Want to know the best Laurence Olivier movies? How about the worst Laurence Olivier movies? Curious about Laurence Olivier box office grosses or which Laurence Olivier movie picked up the most Oscar nominations? Need to know which Laurence Olivier movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences and which got the worst reviews? Well, you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.
One of our goals here at Ultimate Movie Rankings is to do a career movie page on every member of the American Film Institute’s Top 50 Greatest Screen Legends list. Another one of our goals is to knock out all the requests on our Request Hotline. So when I saw that Laurence Olivier had four requests for a movie page and that he is ranked as the 14th greatest screen legend on the AFI list…..we knew it was time to finally do an Olivier movie page. Laurence Olivier (1907-1989) was an Oscar® winning English actor. Although he gained his fame by dominating the British stage….he still managed to appear in over 50 movies in 6 different decades.
His IMDb page shows 86 acting credits from 1930-1989. This page will rank Laurence Olivier movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television appearances, shorts, documentaries, movies not released in North America and some of his early 1930s movies were not included in the rankings.
Laurence Olivier Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.
Laurence Olivier Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In This Table
The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies any way you want.
- Sort Laurence Olivier movies by co-stars of their movies.
- Sort Laurence Olivier movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost
- Sort Laurence Olivier movies by domestic yearly box office rank
- Sort Laurence Olivier movies how they were received by critics and audiences. 60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
- Sort by how many Oscar® nominations each Laurence Olivier movie received and by many Oscar® wins each Laurence Olivier movie won
- Sort Laurence Olivier movies by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score. UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
- Use the search and sort button to make this page very interactive.
Possibly Interesting Facts About Laurence Olivier
1. Laurence Kerr Olivier was born in Steyning, West Sussex, England.
2. Laurence Olivier’s road to stardom Cliff Notes style….As a teenager, Olivier studied at the Central School of Speech and Drama. He then joined the Birmingham Repertory Theatre and gained notoriety for his stage work. After appearing in a couple of minor movies he got a contract with RKO and headed to Hollywood. When his RKO movies and Perfect Understanding with Gloria Swanson were box office disasters he headed back to the British stage. In 1938 Hollywood came calling again. This time things went much better for Olivier as 1939’s Wuthering Heights and 1940’s Rebecca were box office and critical successes and earned Olivier his first two Oscar® nominations. Olivier would remain a star until his passing in 1989.
3. Laurence Olivier was nominated for 10 acting Oscars® and 1 directing Oscar®. He won the Best Actor Oscar® for 1948’s Hamlet. He also received two Honorary Oscars® in 1947 and 1979.
4. Laurence Olivier is one of five actors or actresses to get 10 or more acting Oscar® nominations. Olivier and Bette Davis got 10 nominations. Jack Nicholson and Katharine Hepburn got 12 nominations and Meryl Streep has 126 nominations….ok she only has 19 but it seems like she gets one every year.
5. Laurence Olivier also received 5 Golden Globe® nominations….winning twice, 9 Emmy® nominations…winning 5 times, 10 BAFTA nominations…winning twice and won two Razzie® awards….though he probably did not want those Razzies®.
6. Laurence Olivier was married three times in her life. His first marriage to Jill Esmond lasted from 1930 to 1940…they had one child. His second and most famous marriage was to Vivien Leigh…it lasted from 1940 to 1961. His final marriage was to Joan Plowright from 1961 to his death in 1989…they had three children. While researching this page I came across an excellent website that looks at Olivier and Vivien Leigh…. I highly recommend that you check this site out.
7. Roles Laurence Olivier turned down or was seriously considered for: Lawrence of Arabia (Peter O’Toole role), Lolita (James Mason role), The Godfather (Marlon Brando role), Cleopatra (Rex Harrison role) Being There (Melvyn Douglas role) and I Confess (Montgomery Clift role).
8. Laurence Olivier was knighted in 1947, made life peer in 1970, awarded the Order of Merit in 1981.
9. Some thoughts on Olivier. Charlton Heston on Sir Larry….”I consider him, in common with my colleagues, the finest actor alive.” Spencer Tracy on Larry….”he is the greatest of them all”.
10. Some tidbits from Laurence Olivier’s memorial service. Olivier’s trophies were carried in a procession: Douglas Fairbanks Jr. carried the insignia of Olivier’s Order of Merit, Michael Caine bore his Oscar® for lifetime achievement, Maggie Smith a silver model of the Chichester theatre, Paul Scofield a silver model of the National, Derek Jacobi the crown worn in Richard III (1955), Peter O’Toole the script used in Hamlet (1948), Ian McKellen the laurel wreath worn in the stage production of “Coriolanus”, Dorothy Tutin the crown worn for King Lear (1983), and Frank Finlay the sword presented to Olivier by John Gielgud, once worn by the 18-century actor Edmund Kean.
Check out Laurence Olivier’s movie career compared to current and classic stars on our Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time page. If you want a deeper look at Olivier’s number one movie then this Rebecca movie page by Steve Lensman is an outstanding source of information.
And finally…sadly we could not find box office information on these 4 Olivier movies. 1931’s The Yellow Ticket which has critic/audience rating of 63.75%, 1931’s Potipher’s Wife with a critic/audience rating of 61.75%, 1933’s No Funny Business with a critic/audience rating of 55.25% and 1935’s I Stand Condemned with a critic/audience rating of 37.00%.
AFI’s Top 25 Screen Legend Actors….with links to my movie pages on the Screen Legend
Check Out Steve Lensman’s Laurence Olivier Movie Ranking Page
For comments….all you need is a name and a comment….please ignore the rest.
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Steve’s Larry Olive You Tube Video Has Been Added To The Page. My thoughts on that video.
Wow…you have two more movies on the video than we do on our UltimateMovieRankings.com page. Good job. Overall I have seen 22 of his movies….less than expected…but right behind Flora…so I am not complaining. Favorites include #6 Sleuth, #5 Sparacus, #11 A Bridge Too Far…ah..just outside the Top 10, #12 Marathon Man….the most evil dentist in movie history. My favorite Olivier story comes from this movie. Dustin Hoffman stayed up for days to film his scenes were he was exhausted….when Olivier heard he did that….he told Hoffman….”Why do you just trying acting to be that tired?” #43 The Jazz Singer…hey the music is good. As for his top rated movies…I liked Wuthering Heights, Rebecca and Henry V….they are not favorites. Good video. Shared and voted up.
Hi Bruce, 22 out of 50 is okay, I managed 24 and Flora leads with 26. Lots of favorites here, I listed some of them in my reply to Flora on the video page.
My favorite of the Shakespeare films is probably Henry V I’ve seen that a few times. Hamlet and Richard III are good too. Othello I’ve only seen once. A white actor in black face make up and fuzzy wig would certainly not be PC these days. But back then no one cared. Thanks for the comment, vote and share, always appreciated.
You are welcome. Never enjoyed the Shakespeare movies….nor the Tenn. Williams ones…maybe I am just not smart enough….lol. You are 100% correct….his Othello would be banned in every city in America. On to your Richardson video.