Hello, my friends, old and new! Today we will focus on a celebrated English actor who conquered Hollywood his way: by doing Shakespeare. Laurence Olivier could speak William Shakespeare's lines as naturally as if he were "actually thinking them", said English playwright Charles Bennett, who met Olivier in 1927. He is considered by many as the greatest actor of the 20th century. I would certainly place him in the Top 3.
Laurence Kerr Olivier was born in Dorking, Surrey, England, on May 22, 1907, to Agnes Louise (Crookenden) and Gerard Kerr Olivier, a High Anglican priest. His surname came from a great-great-grandfather who was of French Huguenot origin.
One of Olivier's earliest successes as a Shakespearean actor on the London stage came in 1935 when he played "Romeo" and "Mercutio" in alternate performances of "Romeo and Juliet" with John Gielgud. A young Englishwoman just beginning her career on the stage fell in love with Olivier's Romeo. In 1937, she was "Ophelia" to his "Hamlet" in a special performance at Kronberg Castle, Elsinore, Denmark. The first film that they made together was in 1937 - and it was a historical adventure called Fire Over England:
In 1940, the lady in question (Vivien Leigh) became his second wife after both returned from making films in America that were major box office hits of 1939. Hers was a little film called Gone With The Wind and his was a breathtaking adaptation of Emily Bronté's Wuthering Heights by William Wyler. Cathy was portrayed by Merle Oberon:
Here is Olivier himself, as well as Wyler, talking about the experience:
Leigh and Olivier had a film together in 1940 that was called 21 Days Together. He also made two more films in 1940 - and both are classics. The first was Rebecca, co-starring with Joan Fontaine, Alfred Hitchcock's breakthrough film in the US, the Best Picture Oscar winner that year. Wuthering Heights and Rebecca were Olivier's first two Oscar nominations as Best Actor. This scene is from Rebecca:
The other 1940 film was a screen adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, alongside Greer Garson:
In 1941 Leigh and Olivier made their last film together, Alexander Korda's historical romance That Hamilton Woman. This is the film's trailer:
Also in 1941, he worked with the great director Michael Powell in 49th Parallel. This is the film's trailer:
In 1944, he decided to film Shakespeare's Henry V, partly intended as a wartime morale-booster for the British during World War II. Laurence Olivier originally invited William Wyler to direct. Wyler, however, declined, saying, "If it's Shakespeare, it must be you [who directs the film]". Carol Reed and Ralph Richardson told him the same thing. So Olivier directed it.
Laurence Olivier agreed not to appear in a film for 18 months to encourage this one to attract as large an audience as possible and in return was paid £15,000 tax-free, about £460,000 in today's money. Filmed with a budget of $2 million, it was the most expensive British production at the time. It became, however, a big success, bringing in a healthy profit.
The Oscars honored the film with three nominations, Best Picture and Best Actor for Olivier among them. Olivier was awarded a special Oscar, "for his outstanding achievement as actor, producer, and director in bringing 'Henry V' to the screen." This is the famous St Crispin's Day Speech:
He returned to Shakespeare in a big way in 1948 with Hamlet. The film was a triumph, the first film to win both the Academy Award for Best Picture and the Venice Film Festival Golden Lion Award for Best Picture, as well as the first non-American film to win the Best Picture Oscar. It also won Olivier the Best Actor Oscar. This is the famous "To Be Or Not To Be" soliloquy:
In 1952 he starred against Jennifer Jones in Carrie:
His next Oscar nomination came in another Shakespeare adaptation, Richard III (1955). This is the famous "Now Is the Winter of Our Discontent" soliloquy:
In 1957 he worked with Marilyn Monroe in The Prince and the Showgirl:
His next Oscar nomination came in 1960 in an altogether different film, the realistic drama called The Entertainer, based on a play by John Osborne and directed by Tony Richardson. His wife in the film was Brenda De Banzie and his children were portrayed by up-and-coming actors Alan Bates and Albert Finney, as well as his soon-to-be-wife Joan Plowright. Here's a scene:
Also in 1960, he was second lead alongside Kirk Douglas in Stanley Kubrick's epic Spartacus. The film's cast included many big stars, among them Tony Curtis, who joined Olivier in this notorious "snails and oysters" scene, a veiled nod to bisexuality:
It seems that Olivier was bisexual in real life too. Vivien Leigh had mentioned once catching him making out with Marlon Brando, while one of Olivier's close friends and contemporaries, the actor and playwright Emlyn Williams, said to a reporter: "We all know Larry. Do I think he is sexually attracted to men?" He let out a snort of laughter. "Is the Pope Catholic?"
