Joan Plowright, award-winning British actress and widow of Laurence Olivier, already dead. She is 95 years old.
Plowright’s family shared in a statement: “She enjoyed a long and illustrious career in theater, film and television for seventy years until blindness forced her into retirement.”
The Tony Award-winning actress died Thursday at Danville Hall, a retirement home for actors in southern England. Plowright was surrounded by loved ones when he died.
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“We are extremely proud of all that Joan has done and the caring and inclusive person she is.”
Plowright is part of an astonishing generation of British actors that includes Judi Dench, Vanessa Redgrave, Eileen Atkins and Maggie Smith, and has won Tony Awards, Two Golden Globes and nominations for an Oscar and an Emmy. She was made a noble lady queen elizabeth ii 2004.
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Plowright and her late husband Olivier made an impact on British theater in the decades after World War II.
The British actress was born Joan Ann Plowright in Brigg, Lincolnshire, England. She began performing on the stage at the age of three, while her mother ran a theater troupe.
Plowright spent the school holidays on a summer course at the university’s drama school. After high school she studied at Laban Movement Arts Studio in Manchester before winning a two-year scholarship to the Old Vic Theater School of Drama in london.
She made her London stage debut in 1954 and became a member of the Royal Court Theater two years later. Plowright was recognized for plays written by John Osborne. She has worked with actors including Albert Finney, Ellen Bates, and Anthony Hopkins.
In 1956, Plowright made her feature film debut in American director John Huston’s uncredited epic adaptation of Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick, starring Gurley. Gory Peck stars as the obsessed Captain Ahab.
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A year later, she co-starred with future husband Olivier in Osbourne’s London original drama The Entertainer. She played Olivier’s daughter in the production, and the two reunited in the 1960 film adaptation.
Plowright and Olivier married in Connecticut in 1961 while both were starring on Broadway—he in “Beckett” and she in “A Taste of Honey,” for which she won a Tony Award.
“Sometimes, when I think of you or write to you, I feel a sense of peace – a tenderness and calmness. A feeling without any violence, passion or broken longing… It takes me out to the street In a love letter to Plowright, Olivier wrote: “I have a smile on my face and in my heart for everyone. “
Olivier died in 1989 at the age of 82. After his death, Plowright enjoyed an acting renaissance at the age of 60.
In 1993, Plowright became one of the few actors to win two awards. golden globe award same year. She won the TV Supporting Actress Award for “Stalin” and the Supporting Actress Film Award for “Enchanted April.”
She has appeared in dozens of films, appearing in films such as “Dennis the Menace,” “The Spider-Man Chronicles” and “The Scarlet Letter.”
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Plowright is survived by her three children, Tamsin, Richard and Julie-Kate, all actors, and several grandchildren.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.