star  Joan Plowright (qv), one of the leading actresses of the new wave  of British thespians, did keep Olivier contemporary with the new  leaders of the British theater. Conversely, Oliviers generational  contemporaries, including the actors John Gielgud (qv) and  Ralph Richardson (I) (qv) and the playwright  Terence Rattigan (qv), would become to seem stout and  old