Joan Plowright, an award-winning British actress and widow of Laurence Olivier, has died. She was 95.
“She enjoyed a long and illustrious career across theatre, film and TV over seven decades until blindness made her retire,” Plowright’s household shared in a press release.
The Tony Award-winning actress died Thursday at Denville Corridor, a retirement residence for actors in southern England. Plowright was surrounded by family members on the time of her loss of life.
HOLLYWOOD STARS WHO DIED IN 2025: PHOTOS
Joan Plowright was made a dame by Queen Elizabeth II in 2004. (AP Picture/Suzanne Plunkett)
“We are so proud of all Joan did and who she was as a loving and deeply inclusive human being.”
A part of an astonishing era of British actors, together with Judi Dench, Vanessa Redgrave, Eileen Atkins and Maggie Smith, Plowright gained a Tony Award, two Golden Globes and nominations for an Oscar and an Emmy. She was made a dame by Queen Elizabeth II in 2004.
LIKE WHAT YOU’RE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS
Laurence Olivier and English actress Joan Plowright in a scene from John Osborne’s play “The Entertainer,” which opened on Broadway on Feb. 4, 1958. (AP Picture)
Plowright and her late husband, Olivier, made an impression on the U.Okay.’s theatrical scene within the many years after World Battle II.
The British actress was born with the title Joan Ann Plowright in Brigg, Lincolnshire, England. She began gracing the stage on the younger age of three as her mom ran a drama group.
Plowright spent faculty holidays at summer time classes of college drama faculties. After highschool, she studied on the Laban Artwork of Motion Studio in Manchester, then gained a two-year scholarship to the drama faculty on the Outdated Vic Theatre in London.
From left to proper, actress Joan Plowright, director Peter Greenaway, actresses Joely Richardson and Juliet Stevenson from the movie “Drowning by Numbers” pose for a photograph after the displaying of their movie on Thursday, Might 19, 1988 in competitors on the forty first Cannes Movie Pageant in Cannes, France. (AP Picture/Pierre Gleizes)
In 1954, she made her London stage debut and have become a member of the Royal Court docket Theatre two years later. Plowright gained recognition in dramas written by John Osborne. She labored with actors together with Albert Finney, Alan Bates and Anthony Hopkins.
Plowright made her function movie debut with an uncredited flip in American director John Huston’s epic adaptation of Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick” in 1956, starring Gregory Peck because the obsessed Captain Ahab.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT NEWSLETTER
A yr later, she co-starred along with her future husband Olivier within the unique London manufacturing of Osborne’s “The Entertainer.” She performed Olivier’s daughter within the work, and the 2 reunited for the 1960 movie adaptation.
Joan Plowright, nominated for finest supporting actress for her function in “Enchanted April,” arrives on the Music Heart in Los Angeles on March 29, 1993 for the sixty fifth Annual Academy Awards. (AP Picture/Julie Markes)
In 1961, Plowright and Olivier obtained married in Connecticut, whereas each have been starring on Broadway — he in “Becket” and he or she in “A Taste of Honey,” for which she gained a Tony.
“I sometimes feel such a peacefulness come over me when I think of you, or write to you — a gentle tenderness and serenity. A feeling devoid of all violence, passion or shattering longing… it makes me go out into the street with a smile on my face and in my heart for everybody,” Olivier wrote in a love letter to Plowright.
Olivier died in 1989 on the age of 82. Following his loss of life, Plowright loved an performing profession resurgence on the age of 60.
In 1993, Plowright grew to become certainly one of solely a handful of actors to win two Golden Globes in the identical yr. She gained the supporting actress TV award for “Stalin” and the supporting actress film award for “Enchanted April.”
Joan Plowright, left, Laurence Olivier and actress Lauren Bacall on the U.S. premiere of Lord Olivier’s solely Shakespearean manufacturing made completely for tv, “King Lear,” in New York, Might 3, 1983. (AP Picture/Carlos Rene Perez, File)
With dozens of movie credit to her title, she appeared in motion pictures like “Dennis the Menace,” “The Spiderwick Chronicles” and “The Scarlet Letter.”
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Plowright is survived by her three kids — Tamsin, Richard and Julie-Kate, who’re all actors, and several other grandchildren.
The Related Press contributed to this report.
