Born: May 22, 1907
Died: July 11, 1989
“This isn’t Hamlet, you know! It’s not meant to go into the bloody ear!”
Leave it to the actor many consider to be the greatest thespian of the 20th-century to go out with such an ad-libbed—and very funny—bit of dialogue.
As Olivier lay in his bed, dying of a rare degenerative muscle disorder, a nurse leaned over to wet the parched lips of the 82-year-old actor.
She missed.
Larry was cremated and his ashes interred in Poets’ Corner in London’s Westminister Abbey. Sharing some of floor space with Olivier is noted thespian David Garrick 1716-1779), as famous in his days as Olivier was in his; legend had it that Garrick performed as Richard III with a bone fracture, inspiring the line to “break a leg!”
Morbid Curiosity, By Alan W. Petrucelli