His widow, Dame Joan Plowright, who was married to Olivier for 28 years, responded calmly to Sue Lawley's references to allegations of homosexual liaisons in the great actor's life, in a remarkable interview with Lawley on the radio programme Desert Island Discs:
"If a man is touched by genius, he is not an ordinary person," said Plowright. "He doesn't lead an ordinary life. He has extremes of behaviour which you understand and you just find a way not to be swept overboard by his demons. You kind of stand apart. You continue your own work and your absorption in the family. And those other things finally don't matter."
His next Oscar nomination came in 1965 with another film adaptation of a Shakespeare play, Othello. Also nominated, a very young Maggie Smith in the role of Desdemona. Here it is:
In 1972 both Olivier and Michael Caine were nominated for their brilliant performances in Sleuth:
In 1975 he co-starred with Katharine Hepburn for the first time in Love Among the Ruins, a TV movie directed by George Cukor:
His next Oscar nomination came in 1976 in Marathon Man, playing against Dustin Hoffman. This is a classic scene from the film:
His last Oscar nomination came in 1978. It was for The Boys In Brazil. While in Marathon Man he was a Nazi, in The Boys In Brazil he was a Nazi hunter. Gregory Peck and James Mason are the Nazis, while Steve Guttenberg joins Olivier in this scene:
In 1981 he appeared as Lord Marchmain in one of the best TV series of all-time, Brideshead Revisited, starring a young Jeremy Irons:
His last film appearance came in 1989, in a film by avant-garde gay filmmaker, Derek Jarman, called War Requiem. Tilda Swinton, Jarman's muse, was also in the film. This is the trailer:
He became the first actor made a peer of the realm when Harold Wilson's second Labour government secured him a life peerage to represent the interests of the theater in the House of Lords. He was elevated to the peerage as Baron Olivier of Brighton in 1970.
Following a bad fall in March 1989, Olivier endured his final operation, a hip replacement. His sister Sybille died the following month at age 87. By early July, his one remaining kidney was in a precarious state, and he was given a maximum of six weeks left to live. At the time of his death, at 11:15 a.m. on July 11, 1989, he had been sick for the last 22 years of his life.
The weekend is here, which means it's time for our countdown and our statistics: At #180 of our Motown countdown, we find The Miracles with their 1965 hit, Ooo Baby Baby. The song, written by Smokey Robinson and fellow Miracle Pete Moore and produced by Robinson, was a #4 hit on the US R&B chart and reached #16 on the Billboard Hot 100.
A slow, remorseful number, Ooo Baby Baby features Miracles lead singer Smokey Robinson lamenting the fact that he cheated on his woman, and begging for her to overlook his mistakes and please forgive him. The song's highly emotional feel is supported by the Miracles' tight background vocal harmonies. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked the Miracles' original version as #266 on their list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Here it is:
In 1978, Linda Ronstadt recorded a cover version of Ooh Baby Baby and included it on her double-platinum album Living in the USA. Her version of the single peaked at #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1979 (it was also a #6 hit in Canada). This is it:
Ronstadt performed with Smokey Robinson both The Tracks of My Tears and Ooh Baby Baby on the Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever special broadcast on May 16, 1983. Here it is:
The song was also covered by artists that have been presented here in the past... Like Sylvester:
... Like Laura Nyro:
... or like Anohni (Antony Hegarty) in a duet with Marianne Faithfull:
We now have two Stevie Wonder songs in a row: at #179 is He's Misstra Know It All (1974). The song was released as a single in the UK and peaked at #10. It also appeared on Stevie's album Innervisions. The song is essentially a long description of a know-it-all confidence trickster character who is a "man with a plan", who always has a slick answer and who has "a counterfeit dollar in his hand." It has been alleged that this is a reference to Richard Nixon.
The song takes the form of a mellow ballad with a steady beat, principally a solo performance with Wonder providing lead vocal, background vocal, piano, drums, handclaps, and congas. Ethereal flute-like sounds are provided by his TONTO modular synthesizer. Willie Weeks, on electric bass, is the only other musician. Towards the end of the song the mood changes to a stronger feel, more strident singing and with hand-claps emphasizing the beat, half-beat, and quarter-beat. Here it is:
Eric Van Aro covered the song in 2005. He is the son of German Producer Erik van Aro Sr and of French-born Italian multilingual singer, guitarist, dancer, and actress Caterina Valente. This is it:
Talking of Caterina Valente, one of the most interesting female singers in Europe, you have to listen to a couple of hits of hers. This is Nessuno Mi Può Giudicare:
... And this is her version of the Rolling Stones' Paint It Black in Italian, called Tutto Nero:
At #178 is another Stevie Wonder song. This one is called Isn't She Lovely? and appears on his 1976 masterpiece, Songs in the Key of Life. The lyrics celebrate the birth of his daughter, Aisha Morris.
