The prosthetic nose that Laurence Olivier wore when portraying Richard III in his classic film is to be offered for sale as part of a vast collection of props and personal items that belonged to the actor.
About 350 lots will be auctioned by his estate and his widow, Dame Joan Plowright, 94, the Golden Globe and Tony award-winning actor.
They have come straight from the couple’s Sussex home and have never been on the market before. While some reflect their contribution to the dramatic arts, others are more personal items.
The exaggerated nose, along with a hump and a rubber glove for a withered left hand, enhanced Olivier’s snarling performance as Richard III in the 1955 film that he also directed and produced.
“I wanted to look the most evil thing there was,” he recalled in his book, On Acting, published in 1986, three years before his death aged 82.
The nose is preserved in a box with a note suggesting it was a gift on his 80th birthday from one of the film’s makeup artists. It reads: “Dear Larry, We have both made 80. Happy Birthday. Here is the first nose we used in Spain. Remember you would not shoot on the 13th.” It is estimated to sell for about £1,500.
The auction will include Olivier’s crown props worn in his award-winning Shakespearean performances. He wore a leather and gold-tone metal crown when portraying King Lear, which was televised in 1983. It marked his final Shakespearean performance, for which he won an Emmy. The crown is estimated to be worth about £900.
The sale will take place in December in Los Angeles and live online, through a renewed partnership between Julien’s Auctions and TCM, the leading authority in classic film.
Giles Moon, the lead specialist for the collection, said: “It’s such an amazing collection. There are so many treasures. It’s one of the great pleasures to be able to bring this to the public. There’s going to be a great deal of interest because it’s largely unknown, which makes it all the more exciting.”
Other offerings include Olivier’s red leather script holder, which bears his name in gilt on the front and pouches containing his eraser and pencil, and his gold pocket watch, which has a Richard III inscription: “Give me a watch.”
It has been said that his performances as Henry V, Hamlet, Richard III, Oedipus, Othello, Archie Rice in The Entertainer, Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights and Maxim De Winter in Rebecca won him artistic immortality.
The auction will include the Venice Biennale Golden Lion award that he received for his Oscar-winning performance in the 1948 film Hamlet, estimated to sell for about £11,500.
His Oscar-nomination plaques for Wuthering Heights, Marathon Man and Sleuth are also being offered, along with rare photographs and Plowright’s Golden Globe awards for best supporting actress for her role in the film Enchanted April and the television movie Stalin.
Other mementoes include a replica of the National Theatre, which Olivier helped to create. It is engraved with “Our Beloved Director 1963 – 1973”, presented to the actor at the end of his tenure as the theatre’s first director.
