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Welcome to The Malthouse, home to Lord and Lady Olivier for over 60 years. This secret escape, nestled into the rolling hills of the Sussex downs, far away from the madding crowds of London’s West End and Hollywood, has been the most perfect family home for two of the world’s most famous and revered actors.
Having homes in both Brighton and London in the early 1960’s, the newly wedded ‘couple of the year’: Laurence and Joan, bought the original Elizabethan farmhouse for parents to reside in but soon after developing and landscaping the plot with many hours of love, moved in themselves.
The Oliviers met and married at a transformational moment in Sir Laurence's career. Having played all the great Shakespearean roles, and brilliantly filmed Henry V, Richard III and Hamlet, for which he won three of his four Oscars, Laurence then developed a passion for new drama. It was during rehearsals for John Osborne's ‘The Entertainer’ at The Royal Court Theatre that he met Joan and they fell in love. They were married the next year while playing in next door theatres on Broadway; their 30 year marriage encompassed raising three children, running the Chichester Theatre and founding the National Theatre Company at the Old Vic.
Sir Laurence spent the last years of his life playing memorable character roles in films between precious times hosting friends and tending the gardens he designed at his beloved Malthouse, until he passed there peacefully in his sleep in 1989
