Jill Esmond

Jill Esmond (26 January 1908 – 28 July 1990) was an English actress of stage and screen.

Early life Jill Esmond Jack was born in London, the daughter of stage actors Henry V. Esmond ( Harry Esmond Jack) and Eva Moore. Dramatist W.S. Gilbert and actress Maxine Elliott were her godparents. She had a brother Jack ( Jack Esmond Jack; 1899-1980) and a sister, Lynette Esmond Jack (born 1894), who died in infancy.

While her parents toured with theatre companies, Esmond spent her childhood in boarding schools until she decided at the age of 14 to become an actress. She made her stage debut playing Wendy to Gladys Cooper's Peter Pan, but her success was short-lived. When her father died suddenly in 1922, in Paris, due to pneumonia, Esmond returned to school and at the time considered abandoning her ambition to act. After reassessing her future and coming to terms with her father's death, she studied with the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, and returned to the West End stage in 1924. In 1925, she starred with her mother in a play Mary, Mary Quite Contrary, and after a few more successful roles, won critical praise for her part as a young suicide in Outward Bound.

Marriage and career

In 1928, Esmond (billed as Jill Esmond Moore) appeared in the production of Bird in the Hand, where she met fellow cast member Laurence Olivier for the first time. Three weeks later, he proposed to her. In his autobiography Olivier later wrote that he was smitten with Esmond, and that her cool indifference to him did nothing but further his ardour. When Bird in the Hand was being staged on Broadway, Esmond was chosen to join the American production – but Olivier was not.

Determined to be near Esmond, Olivier travelled to New York City where he found work as an actor. Esmond won rave reviews for her performance. Olivier continued to follow Esmond, and after proposing to her several times, she agreed and the couple were married on 25 July 1930 at All Saints', Margaret Street, London. Within weeks, the couple regretted their marriage. They had one son, Tarquin Olivier.

Returning to the United Kingdom, Esmond made her film debut with a starring role in an early Alfred Hitchcock film The Skin Game (1931), and over the next few years appeared in several British and (pre-Code) Hollywood films, including Thirteen Women (1932). She also appeared in two Broadway productions with Olivier, Private Lives in 1931 with Noël Coward and Gertrude Lawrence and The Green Bay Tree in 1933. Esmond had been promised a role by David O. Selznick in A Bill of Divorcement (1932) but at only half-salary. Olivier had discovered that Katharine Hepburn had been offered a much greater salary, and persuaded Esmond to turn down the role. Esmond and Olivier starred together in one film, No Funny Business (1933), a British comedy film directed by Victor Hanbury.

In 1937, Esmond and Olivier appeared together in Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" at London's Old Vic theatre. During this period, their marriage was disintegrating, as Olivier had started a relationship with Vivien Leigh. Among the films she appeared in are Journey for Margaret, The Pied Piper and Random Harvest, all in 1942, My Pal Wolf (1944), The White Cliffs of Dover (1944) and The Bandit of Sherwood Forest (1946). In 1946, she returned to the UK where she resumed her acting; her last stage appearance was in 1950, and her last film in 1955. Esmond kept in touch with Olivier, and in a letter to their son Tarquin, said "It's funny after all that time how I can still love him so much." Frail and in a wheelchair, she attended Olivier's memorial service in October 1989 at Westminster Abbey.

Death Esmond was 82 years old when she died on 28 July 1990 in Wandsworth, London.

Complete filmography

The Chinese Bungalow (1930) - Jean The Skin Game (1931) - Jill Hillcrist The Eternal Feminine (1931) - Claire Lee Once a Lady (1931) - Faith Penwick the Girl Ladies of the Jury (1932) - Mrs. Yvette Gordon State's Attorney (1932) - Lillian Ulrich Is My Face Red? (1932) - Mildred Huntington Thirteen Women (1932) - Jo Turner F.P.1 Doesn't Answer (1933) - Claire Lennartz No Funny Business (1933) - Anne On the Spot (1938, version of the 1938 TV movie) - Minn Lee Prison Without Bars (1939, TV Movie) - Carol Linden, Superintendent On the Sunny Side (1942) - Mrs. Aylesworth This Above All (1942) - Nurse Emily Harvey Eagle Squadron (1942) - Phyllis The Pied Piper (1942) - Mrs. Cavanaugh Journey for Margaret (1942) - Susan Fleming Random Harvest (1942) - Lydia The White Cliffs of Dover (1944) - Rosamund Casanova Brown (1944) - Dr. Zernerke My Pal Wolf (1944) - Miss Elizabeth Munn The Bandit of Sherwood Forest (1946) - The Queen Mother Bedelia (1946) - Nurse Harris Escape (1948) - Grace Winton Private Information (1952) - Charlotte Night People (1954) - Frau Schindler A Man Called Peter (1955) - Mrs. Findlay

Selected stage appearances Gertie Maude by John Van Druten (1937) The Morning Star by Emlyn Williams (1942) Party Manners by Val Gielgud (1950)