Award-winning British actress Joan Plout, widow of Laurence Olivier, has died aged 95.
Joan Plout, the award-winning British actress and widow of Laurence Olivier, has died. She was 95 years old.
“She had a long and illustrious career in theater, film and TV spanning seven decades until her retirement from blindness,” the Plowright family said in a statement.
The Tony Award-winning actress died Thursday at Denville Hall, a retirement home for actors in southern England. Plowright was surrounded by her loved ones at the time of her death.
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Joan Plout was made a dame by Queen Elizabeth II in 2004. (AP Photo/Suzanne Plunkett)
“We are proud of what Joan has accomplished and who she is as a loving and deeply engaging human being.”
Part of a remarkable generation of British actresses including Judi Dench, Vanessa Redgrave, Eileen Atkins and Maggie Smith, Ployt won a Tony Award, two Golden Globes and nominations for an Oscar and an Emmy. In the year She was commissioned by Queen Elizabeth II in 2004.
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Laurence Olivier and English actress Joan Plout in a scene from John Osborne’s play “The Entertainment” which opened on Broadway on February 4, 1958. (AP Photo)
Plowitt and her late husband, Olivier, made an impact on the UK theater scene in the decades after the Second World War.
The English actress was born Joan Plowright in Brigg, Lincolnshire, England. She began directing at the age of 3 when her mother ran a drama group.
Plaut spent school holidays attending summer sessions at university drama schools. After high school, she studied at Laban’s Studio of Acting in Manchester, then won a two-year scholarship to the Old Vic Theater School of Drama in London.
From left, actress Joan Plowitt, director Peter Greenway, actors Jolie Richardson and Juliet Stevenson pose for a photo after screening their film “Drowning in Numbers” at the 41st Cannes Film Festival, Thursday, May 19, 1988. Film Festival in Cannes, France. (AP Photo/Pierre Gleizes)
In the year She made her London stage debut in 1954 and two years later became a member of the Royal Court Theatre. Plowright is credited with plays written by John Osborne. She worked with actors such as Albert Finney, Alan Bates and Anthony Hopkins.
Plowright made her film debut in American director John Huston’s 1956 epic adaptation of Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick,” starring Gregory Peck as the obsessive Captain Ahab.
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A year later, she acted in the original London production of Osborne’s “The Entertainer” with her future husband, Olivier. She played Olivier’s daughter in the work, and the two reunited for the 1960 film adaptation.
Joan Plout, nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role in “Enchanted April,” arrives for the 65th Annual Academy Awards on March 29, 1993 at the Los Angeles Music Center. (AP Photo/Julie Marcus)
In the year In 1961, Plowright and Olivier married in Connecticut, while both were performing on Broadway — he in “Beckett” and she in “A Taste of Honey,” for which she won a Tony.
“Sometimes when I think or write about you, I feel such peace come over me – a gentle tenderness and calmness. No violent emotions, feelings or crushing longings… It makes me go out into the streets with a smile on my face and in my heart to everyone,” Olivier He wrote a love letter to Plowright.
Olivier died in 1989 at the age of 82. After Plaut’s death, at the age of 60, he began a resurgence in acting.
In the year In 1993, Plout became one of the few actors to win two Golden Globes in the same year. She won the Supporting Actress TV Award for “Stalin” and the Supporting Actress Film Award for “Enchanted April”.
Joan Plowitt, left, Laurence Olivier and actress Lauren Bacall at a televised premiere of Lord Olivier’s only Shakespearean production of “King Lear” in New York, May 3, 1983 in New York. (AP Photo/Carlos Rene Perez, File)
She has dozens of film credits to her name, appearing in films such as “Dennis the Terrible,” “The Spiderwick Chronicles” and “The Scarlet Letter.”
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Plowitt is survived by her three children – Tamsin, Richard and Julie-Kate, all actors, and several grandchildren.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
