Laurence Olivier

Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM (22 May 1907 – 11 July 1989) was an English actor and director who, along with his contemporaries Ralph Richardson, Peggy Ashcroft and John Gielgud, dominated the British stage of the mid-20th century. He also worked in films throughout his career, playing more than fifty cinema roles. Late in his career, he had considerable success in television roles.

His family had no theatrical connections, but Olivier's father, a clergyman, decided that his son should become an actor. After attending a drama school in London, Olivier learned his craft in a succession of acting jobs during the late 1920s. In 1930 he had his first important West End success in Noël Coward's Private Lives, and he appeared in his first film. In 1935 he played in a celebrated production of Romeo and Juliet alongside Gielgud and Ashcroft, and by the end of the decade he was an established star. In the 1940s, together with Richardson and John Burrell, Olivier was the co-director of the Old Vic, building it into a highly respected company. There his most celebrated roles included Shakespeare's Richard III and Sophocles's Oedipus. In the 1950s Olivier was an independent actor-manager, but his stage career was in the doldrums until he joined the avant garde English Stage Company in 1957 to play the title role in The Entertainer, a part he later played on film. From 1963 to 1973 he was the founding director of Britain's National Theatre, running a resident company that fostered many future stars. His own parts there included the title role in Othello (1965) and Shylock in The Merchant of Venice (1970).

Among Olivier's films are Wuthering Heights (1939), Rebecca (1940), and a trilogy of Shakespeare films as actor-director: Henry V (1944), Hamlet (1948), and Richard III (1955). His later films included The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968), Sleuth (1972), Marathon Man (1976), and The Boys from Brazil (1978). His television appearances included an adaptation of The Moon and Sixpence (1960), Long Day's Journey into Night (1973), Love Among the Ruins (1975), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1976), Brideshead Revisited (1981) and King Lear (1983).

Olivier's honours included a knighthood (1947), a life peerage (1970) and the Order of Merit (1981). For his on-screen work he received four Academy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, five Emmy Awards and three Golden Globe Awards. The National Theatre's largest auditorium is named in his honour, and he is commemorated in the Laurence Olivier Awards, given annually by the Society of London Theatre. He was married three times, to the actresses Jill Esmond from 1930 to 1940, Vivien Leigh from 1940 to 1960, and Joan Plowright from 1961 until his death.

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The ENFJ personality type is the action-oriented, people-centred character looking for and making connections between people. They are excellent glue for the team, assuming control and making sure that everything is planned, scheduled and organised, and that people are happy. They are excellent networkers who tune into what others want and are well-liked and popular among their colleagues. They have an innate sense of what is required and can genuinely make others feel really special. Consummate planners and organisers, they can juggle masses of activities and tasks at any one time, rarely dropping the ball and making sure each activity is given the right amount of attention and loving care.

The ENFJ personality type is the people organiser, warm, harmonious and an enthusiastic champion of people who just wants to ‘do good.’ They make sure the needs of the people are paramount and taken care of, then they will want to plan and get on with it. They can generally be found at the emotional heart of a group or body and will be the one making sure things get done. Like the ENTJ, they excel at getting on and doing but with a much more people, as well as task focus, but with no less energy, commitment or vigour. Articulate and confident the ENFJ will be persuasive and tenacious; the one voted the leader or committee chairperson. They will look for and make connections between people, be excellent glue for the team, everyone knows they can depend on the ENFJ. An ENFJ will use their considerable energies and enthusiasm to make things happen and these characteristics are infectious and can be excellent at creating a feeling of 'team' and keeping morale high.

The ENFJ personality type has high drive, bundles of energy and a commitment to ‘the cause,’ (whatever that cause is) which borders on the evangelical. Their energy levels increase the more people they have to meet and the more activities they have to arrange. Consummate planners and organisers, they can juggle masses of activities and tasks at any one time, rarely dropping the ball and making sure each activity is given the right amount of attention and loving care. This desire to ‘get it done’ can at times mean that the ENFJ becomes inflexible and a ‘controlling parent’ in their desire to ‘finish what we’ve started.’ Under such pressure they can lose their sense of balance and perspective but will ultimately bounce back because that is just what the ENFJ is built for.

As ‘Thinking’ is their weaker function, the ENFJ may suffer at times from being overly subjective and lacking a cooler, slightly more dispassionate eye on people and situations. This also means the ENFJ may bite off more that they can chew as their first priority is to say ‘yes’ and take the pain away for others. During such times the ENFJ may feel weighed down by the amount of work to which they have committed and so may see themselves as ‘victim,’ feeling overwhelmed and underappreciated. They want to please and make sure things run like clockwork and when others let them down the ENFJ can be very disappointed. This desire to ‘do good’ can also mean that the ENFJ sees pleasing others as far more important than pleasing themselves and so they may run the risk of trading off honesty for harmony, keeping the peace rather than telling it like it is. At times they may also rely too much on their intuitive understanding of individuals, thus failing to make logical, empirical decisions based on objective facts and evidence, and the ENFJ may see good where none exists. Their 'N' perspective also means that the ENFJ may fail to see the smaller 'facts,' focusing instead on 'global harmony.' This would see the ENFJ move too quickly and make decisions based on a scant amount of facts. Their sensitivity can also work two ways. Sure, the ENFJ will be sensitive to the needs of others but this sensitivity can mean the ENFJ is overly reactive to perceived criticism of them. In these instances, the ENFJ may become self-indulgent and feel that their good intentions are being undervalued; but only until they are needed again.