Laurence Olivier - Family and Death

Family and Death

Olivier died at his home in Ashurst, West Sussex, England, from renal failure on 11 July 1989. He was survived by his son Tarquin from his first marriage, as well as his wife Joan Plowright and their three children. He was cremated and his ashes interred in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey, London. Olivier is one of only a few actors, along with David Garrick, Henry Irving, Ben Jonson and Sybil Thorndike to have been accorded this honour. Olivier is buried alongside some of the people he portrayed in theatre and film, including King Henry V, General John Burgoyne, Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding and William III of England and II of Scotland.

Fifteen years after his death, Olivier once again received star billing in a film. Through the use of computer graphics, footage of him as a young man was integrated into the 2004 film Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow in which Olivier "played" the villain.

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Famous quotes containing the words family and/or death:

    Q: What would have made a family and career easier for you?
    A: Being born a man.
    Anonymous Mother, U.S. physician and mother of four. As quoted in Women and the Work Family Dilemma, by Deborah J. Swiss and Judith P. Walker, ch. 2 (1993)

    For in the word death
    There is nothing to grasp; nothing to catch or claim;
    Nothing to adapt the skill of the heart to, skill
    In surviving, for death it cannot survive,
    Only resign the irrecoverable keys.
    The wave falters and drowns. The coulter of joy
    Breaks. The harrow of death
    Depends. And there are thrown up waves.
    Philip Larkin (1922–1986)