Reading about Queen Victoria has been a passion of mine since, as a child, I came across Laurence Housman's play 'Happy and Glorious,' with its Ernest Shepard illustrations.
For me as a Welsh actor, Richard Burton is one of my biggest idols. And I've got so many: Peter O'Toole, Laurence Olivier and Oliver Reed. If they got 'Hunky Dory' and 'Citadel' offered to them, they would do completely different jobs on both of them.
I would have liked Sir Laurence Olivier to ask me to go to the Old Vic and let me play all the roles Judi Dench got.
I really think the more talent people have, the more polite they are: Laurence Olivier and Alec Guinness always arrived on time and were impeccably behaved. It's only the gutter snipes who leave their lipstick on the studio floor - and that's just the men.
Laurence Olivier said in an interview once that when he plays a tragedy he always aims for the funny parts, and the other way around. Because in a comedy you look for what's serious. I think that's true. Sometimes things are really funny if you're absolutely earnest. If you're really serious, it's hilarious.
A fan once stopped me outside a theatre and gave me as a gift a signed photograph of Sir Laurence Olivier. It was strange, but nice, too.
I can manage a prose format as long as I keep closer to Laurence Sterne than to Henry James.
On my wall, along with my favorite football players and baseball players, I had Marlon Brando and Sir Laurence Olivier. These were childhood idols.
I played Othello, but I didn't sit around thinking how Laurence Olivier did it when he played it. That wouldn't do me any good.
I had a hard time calling Laurence Oliver 'Larry.'
