Q 01/05

Which Greek god did Olivier play in the 1981 fantasy film Clash of the Titans?

A) Poseidon

B) Zeus

C) Hades

D) Apollo

Answer · why

B) Zeus

Zeus was one of many late screen cameos Olivier took for the pay cheque: illness had ended his stage career and he had a young family to provide for.

Q 02/05

Who decided that the young Olivier should become an actor?

A) His actress aunt

B) A talent scout at school

C) His headmaster

D) His clergyman father

Answer · why

D) His clergyman father

His clergyman father ran a strict household and seemed the least likely ally, yet it was he who told Laurence to make the stage his career.

Q 03/05

Which future Dame, Olivier's fellow pupil at the Central School, played Juliet to his Romeo in 1935?

A) Peggy Ashcroft

B) Edith Evans

C) Flora Robson

D) Sybil Thorndike

Answer · why

A) Peggy Ashcroft

Peggy Ashcroft trained beside him under Elsie Fogerty, whose stress on elegant diction appealed to neither of them; Edith Evans was the Nurse in that ...

Q 04/05

Olivier's first important West End success came in 1930 as Victor Prynne in which play?

A) Hay Fever

B) Private Lives

C) The Vortex

D) Journey's End

Answer · why

B) Private Lives

Private Lives opened London's new Phoenix Theatre with its author and Gertrude Lawrence in the leads; Olivier's Victor is the stuffy new husband Amand...

Q 05/05

In the famous 1935 Romeo and Juliet, Olivier and John Gielgud did what during the run?

A) Both quit in protest

B) Alternated as director

C) Took the show to Broadway

D) Exchanged their two leading parts

Answer · why

D) Exchanged their two leading parts

They exchanged their two leading parts, Romeo and Mercutio. First-night critics rated Olivier's verse-speaking well below Gielgud's, which infuriated ...