Ian Charleson performed Hamlet from 9 October to 13 November 1989, in Richard Eyre's production at the Olivier Theatre, replacing Daniel Day-Lewis, who had abandoned the production.

In 1951, Leigh and Olivier performed two plays about Cleopatra, William Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra and George Bernard Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra, alternating the play each night and winning good reviews.

In 1953, Leigh recovered sufficiently to play The Sleeping Prince with Olivier ; and, in 1955, they performed a season at Stratford-upon-Avon in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, Macbeth, and Titus Andronicus.

Faisal was originally to be portrayed by Laurence Olivier ; Guinness, who performed in other David Lean films, got the part when Olivier dropped out.

Mark Twain, Nellie Melba, Laurence Olivier and Barry Humphries have all performed on this historic stage.

It was followed by The Critic ( 1779 ), an updating of the satirical Restoration play The Rehearsal, which received a memorable revival ( performed with Oedipus Rex in a single evening ) starring Laurence Olivier as Mr Puff, opening at the New Theatre on 18 October 1945 as part of an Old Vic Theatre Company season.

The company initially performed at the Old Vic, their first production being Hamlet, directed by Olivier and starring Peter O ' Toole.

Gielgud had triumphs in many other plays, notably his greatest popular success Richard of Bordeaux ( 1933 ) ( a romantic version of the story of Richard II ), The Importance of Being Earnest which he first performed at the Lyric Hammersmith in 1930 and which remained in his repertory until 1947, and a legendary production of Romeo and Juliet ( 1935 ) which Gielgud directed and alternated the roles of Romeo and Mercutio with a young Laurence Olivier in his first professional Shakespearean leading role.

Switzerland had to replace its original choice of entry, " Soleil, soleil " which was to have been performed by Géraldine Olivier.

More recently many of the great organ recitalists of our time have performed on it: Daniel Chorzempa, Xavier Darasse, Sir David Lumsden, Daniel Roth, Dame Gillian Weir, Arthur Well, Olivier Latry, and others.

As part of the city's " Big Splash " festival, on 30 August 2010, 45 year-old French circus star Olivier Roustan from Toulouse, performed the highest ever wirewalk in Europe, along the top cable of the Newport City Footbridge.

He was the first to play the role of " The Russian " on the 1984 concept album Chess, and performed the same role on stage in the 1986 world première West End production in London, for which he was nominated for Laurence Olivier Award in category Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Musical.

In 1998, Shakespeare's Villains a one-man play, created and performed by Steven Berkoff at the theatre was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Entertainment.

Derren Brown performed an Olivier Award-winning live show titled Svengali in 2012.

In 2007 at the Old Vic Theatre, Lindsay played Archie Rice in John Osborne's The Entertainer, a role first performed by Olivier in 1957.

The world premiere of Stuff Happens opened at the Olivier Theatre at the National Theatre in London on September 1, 2004 and has subsequently been performed at Los Angeles ' Mark Taper Forum ( with Keith Carradine and Julian Sands ) in June 2005 and at Sydney's Seymour Center ( with Rhys Muldoon and Greg Stone ) in July 2005.

Her Broadway debut was as the Queen in Henry IV ( 1946 ) starring Laurence Olivier and Ralph Richardson during a visit to America of the Old Vic company, which performed a total of five plays from its repertoire before returning to London.

Richard Eyre produced the play for the National Theatre ; his first production as head of the theatre, it was performed on the Olivier Stage in mid-Victorian costume.

It was the first ( and only ) time that Into the Woods had been performed outside and won the Olivier Award for ' Best Musical Revival ".

It was first performed at the Apollo Theatre in London by the Incorporated Stage Society on 9 December 1928, starring a young Laurence Olivier, and soon moved to other West End theatres for a two-year run.

In 2008, two major companies staged revivals of the play: Jonathan Moore directed a new production at the Royal Exchange, Manchester from May to June, 2008, starring Stephen Tompkinson as Vindice, while a Royal National Theatre production at the Olivier Theatre was directed by Melly Still, starring Rory Kinnear as Vindice, and featuring a soundtrack performed by a live orchestra and DJs Differentgear.

The Woman was the first contemporary play performed in the recently opened Olivier auditorium and, though poorly reviewed, the production was acclaimed as an aesthetic success, especially for its innovative use of the huge open stage.

