Joan Plowright, the English actress whose decades-long career included an Oscar-nominated role in “The Enchanted April” and the films “The Entertainer” and “Stalin,” has died.
The actress died Thursday at Denville Hall, a retirement home for actors in southern England, her family said in a statement to the Associated Press on Friday. She was 95.
“She had a long and illustrious career in theater, film and television for seven decades until her blindness forced her into retirement,” her family said. “We are so proud of everything Joan did and who she was as a loving and deeply inclusive human being.”
Plowright may be remembered as the third and final wife of British acting legend Laurence Olivier, but she leaves behind an impressive legacy of her own that spans theater, film and television.
In the first year of her marriage to Olivier, Plowright was a Tony Award-winning actress (she won in 1961 for “A Taste of Honey”) who graced stages on Broadway and in London, including the Royal Court Theater as a member of the English Stage Company. She was also a BAFTA-nominated star who received critical acclaim for her performance in Tony Richardson's 1960 film The Entertainer, in which Olivier also played her father.
However, after Olivier's death in 1989, Plowright experienced even greater professional success, delivering memorable performances in films throughout the 1990s and early 1980s, including The Cursed April, Stalin, The Scarlet Letter, and “The Spiderwick Chronicles”. ”
Joan Plowright and actor Laurence Olivier married in 1961 and had three children.
(Associated Press)
In director Mike Newell's “Enchanted April,” Plowright shared the screen with Alfred Molina, Miranda Richardson and Polly Walker as the elderly Mrs. Fisher, one of four women seeking peace and quiet on a vacation in Italy. Plowright's performance in “Enchanted April” earned her her first and only Oscar nomination for supporting actress. At the 1993 Golden Globes, Plowright received two awards: supporting actress in a motion picture for “The Enchanted April” and supporting actress in a series, miniseries or television movie for “Stalin.”
Plowright often portrayed the grandmotherly type in various films, including the family-friendly titles “101 Dalmatians” and “Dennis the Menace.” In a 1996 interview with The Times, Plowright said she didn't mind.
“When you get such interesting and fun film roles, it doesn't seem particularly exciting to appear in the 257th revival of 'The Rivals,'” she said. “And it’s fun to travel all over the world – and get paid extremely well.”
Joan Plowright received an Oscar nomination for her work in the film “Enchanted April.”
(Nick Ut/Associated Press)
Plowright's film appearances include “Tea With Mussolini,” “Surviving Picasso,” “I Love You to Death,” “Avalon” and “Drowning by Numbers.” Her television appearances include “Encore! Encore!” and the films “On Promised Land”, “A Place for Annie” and “Back to the Secret Garden”.
The actor was also one of four subjects of the Roger Michell documentary Nothing Like a Dame. The 2018 project celebrated the careers of Plowright and fellow actors Eileen Atkins, Judi Dench and Maggie Smith.
Plowright was born on October 28, 1929 brigNorth Lincolnshire, England, to journalist and editor William Ernest Plowright and his wife Daisy Margaret. She began acting in plays directed by her mother. At 15, she won a drama trophy and the chance to play a supporting role in the Harry Hanson Players for a week. After being rejected for the role (Hanson told her, “Go home, my love, go home”), she won a scholarship to study at the Bristol Old Vic Theater School.
Her first marriage was to Roger Gage in 1953; They divorced in 1960. Plowright first caught Olivier's attention in a Royal Court production of The Country Wife. In 1957 they shared the stage in the original production of John Osborne's The Entertainer in London.
“I realized Larry was falling in love with me,” she told The Times in 1996, when he called her by a pet name during rehearsals.
Olivier and Gone With the Wind star Vivien Leigh ended their marriage after 20 years in 1960 when Olivier had an affair with Plowright. A year later, Plowright and Olivier married. After marriage, Plowright's acting career became secondary to her career as a wife and mother – she and Olivier had three children together.
“He was a world-famous figure, and I felt the responsibility I had in helping to keep his life going in a hugely important, hugely stressful job,” she recalled to The Times. “Larry didn’t want us to be ships passing in the night.”
Plowright also published And That's Not All: The Memoirs of Joan Plowright in 2002. The memoir detailed her upbringing, her romance with Olivier (depicted in her love letters), and the rumors that surrounded her husband's sexuality.
In 2004, several years before her final film appearances, Plowright was appointed Dame Commander of the British Empire during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II. Plowright said the award was “kind of the crowning achievement of a lifetime.”
“It's a little confusing. “I have so many names: Dame Olivier and Lady Plowright,” she joked. according to BBC. “I’m just saying, call me Joan.”
Gage and Olivier died before Plowright. She is survived by children Julie Kate Olivier, Tamsin Olivier and Richard Olivier and three grandchildren.