Review by Booklist Review
A remarkably versatile actor, the extraor~dinarily rare kind impossible to typecast, Sir Larry possessed a repute that brooked no challenge as the greatest Shakespearean of the century, both as director and as player. What is challenging is writing about the private life of a man with his own puzzling, antic disposition, and Spoto admirably makes sense of what animated Olivier offstage during his stellar career. A precocious boy with a talent for mimicry and elocution, he was deeply affected by a remote father, the premature loss of a genial, gay-spirited mother, and also, according to Spoto, by homosexual experiences in English public schools. (He further names playwright Noel Coward, actor Danny Kaye, and theater critic Kenneth Tynan as possible lovers.) As tabloid fodder with second wife Vivien Leigh, a selfish and trying spouse, Olivier hit his peak of fame and fortune in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, but his critical legacy is what endures. Who can ever forget his Hamlet or Henry V or his hundreds of other roles? Supported by numerous photos, Spoto's biography wonderfully dissolves the barrier between the private and the public Olivier. Has high potential interest, so ready those reserve slips at the circulation desk. ~--Gilbert Taylor
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Knight of the realm, embodiment of England, great Shakespearean actor and movie star, Laurence Olivier (1907-1989) was saddled with self-loathing, chronic guilt over failed relationships and sexual ambivalence. His 10-year affair with Danny Kaye drove Olivier to suicidal thoughts, reports Spoto, biographer of Hitchcock and Tennessee Williams. A magnificent, moving biography worthy of its protean subject, this resonant portrait defines an actor whose personal upheavals fueled his intense realism on stage and screen. Never close to his cold father, an Anglican priest, Olivier lost his mother at 12. This childhood, suggests Spoto, created an emotionally inaccessible man who channeled his passion into his art. Olivier envied the success of his first wife, actress Jill Esmond, a lesbian. The tragedy of his failed marriage to Vivien Leigh, victim of mental instability and electroshock, was totally avoidable, insists Spoto. In third wife Joan Plowright, a young, lively actress, Olivier found maternal endorsement and encouragement. Critical acumen matches psychological insight in this biography. Photos. BOMC alternate; author tour. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Spoto, author of The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock ( LJ 2/15/83), Madcap: The Life of Preston Sturges ( LJ 3/15/90), and The Kindness of Strangers: The Life of Tennessee Williams ( LJ 3/1/85), here adds to the crowded field of Olivier biographies. His study is well researched and readable, and he gives approximately equal space to Olivier's personal and professional lives. Nevertheless, other better-than-adequate books on Olivier already exist, most notably Anthony Holden's Olivier ( LJ 10/15/88). Interest in Spoto's book will probably be piqued by his undocumented assertion that Olivier and Danny Kaye carried on a ten-year affair which ended only when Olivier's wife Joan Plowright objected.-- John Smothers, Monmouth Cty. Lib., Manalapan, N.J. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Despite having conducted dozens of interviews with those who knew Olivier, Spoto (author of biographies of Hitchcock, Tennessee Williams, and others) offers little important new material--and few fresh insights--in this long, uninspired biography. Aside from lots of sexual tattle, much of it unsupported by sources, and an unconvincing minority opinion on Vivien Leigh's mental troubles, most everything here has been covered before (and, often, better) elsewhere. Like Anthony Holden (Laurence Olivier, 1988), Spoto takes a largely unfriendly view of Sir Larry--seen throughout as primarily ambitious, envious, ungrateful (to Gielgud especially), and ``emotionally inaccessible.'' Also like Holden, Spoto emphasizes Olivier's guilt-ridden nature; unlike Holden, though, Spoto links it to a struggle with bisexuality, supposedly evidenced by a ten- year affair with Danny Kaye (cf. Michael Korda's recent roman à clef) and quasi-sexual attachments to Noel Coward, Kenneth Tynan, and others. As for women, there were brief encounters (Greer Garson, Sarah Miles, Claire Bloom, etc.) and three unhappy marriages; in Spoto's iffy version, Joan Plowright is an uncaring opportunist, Vivien Leigh a self-indulgent sensualist (rather than a manic-depressive). And his interpretation of Olivier's amazing career and art is only slightly more persuasive: the stage and film work, the rise and fall at the National Theatre, all receive conscientious attention--but Spoto's attempts at analyzing the Olivier genius largely slide into psychobabble and platitude: ``This awareness of inadequacy was suffused by a mysterious gift, enabling him to pass the single beam of his own humanity through the prism of a role--and the emerging, manifold ray reached the countless different lives of his spectators.'' Sure to be read for the gossip, and worth skimming for curious bits of interview material, but--with its flat delivery and spotty documentation--an only so-so addition to the crowded Olivier reference room. (More than 75 halftones--not seen.)
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Review by Library Journal Review
Review by Kirkus Book Review
