Joan Plowright

Joan Ann Olivier, Baroness Olivier (; 28 October 1929 – 16 January 2025), commonly known as Dame Joan Plowright, was an English actress whose career spanned over six decades. She received several accolades including two Golden Globe Awards, an Olivier Award, and a Tony Award as well as nominations for an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards, and a Primetime Emmy Award. She was made a Dame by Queen Elizabeth II in 2004.

Plowright studied at the Old Vic Theatre School before acting onstage at the Royal National Theatre where she met her husband Laurence Olivier. She acted opposite him in the John Osborne play The Entertainer in West End in 1957 and on Broadway in 1958. She earned the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her A Taste of Honey (1961). She won the Laurence Olivier Award for Filumena (1978).

She made her film debut in an uncredited role in Moby Dick (1956). She later won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Enchanted April (1991). She was BAFTA-nominated for her roles in The Entertainer (1960) and Equus (1977). She also acted in the films Uncle Vanya (1963), Three Sisters (1970), Avalon (1990), Dennis the Menace (1993), A Place for Annie (1994), 101 Dalmatians (1996), Jane Eyre (1996), Tea with Mussolini (1999), Bringing Down the House (2003) and Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont (2005). She also voiced roles for the children's films Dinosaur (2000) and Curious George (2006).

On television she was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film for her role in the HBO television film Stalin (1992). She retired from acting due to macular degeneration in 2014. She made her final filmed appearance in the documentary Nothing Like a Dame (2018).

Early life and education Plowright was born on 28 October 1929 in Brigg, Lincolnshire, the daughter of Daisy Margaret (née Burton) and William Ernest Plowright, who was a journalist and newspaper editor. She attended Scunthorpe Grammar School and then trained at The Old Vic Theatre School. and her London debut in 1954. In 1956 she joined the English Stage Company at the Royal Court Theatre and was cast as Margery Pinchwife in The Country Wife. She appeared with George Devine in the Eugène Ionesco play The Chairs, and Shaw's Major Barbara and Saint Joan.

Plowright made her film debut in an uncredited role in Moby Dick (1956). In 1957, Plowright co-starred with Sir Laurence Olivier in the original London production of John Osborne's The Entertainer, taking over the role of Jean Rice from Dorothy Tutin when the play transferred from the Royal Court to the Palace Theatre. She continued to appear on stage and in films such as The Entertainer (1960). In 1961, she received a Tony Award for her role in A Taste of Honey on Broadway.

Through her marriage to Olivier, Plowright became closely associated with his work at the National Theatre from 1963 onwards. She also acted in the films Uncle Vanya (1963), Three Sisters (1970), and Equus (1977). In the 1990s, she began to appear more regularly in films, including I Love You to Death (1990); Avalon (1990); Enchanted April (1992), for which she won a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award nomination; Dennis the Menace (1993), where she played Martha Wilson; A Place for Annie (1994); The Scarlet Letter (1995); Jane Eyre (1996); 101 Dalmatians (1996), where she played the dog nanny; Dance with Me (1998); and Tea With Mussolini (1999). Among her television roles, she won another Golden Globe Award and earned an Emmy Award nomination for the HBO film Stalin in 1992 as the Soviet dictator's mother-in-law. Her pair of 1992 performances (Enchanted April and Stalin) marked only the second time an actress (after Sigourney Weaver, for performances in 1988) won two Golden Globes in the same year; as of the January 2023 presentation, only Helen Mirren (for performances in 2006) and Kate Winslet (for performances in 2008) have duplicated this feat. In 1994, she was awarded the Women in Film Crystal Award.

In 2003, Plowright performed in the stage production Absolutely! (Perhaps) in London. She was appointed honorary president of the English Stage Company in March 2009, succeeding John Mortimer who died in January 2009. She was previously vice-president of the company. Her later films included Bringing Down the House (2003), Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont (2005), and The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008), as well as voiced roles for the children's films Dinosaur (2000) and Curious George (2006). She made her final filmed appearance in the British documentary Nothing Like a Dame (2018), with her acting Dame friends Maggie Smith, Judi Dench and Eileen Atkins.

