Joan Plowright, UK star of stage and screen and widow of Laurence Olivier, has died aged 95.
Her 60-year spanning career included a Bafta-nominated role in 1960 film The Entertainer, an Oscar nomination and Golden Globe win for 1991 comedy drama Enchanted April and a Bafta nomination for a 1977 film version of Equus.
Stage roles included George Bernard Shaw’s Saint Joan in 1963 and 1977’s Filumena.
Plowright had been retired for 10 years, having lost her eyesight, but in 2018, appeared in Roger Michell’s film Nothing Like a Dame, looking back on her career alongside Judi Dench and Maggie Smith, her co-stars in 1999 comedy drama Tea With Mussolini.
A statement from her family said: “It is with great sadness that the family of Dame Joan Plowright, the Lady Olivier, inform you that she passed away peacefully on January 16 2025 surrounded by her family at Denville Hall aged 95.
“She enjoyed a long and illustrious career across theatre, film and TV over seven decades until blindness made her retire.
“She cherished her last 10 years in Sussex with constant visits from friends and family, filled with much laughter and fond memories.”
Plowright was born in Scunthorpe, and made her acting breakthrough on London’s West End in the 1950s. She first starred with Olivier in John Osborne’s stage version of The Entertainer at the Royal Court in 1957, while he was still married to Vivien Leigh, and she was married to Roger Gage. Plowright and Olivier married in 1961, and remained together until his death in 1989. The couple had three children.
London’s West End theatres will dim their lights for two minutes in tribute to Plowright on Tuesday (January 20).
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