The Latest Breaking News from Laurence Olivier

Letter: Bill Gilmour relates André Morell’s tale of being advised by Olivier that mortician’s wax and a red lipstick made all the difference

It comes with a birthday note, addressed to him.

Oscar-winning British actor Maggie Smith, a star of stage and screen for more than seven decades, died in hospital in London on Friday, her sons announced, prompting a flood of tributes.

Maggie Smith, who died on Friday, was an Oscar-winning legend of stage and screen, renowned for playing wide repertoire of characters during a decades-spanning career and personifying a particular kind of English eccentricity.

The real-life dame and on-screen dowager countess, who has died aged 89, earned fame in her 70s and 80s for blockbuster roles. But her early work at the National Theatre marked her out as a talent for the ages

Giant of stage and screen was one of Britain’s most successul stars

In a career that began in the 1950s, her roles ranged from Desdemona to Miss Jean Brodie, Virginia Woolf and Minerva McGonagall

The black British performer started out recording with the Rolling Stones, was on the West End stage by 19 and made breakthroughs in TV and theatre

The ‘L.A. Law’ star – and one-time reality TV husband – speaks to Tom Murray about bonding with Laurence Olivier, his former relationship with Ursula Andress, and why playing one of mainstream American cinema’s first gay leading roles put him in a 40-year exile from major movies