Many British actors have achieved international fame and critical success, including Julie Andrews, Richard Burton, Michael Caine, Charlie Chaplin, Sean Connery, Vivien Leigh, David Niven, Laurence Olivier, Peter Sellers and Kate Winslet.

Regular attendees at his famed soirées included Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, Joan Crawford and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart, Claudette Colbert, Marlene Dietrich, Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh, actor Richard Cromwell, Stanley Holloway, Judy Garland, Gene Tierney, Noël Coward, Cole Porter, director James Whale, costume designer Edith Head, and Norma Shearer, especially after the death of her first husband, Irving Thalberg.

Ullmann appeared with Laurence Olivier in Richard Attenborough's A Bridge Too Far in 1977.

** Richard III ( 1955 film ), a film starring Laurence Olivier

Perhaps the best-known film adaptation of Shakespeare's play Richard III is the 1955 version directed and produced by Sir Laurence Olivier, who also played the lead role.

Despite his having died at the age of 32, Richard is often depicted as being considerably older: Basil Rathbone, in the Tower of London, and Peter Cook were both 46 when they played him, Laurence Olivier was 47 ( in his 1955 film ), Vincent Price was 51, Ian McKellen was 56 as was Pacino in his 1996 film ( although Pacino was 39 when he played him on Broadway in 1979, and Olivier was 37 when he played him on stage in 1944 ).

* Paul Huson in the 1955 film version, alongside Laurence Olivier as Richard.

A critically panned film he made about the life of Richard Wagner ( noted for having the only onscreen teaming of Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson in the same scenes ) was shown as a television miniseries in 1983 after failing to achieve a theatrical release in most countries, but Burton enjoyed a personal triumph in the American television miniseries Ellis Island in 1984, receiving a posthumous Emmy Award nomination for his final television performance.

The congregation of 1, 200 included Prince Michael of Kent, Margaret, Duchess of Argyll, Sir John Mills, Sir Richard Attenborough, Trevor Howard, Sir David Frost, Joanna Lumley, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and Lord Olivier.

As a young singer he appeared in Verdi and created the Commandant in Richard Strauss's Friedenstag and Olivier in Capriccio.

Bennett's critically acclaimed The History Boys won three Laurence Olivier Awards in 2005, for Best New Play, Best Actor ( Richard Griffiths ), and Best Direction ( Nicholas Hytner ), having previously won Critics ' Circle Theatre Awards and Evening Standard Awards for Best Actor and Best Play.

The duo's reputation enabled them to have a number of prestigious guests on the show, including Angela Rippon, Cliff Richard, Laurence Olivier, John Mills, the Dad's Army cast, Glenda Jackson, Shirley Bassey, Tom Jones, Elton John, The Beatles and even former Prime Minister Harold Wilson.

In April 2012, DeVito made his West End acting debut in a revival of the Neil Simon play The Sunshine Boys-alongside Olivier Award-winning actor Richard Griffiths.

Pryce's performance was highly praised, but he lost the Olivier to Richard Griffiths.

What a Lovely War ( 1969 ), co-starring Sir John Gielgud and Sir Laurence Olivier and directed by Richard Attenborough ; Justine ( 1969 ), directed by George Cukor ; Le Serpent ( 1973 ), co-starring Henry Fonda and Yul Brynner ; A Bridge Too Far ( 1977 ), in a controversial performance as Lieutenant General Frederick " Boy " Browning, also starring Sean Connery and an all-star cast and again directed by Richard Attenborough.

He also directed Alec Guinness as Richard II, taking on the role of John of Gaunt in the production when the Old Vic governors insisted that either Richardson or Olivier must act in every production.

The triumphs of Richardson and Olivier ( the latter famously as Richard III and Oedipus ), described by The Times as the greatest in the Old Vic's history and by Kenneth Tynan as " matchless ", led the governors of the Old Vic to fear that the two stars overshadowed the company.

A year later, cheekily auditioning with the opening soliloquy from Richard III, he caught the eye of star-maker Laurence Olivier who was recruiting promising spear carriers for his new National Theatre Company.

* Richard III ( taking over as Buckingham ), National ( Olivier ), 1979

Other stars included Jon Finch as the long-suffering Mr Lamb ( a role first offered to Timothy Dalton ), Laurence Olivier as the Duke of Wellington, Richard Chamberlain as Byron, and Ralph Richardson as King George IV.

* South Pacific by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, directed by Trevor Nunn, with Philip Quast who won the 2002 Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical ( 2001 )