LGBT Book, Film & Video Blog

LONDON — Gay rumors have long swirled around the British lion of stage and screen Sir Laurence Olivier, and the latest biography of the actor offers evidence of at least one relationship with another man. Though Olivier was married to Scarlet O’Hara herself, Vivien Leigh, and later married another famed British actress, Joan Plowright, there were rumors of sexual dalliances with men, and one of them came from Olivier himself in his 1982 autobiography. The newest biography, simply titled “Olivier,” was written by Terry Coleman, an English journalist, novelist and historian. Coleman told the Associated Press that verifying the bisexual rumors was difficult. “I did check it and talked to a number of people,” Coleman said. Another Oliver biography suggested he was romantically involved with well-loved comic actor Danny Kaye, who allegedly was gay. “What I did find was [that Olivier had a] homosexual affair in 1937 with an actor called Henry Ainley,” Coleman told the AP. “[Ainley] was a big name of the 1910s and 1920s. I’m not sure this is a terribly important thing.”

Olivier had affair with a man, latest biography reveals @ NY Blade