Veteran actress Joan Plowright, a two-time Golden Globe and Tony award winner who was married to Laurence Olivier, has died. She was 95.
Plowright’s passing was confirmed by her household in a press release to The Guardian on Friday (January 17), who wrote, “It’s with nice disappointment that the household of Dame Joan Plowright, the Girl Olivier, inform you that she handed away peacefully on January 16 2025 surrounded by her household at Denville Corridor aged 95.”
The assertion continued, “She loved an extended and illustrious profession throughout theatre, movie and TV over seven many years till blindness made her retire. She cherished her final 10 years in Sussex with fixed visits from family and friends, full of a lot laughter and fond reminiscences. The household are deeply grateful to Jean Wilson and all these concerned in her private care over a few years.”
Born on October 28, 1929, in Brigg, Lincolnshire, England, Plowright made her stage debut in 1948 and went on to hitch the English Stage Firm on the Royal Courtroom Theatre in 1956. She co-starred with Olivier within the London manufacturing of John Osborne’s The Entertainer in 1957 and married him in 1961. She additionally acquired a Tony Award for her function in A Style of Honey on Broadway.
Tea With the Dames; Sundance Selects/courtesy Everett Assortment
Whereas the vast majority of her early profession came about on stage, she began showing in movies extra frequently within the Nineteen Nineties, starring in Enchanted April (1992), for which she gained a Golden Globe and earned an Oscar nomination. She additionally starred in Dennis the Menace (1993), The Scarlet Letter (1995), 101 Dalmations (1996), and Tea With Mussolini (1999).
On tv, she gained her second Golden Globe and an Emmy nomination for the 1992 HBO movie Stalin, the place she performed the Soviet dictator’s mother-in-law. Her different TV credit included The Return of the Native (1994), A Place for Annie (1994), and NBC’s Encore! Encore! (1998-1999).
Her final on-screen performing function got here in 2009 within the British thriller film Knife Edge. She retired in 2014 after going blind on account of macular degeneration. Nevertheless, she appeared on-screen once more in 2018 as herself within the documentary movie Nothing Like a Dame.
Plowright was bestowed the glory of a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) within the 1970 New 12 months Honours by Queen Elizabeth II and was promoted to Dame Commander (DBE) within the 2004 New 12 months Honours.
She is survived by her son, actor-director Richard Olivier, and two daughters, actresses Tamsin Olivier and Julie Kate Olivier, in addition to a number of grandchildren.