‘You scamp – of course! Come with me, someone wants to meet you.’ ‘Sydney, Tivoli Theatre, Sir Laurence, in 1948.’ During a tea break, Olivier walked across the set and asked, ‘Where have I seen you before?’ In Olivier’s 1955 film of Richard III, I was cast as the Duke of Northumberland – an invented, non-speaking character. I can still remember the sincerity, warmth and appeal in the voice I’d only heard on screen before. Mario sent them a telegram on every subsequent first night of their tour. ‘Please, Mario, could we go to a pub and sort this problem out over a schooner of good Aussie lager?’ In a high-pitched voice, full of sex appeal, Vivien said, ‘Would you help Scarlett O’Hara in distress, dear Mario?’Īn acrobat couldn’t have climbed down that ladder quicker: ‘Oh, Lady Olivier!’
‘Mario, I’m your new boss, Larry, and I’ve got a problem with the quick scene change. Olivier walked over to Mario and, in an Aussie accent, called up to him, where he was standing at the top of a ladder. I watched as Larry and Vivien appeared for rehearsals. Mario, a bolshie stagehand, was refusing to help with a scene change. I was a twenty-year-old Australian actor, appearing in the crowd scenes in Richard III at the Tivoli Theatre. Alan Strachan's new biography of Vivien Leigh, Dark Star: The Untold Story of Vivien Leigh, puts me in mind of when I was in Twelfth Night with her (pictured), many moons ago.
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