Personal life

Marriages and family Plowright was first married to the actor Roger Gage in September 1953. She later divorced him and in 1961 married Laurence Olivier shortly after the end of Olivier's twenty-year marriage to the actress Vivien Leigh. Plowright and Olivier had three children together, all three of whom have worked in the theatre.

Illness and death Plowright's vision declined steadily during the late 2000s and early 2010s due to macular degeneration. In 2014, she officially announced her retirement from acting because she had become legally blind.

Plowright died at Denville Hall in Northwood, London, on 16 January 2025, aged 95.

Legacy and reputation The Plowright Theatre in Scunthorpe is named in Plowright's honour.

In her obituary, Variety described Plowright as "perhaps the greatest Anglophone actor of the 20th century".

Acting credits Film + Year Title Role Notes 1956 Moby Dick Starbuck's wife Uncredited 1957 Time Without Pity Agnes Cole 1960 The Entertainer Jean Rice 1963 Uncle Vanya Sonya 1970 Three Sisters Masha Kulighina 1977 Equus Dora Strang 1982 Britannia Hospital Phyllis Grimshaw Brimstone and Treacle Norma Bates 1985 Revolution Mrs. Daisy McConnahay 1988 Drowning by Numbers Eva Krichinsky 1991 Enchanted April Grandma Widows' Peak Mrs. Dawn Doyle-Counihan 1995 The Scarlet Letter Mrs. Wendy Linzer Hotel Sorrento Marge Morrisey 1996 101 Dalmatians Nanny Surviving Picasso Françoise's Grandmother Mr. Wrong Mrs. Jessica Crawford Jane Eyre Mrs. Ida Bober 1998 Dance with Me Bea Johnson 1999 Tom's Midnight Garden Mrs. Ortensia Bartholomew Tea with Mussolini Baylene Voice Back to the Secret Garden Martha Sowerby 2002 Global Heresy Lady Foxley Callas Forever Mother Superior 2005 Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont Beatrice Fairfield Curious George Aunt Lucinda Spiderwick 2009 Knife Edge Winnie 4 episodes 1954 BBC Sunday-Night Theatre A Young Actress/Pip Uncompleted and lost Orson Welles film 1958 Sword of Freedom Lisa Giocondo Episode: "The Woman in the Picture" 1959 Theatre Night Arlette Le Boeuf Episode: Hook, Line, and Sinker World Theatre Sonya Episode: Uncle Vanya 1970 ITV Playhouse Lisa Episode: "The Plastic People" ITV Sunday Night Theatre Viola/Sebastian Episode: "Twelfth Night" 1973 The Merchant of Venice Portia Film 1978 Saturday, Sunday, Monday Rosa Daphne Laureola Lady Pitts 1980 The Diary of Anne Frank Mrs Frank US film 1982 All for Love Edith Episode: "A Dedicated Man" 1983 Wagner Mrs Taylor Episode: "1.2" 1986 The Importance of Being Earnest Meg Bowles Episode: "The Birthday Party" 1989 And a Nightingale Sang Mam Film 1990 Sophie Sophie 1991 The House of Bernarda Alba La Poncia 1992 Stalin Daisy Werthan 1993 Screen Two Mrs Monro Episode: "The Clothes in the Wardrobe";released in the US as The Summer House 1994 The Return of the Native Mrs Yeobright Film A Place for Annie Dorothy On Promised Land Mrs Appletree 1998–1999 Encore! Encore! Marie Pinoni 12 episodes 1998 Aldrich Ames: Traitor Within Jeanne Vertefeuille Film This Could Be the Last Time Rosemary 2000 Frankie & Hazel Phoebe Harkness 2001 Bailey's Mistake Aunt Angie Scrooge and Marley Narrator

Theatre +

The House of Bernarda Alba and was promoted to Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2004 New Year Honours.

She received an honorary Doctor of Letters (DLitt) from the University of Hull in 2001.

Awards and nominations Plowright was nominated for all the Triple Crown of Acting awards (Academy Award, Emmy Award, and Tony Award), winning the Tony Award in 1961. In 1993, she also became the second of only four actresses (as of 2026) to have won two Golden Globe Awards in the same year.