Sir Laurence Olivier was a figure like no other. People often refer to him as the greatest actor of his generation—if not of all time—but behind the scenes, he struggled desperately with painful secrets that followed him throughout his life, all the way to his tragic end.
Noel Coward was one of the hottest playwrights—and social figures—in London. When he first caught Laurence Olivier on stage, he was blown away by the actor’s talent and cast him in his play Private Lives. It was a smashing success, and became Olivier’s big break. On top of that, Coward became both a close friend and a mentor to Olivier.
Despite his very public—and passionate, and tumultuous—marriages, friends, fans, and biographers alike speculated about Olivier’s sexuality. After all, he was always quite open about his experiences with men. In his biography, Olivier wrote a passage about being tempted by another man, and many believed he was talking about his old friend, Noel Coward—but Olivier’s own letters later revealed the truth.
A series of letters between Olivier and fellow Shakespearean actor Henry Ainley seem to strongly hint that the pair had a passionate, if brief, affair in the mid-1930s, before Olivier took up with Vivien Leigh. Other biographers made claims about dalliances with Danny Kaye and Olivier’s close friend Noel Coward.
After Olivier’s passing, his official biographer finally asked Plowright, flat out, if he’d had affairs with men. Her reply? “If he did, so what?” Sadly, she was alone in her acceptance of her late husband’s sexuality. Olivier’s son from his first marriage, Tarquin, did everything in his power to suppress any stories of his father’s affairs.
Still, there was clearly one romance that haunted Olivier more than any other in his life. In the weeks before Olivier's own demise, he reportedly watched a movie that starred Leigh. As he began to weep, Olivier simply said, "This, this was love." Even though their relationship didn't last forever, Leigh felt the same way about Olivier. The actress once said, “I would rather have lived a short life with Larry [Olivier] than face a long one without him".
