 In comparing Olivier and the other leading actors of his generation , <unk> wrote , " It is of course vain to talk of who is and who is not the greatest actor . There is simply no such thing as a greatest actor , or painter or composer " . Nonetheless , some colleagues , particularly film actors such as Spencer Tracy , Humphrey Bogart and Lauren <unk> , came to regard Olivier as the finest of his peers . Peter Hall , though acknowledging Olivier as the head of the theatrical profession , thought Richardson the greater actor . Others , such as the critic Michael <unk> , awarded the palm to Gielgud . Olivier 's claim to theatrical greatness lay not only in his acting , but as , in Hall 's words , " the supreme man of the theatre of our time " , pioneering Britain 's National Theatre . As Bragg identified , " no one doubts that the National is perhaps his most enduring monument " . 
