replied, "Don't be such a fool, you're not going to India, you're going on the stage."{{sfn|Olivier|1994|p=15}}{{efn|Olivier said that he was surprised and moved that his father, who until then he had thought did not care about him, had devoted considerable thought to his son's future.{{sfn|Bragg|1989|p=38}}}}