Actor: Laurence Olivier

Laurence Olivier was the dominant British stage actor of his century and brought a technical, external approach to film that put him directly at odds with the Method generation. The anecdote about telling Dustin Hoffman to try acting during Marathon Man is probably apocryphal and captures the disagreement accurately.

He directed and starred in Henry V, Hamlet and Richard III, and Hamlet won Best Picture and Best Actor, making him the only person to direct himself to that award.

The later film career includes work he took openly for money, including The Betsy and Inchon, alongside genuinely committed performances in Sleuth, Marathon Man and The Boys from Brazil.

He was the first actor made a life peer. The debate about whether his screen acting has aged as well as his contemporaries’ is ongoing and reasonable.