RICHARD ATTENBOROUGH - STARS ATTEND OLIVIER TRIBUTE

RICHARD ATTENBOROUGH, DAME MAGGIE SMITH and SIR ANTHONY SHER have paid tribute to late acting great SIR LAURENCE OLIVIER, on what would have been his 100th birthday. Lord Olivier's widow Dame Joan Plowright also attended the ceremony at London's National Theatre on Monday (24Sep07) and witnessed the unveiling of a of a life-size statue of Olivier as Hamlet, created by the sculptor Angela Conner. Speeches were made by the National Theatre's chairman Sir Hayden Phillips, Laurence Olivier's son Tarquin and Lord Attenborough. Tarquin, Olivier's son by his first wife Jill Esmond, described his father as "true...magnetic...gloriously funny". He added, "He is still part of what makes life worth living as is his glorious creation, the National Theatre." Lord Attenborough spoke of his old friend as having "an absolutely charismatic magic that drew people to him". And Sir Tom Stoppard contributed, saying, "I came today out of veneration. It's exactly 40 years this year since I met him. I couldn't believe I was in the same room as him. He popped into the rehearsal of my first play... and I would just goggle at him." More than 200 donors, mainly theatre and film people and institutions, contributed to the Laurence Olivier Centenary Statue Appeal.