Dame Joan Plowright, one of Britain’s most respected theater and film stars and the widow of Sir Laurence Olivier, has died at the age of 95.
Her career spanned 60 years and included an Academy Award nomination for the 1991 film Enchanted April.
She married Olivier in 1961 after she played his daughter in The Entertainer alongside him and became a leading member of the National Theater he founded.
In 2014, she retired from the show – losing her sight and being registered as blind.
Born in Scunthorpe, she became a leading lady in London’s West End in the 1950s, making her first appearance opposite Olivier in The Entertainer at the Royal Court in 1957.
Both were nominated for a Bafta for the film version that came out three years later.
Plowright won a Tony Award for his lead role in The Taste of Honey on Broadway in New York, also in 1960.
She received another Bafta nomination in 1978 for Equus, opposite Richard Burton.
“Courage and Courage”
A family statement said: “It is with great sadness that the family of Dame Joan Plowright, Lady Olivier, inform you that she passed away peacefully on 16 January 2025 surrounded by her family at Denville Hall aged 95.
“She enjoyed a long and illustrious career in theatre, film and television over seven decades until she retired due to blindness.
“She cherished her last 10 years in Sussex with constant visits from friends and family, filled with lots of laughter and fond memories.”
They added: “We are so proud of all that Joan has done and for being such a loving and deeply inclusive human being.
“She survived her many challenges with Plowright’s determination and brave determination to make the best of them, and she did.
“Rest in peace, Joan…”
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