Acting legend dies at age 95

Dame Joan Plowright, one of Britain’s most famous stage and film stars and the widow of Sir Laurence Olivier, has died aged 95.

Her career spanned 60 years and included an Academy Award nomination for the 1991 film Enchanted April.

She married Olivier in 1961 after starring opposite him as his daughter in The Entertainer and became a leading member of the National Theatre, which he founded.

In a statement, her family said they were “so proud of everything Joan did and who she was as a loving and deeply inclusive person”.

Her family 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 spanning seven decades in theatre, film and television until blindness forced her to retire.

“She loved her last 10 years in Sussex with constant visits from friends and family, filled with lots of laughter and great memories.”

They added: “She survived her many challenges with Plowright pig and brave determination to make the best of them and she certainly did.

“Rest in peace, Joan…”

She had been retired for a decade, having lost her sight and been registered blind.

Born in Scunthorpe, Plowright became a leading lady in London’s West End in the 1950s, first appearing opposite Olivier in John Osborne’s The Entertainer at the Royal Court in 1957.

He was still married to Gone With The Wind star Vivien Leigh at the time, and Plowright was married to her first husband Roger Gage.

Plowright and Olivier fell in love and their acting partnership earned them both Bafta nominations for the 1960 film version of The Entertainer.

That year, Plowright also made his American breakthrough in A Taste of Honey on Broadway and won a Tony Award for his performance.

Her other notable plays included George Bernard Shaw’s Saint Joan, about Joan of Arc, in 1963, for which she was named Best Actress at the Evening Standard Theater Awards.

And she won a Society of West End Theater Award – later renamed the Olivier Awards after her husband – in 1978 for Filumena.

She received another Bafta nomination the same year for her performance in the film version of Equus alongside Richard Burton.

In Enchanted April, her role as the elegant but irritating Mrs. Fisher earned her a Golden Globe as well as a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1993.

One of a generation of great actresses, Dame Joan appeared opposite Dame Judi Dench and Dame Maggie Smith in the 1999 film Tea with Mussolini.

Recently, she was famously seen reminiscing and enjoying a line with Dame Judi, Dame Maggie and Dame Eileen Atkins in it The 2018 BBC documentary Nothing Like A Dame.

In a clip from the show that went viral online, a slightly distraught Dame Maggie is seen telling Dame Judi that she was “always asked first” when offered acting roles.

The exchange was initially missed by Dame Joan because one of her hearing aids had fallen out, but she then joined in on the joke and also told a similar story. She was then offered an extra hearing aid by the deceased Dame Maggie, who died in September 2024.

Dame Joan was part of an “extraordinary” company of actors her husband assembled when the National Theater began life at the Old Vic theater in the early 1960s, according to playwright David Hare.

Others included Maggie Smith, Michael Redgrave, Derek Jacobi and Michael Gambon.

“She represented at the time a new realism in the theater – a working-class background, obviously, like many of her contemporaries,” Hare told BBC Radio 4’s The World at One.

“And she had the not very easy task of being Laurence Olivier’s wife, while Laurence Olivier was managing the theatre, and she handled that situation extremely well.”

Hare added: “I will also remember her as an incredibly smart and witty woman. She was very funny and she liked to laugh and she always used humor to defuse some of the tension that was building up around her husband . “

When he first worked with her at the age of 23, Hare said he was “completely out of my depth and she never treated me with anything but kindness, courtesy and wit”.

The National Theatre’s current director, Rufus Norris, said Dame Joan’s “contribution as one of the central pillars of the National Theater cannot be overstated”.

She delivered “an extraordinary series of celebrated performances” in plays including Uncle Vanya, Saint Joan, The Master Builder, Much Ado About Nothing and Three Sisters, he said.

“In many of these she appeared with Sir Laurence Olivier, her partner in art and life.

“Joan’s off-stage impact on the nascent National Theater was similarly profound, and her remarkable talent and dedication to her craft have left a lasting legacy as an actress.

“She remained a personal friend to and champion of the National Theater throughout its history.”

West End theaters will dim their lights for two minutes in tribute to Dame Joan on Tuesday.

UK Theater and Society Of London Theater Co-CEO Hannah Essex said: “Dame Joan Plowright was an iconic and deeply respected figure in the world of theater who left an indelible mark on the industry she shaped with her talent and dedication.

“We are honored to contribute to the celebration of her extraordinary career and extend our heartfelt condolences to her family and loved ones.”

There was also a tribute from the operators of the Plowright Theater in Scunthorpe, which was named after her in the 1990s.

“We are saddened to learn that Dame Joan Plowright, the acclaimed British actress whose career spanned six decades, has passed away at the age of 95,” it said in a statement.

“Born in Brigg, she became one of the most prominent actresses of her generation.”

Plowright’s father Bill founded the Scunthorpe Little Theater Club, which still performs at the venue.