The song opens side 3 of Songs in the Key of Life and starts with a baby's first cry recorded during an actual childbirth. A recording of Wonder bathing Aisha as an older toddler is brought into the final section of the song, mixed with Wonder's extended chromatic harmonica solo. All of the instruments heard in the song are played by Wonder, except for Greg Phillinganes on some of the keyboard parts. During the recording process, bassist Nathan Watts laid down a bass guitar line to serve as a guide track for Wonder, but Wonder eventually replaced this with his own keyboard bass performance.
The more-than-six-minute song was not released as a single, as Wonder was unwilling to shorten the song to fit the 7", 45 rpm format. With consumers demanding a single, Tamla compromised in late 1976, and a promotional version was given to radio stations. This edited version, 3:12 in length, received so much airplay that it reached #23 on the Adult Contemporary chart in January 1977. Since then, the song has become a jazz and pop standard, covered by many artists. This is the original version:
David Parton released the song as a single and it became a UK #4 hit, in mid-January 1977:
Leslie Kleinsmith released a cover of the song as a single in South Africa and peaked at #12 on the South African chart:
Jazz guitarist Lee Ritenour included the song on his 1977 album, Captain Fingers:
At #177 is a power duo, Diana Ross & Marvin Gaye who recorded the album Diana & Marvin in 1973. The song at #177 is You Are Everything and Diana & Marvin took the song to #5 in the UK. It became the first official Motown single to be awarded a silver disc for sales in excess of 200,000 copies. It also reached #13 on the Dutch charts and #20 in Ireland. It was never released as a single in the US. Here it is:
The song, a Thom Bell-Linda Creed composition, was first recorded by the great Philadelphia soul group, The Stylistics. It was released as a single in 1971 and was a hit in the US (#9: Hot 100, #10: R&B chart), as well as in Australia (#17) and Canada (#25). Here it is:
Rod Stewart recorded the song in 1991:
Vanessa Williams performed the song on her album titled Everlasting Love(2005). Her version was a hit on the Smooth jazz, Dance and Adult Contemporary charts. This is it:
Finally for today, at #176, is another song by Marvin Gaye. Hitch Hike (1962) was the single to follow his first hit, Stubborn Kind of Fellow. The song sparked a brief dance craze when audience members from American Bandstand performed the "hitch hike" dance. Marvin performed the song on the show and also did the move onstage. The dance was also performed during Marvin's performance of the song in the T.A.M.I. Show. The single was successful enough to land Gaye his first US top 40 single in 1963 with Hitch Hike reaching #30 on the Hot 100 while reaching #12 on the R&B singles chart. Here it is:
Martha and the Vandellas, who recorded backing vocals on the original version, covered it on their album Dance Party. Their version uses the original backing track with the Vandellas' backing vocals intact, in addition to Martha Reeves' lead vocal, Rosalind Ashford and Betty Kelly's harmony vocals, and added percussion from the Funk Brothers. This is it:
It was covered in 1965 by The Rolling Stones on their album Out Of Our Heads:
The Velvet Underground's song There She Goes Again is based on Hitch Hike:
... As is the guitar intro to The Smiths' There Is a Light That Never Goes Out (Johnny Marr specifically credits The Rolling Stones' cover as the inspiration):
Another song which is likely based on Hitch Hike is You Can't Do That by The Beatles, especially the use of cowbell and congas and the pronounced stops at the end of each verse. Here it is:
Now, let's continue with last week's statistics; the drop lasted only one week, which means that this week there was a pleasant 20% rise. Only two stories underperformed: the one that carried the photo of Tina Turner and the one with the photo of David Cassidy. The four other stories did great.
As far as countries are concerned, a great week for the United States and Greece, a good week for Cyprus and Brazil, while France, the United Kingdom, and Turkey are slightly falling behind. The other major players kept their percentages more or less stable.
Here are this week's Top 10 countries:
1. the United States
2. Greece
3. the United Kingdom
4. France
5. Cyprus
6. Canada
7. Australia
8. Germany
9. Brazil
10. Italy
Here are the other countries that graced us with their presence since our last statistics (alphabetically): Aland Islands, Albania, Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belgium, Benin, Bermuda, Bolivia, Brunei, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czechia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, Ghana, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macau, Malaysia, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Myanmar (Burma), the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Palestine, Panama, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Trinidad & Tobago, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates, Vietnam, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Happy to have you all!
And here's the all-time Top 10:
1. the United States = 31.1%
2. France = 19.7%
3. the United Kingdom = 12.0%
4. Greece = 8.1%
5. Russia = 2.5%
6. Germany = 1.8%
7. Canada = 1.7%
8. Italy = 1.1%
9. Cyprus = 0.92%
10. Turkey = 0.82%
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