Olivier by Anthony Holden5/7/2023 Olivier, he complains early on, is "a man capable of great intuitive understanding of the human soul and of communicating that understanding to vast unseen audiences, yet seemingly unable to rationalize it, to apply it to his own or others' real lives." He assumes that a great actor must be a man of both profundity and compassion, and then castigates his subject when he fails to measure up to these mythical standards. Holden sets his own trap and then springs it. This chip, produced perhaps by the fact that Lord Larry declined to be interviewed for this ninth biography (and that doesn't include two about him and Vivien Leigh as a couple, numerous anthologies about actors, and his own two memoirs), has infused this book with a grudging attitude that hardly seems appropriate for such a lengthy effort. When Anthony Holden, a British journalist, sat down to write "Laurence Olivier," his biography of a man generally recognized to be one of the greatest actors of all time, he seems to have been burdened by an enormous chip on his shoulder.
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