NAMES IN THE NEWS : Olivier to Be Cremated After Rites

The body of Laurence Olivier, Britain’s greatest classical actor of modern times, will be cremated after a private church service for family and close friends Friday, his priest said today.

Colleagues said a memorial service will be held at a later date in London and newspapers have suggested Westminster Abbey or St. Paul’s Cathedral as a focus for national mourning.

“He was a man who could get a big house,” one friend said.

The Rev. Peter Burch, vicar of a church in the Southern English village where Olivier lived, said he prayed at his bedside hours before the actor died.

“I administered communion and we did it especially with the intention of uplifting him, as well as ourselves,” he told reporters. “That was a privilege to do as a final act.” Olivier, he said, “took as much part as he could and we were very pleased that he could appreciate what was happening.”