Joan Plowright
{{Short description|British actress (1929–2025)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2025}}
{{Use British English|date=November 2019}}
{{Infobox person
| honorific_prefix = The Right Honourable
| name = The Lady Olivier
| honorific_suffix = {{Post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100|DBE}}
| othername =
| image = Joan Plowright 1960 (cropped).jpg
| caption = Plowright in 1958
| birth_name = Joan Ann Plowright
| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=y|1929|10|28}}
| birth_place = Brigg, Lincolnshire, England
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=y|2025|01|16|1929|10|28}}
| death_place = London, England
| occupation = Actress
| alma_mater = Old Vic Theatre School
| years_active = {{hlist|1948–2014|2018}}
| spouse = {{ubl|{{marriage|Roger Gage|1953|1960|reason=divorced}}|{{marriage|Laurence Olivier|1961|1989|reason=died}}}}
| children = 3
| relatives = David Plowright (brother)
}}
Joan Ann Olivier, Baroness Olivier{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UiaLBAAAQBAJ&q=baroness+olivier&pg=PT358 |title=Snapshots: Encounters with Twentieth-Century Legends |first=Herbert |last=Kretzmer |date=28 August 2014 |publisher=Biteback |access-date=31 March 2016|isbn=978-1-84954-798-7 }} ({{nee|Plowright}}; 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{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2025/jan/17/joan-plowright-dies-after-long-stage-and-screen-career|title=Joan Plowright dies after long stage and screen career|last=Wiegand|first=Chris|work=The Guardian|date=17 January 2025|access-date=17 January 2025}} 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 on the 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), 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.{{cite web|url=https://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1800018825/bio|title=Joan Plowright Biography|publisher=Yahoo! Movies|access-date=29 June 2007}} She attended Scunthorpe Grammar School[http://www.scunthorpetelegraph.co.uk/pictures/STAR-PUPILS-REVEALED-Famous-people-Scunthorpe/pictures-26690493-detail/pictures.html Star Pupils Revealed at Scunthorpe Telegraph] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151101161627/http://www.scunthorpetelegraph.co.uk/pictures/STAR-PUPILS-REVEALED-Famous-people-Scunthorpe/pictures-26690493-detail/pictures.html |date=1 November 2015 }}. Retrieved 9 July 2016 and then trained at The Old Vic Theatre School.{{cite web|publisher=The British Library|title=Joan Plowright – interview transcript|date=23 April 2010|first=Andrew|last=MacKay|url=http://sounds.bl.uk/related-content/TRANSCRIPTS/024T-C1142X000294-0100A0.pdf}}
Career
File:Angela Lansbury Joan Plowright A Taste of Honey Broadway.jpg as Helen, in the 1961 Broadway production of A Taste of Honey]]
Plowright made her stage debut at Croydon in 1948{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/3357121.stm|title=Entertainment | Plowright steals the limelight|work=BBC News|date=31 December 2003|access-date=12 June 2012}} 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, 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.{{cite web|title=Past Recipients: Crystal Award |url=http://wif.org/past-recipients |work=Women In Film |access-date=10 May 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110630083646/http://wif.org/past-recipients |archive-date=30 June 2011 }}
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.{{cite web|url=http://www.thestage.co.uk/news/newsstory.php/23708/plowright-becomes-honorary-president-of|title=Plowright becomes honorary president of English Stage Company|access-date=12 March 2009|last=Smith|first=Alistair|date=5 March 2009|work=The Stage|publisher=The Stage Newspaper Limited}} 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.{{cite web|url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/tea_with_the_dames|title=Nothing Like a Dame|website=Rotten Tomatoes|access-date=21 January 2023}}
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,{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-IrgcXteIMgC&pg=PP1 |title=Lord Larry: The Secret Life of Laurence Olivier: a Personal and Intimate Portrait |last=Munn |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Munn |year=2007 |publisher=Robson Books |location=London |pages=205, 209 and 218 |isbn=978-1-86105-977-2 |access-date=29 September 2020}} all three of whom have worked in the theatre. The couple remained married until Olivier's death in 1989. Plowright's younger brother, David Plowright (1930–2006), was an executive at Granada Television.
She published her memoirs, And That's Not All, in 2001.{{cite web |title=The Observer Books: Deconstructing Larry |work=The Observer |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2001/oct/07/biography.features1 |access-date=18 January 2025 |date=7 October 2001}}
=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.{{cite news|last=Walker |first=Tim |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/theatre-news/10825654/Joan-Plowright-bows-out-to-a-standing-ovation.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/theatre-news/10825654/Joan-Plowright-bows-out-to-a-standing-ovation.html |archive-date=11 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Joan Plowright bows out to a standing ovation |publisher=Telegraph |date=13 May 2014 |access-date=31 March 2016}}{{cbignore}}
Plowright died at Denville Hall in Northwood, London, on 16 January 2025, aged 95.{{cite news |website=BBC News |url-status=live |archive-date=17 January 2025 |access-date=17 January 2025 |date=17 January 2025 |title=Acting legend Dame Joan Plowright dies at 95 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250117095829/https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwyppre55gyo |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwyppre55gyo}}
Legacy
The Plowright Theatre in Scunthorpe is named in Plowright's honour.{{cite web |title=Venues: The Plowright Theatre |url=https://www.scunthorpetheatres.co.uk/about-us/venues/ |website=Scunthorpe Theatres |access-date=17 January 2025}}
In her obituary, Variety described Plowright as "perhaps the greatest Anglophone actor of the 20th century".{{cite web |title=Oscar-nominated star Joan Plowright dies, aged 95 |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/dame-joan-plowright-death-b2681416.html |website=The Independent |date=17 January 2025}}{{cite web |last1=Dagan |first1=Carmel |title=Joan Plowright, Acting Legend of Stage and Screen and Laurence Olivier's Widow, Dies at 95 |url=https://variety.com/2025/film/obituaries-people-news/joan-plowright-dead-acting-legend-laurence-olivier-widow-1236276923/ |website=Variety |date=17 January 2025}}
Honours
Plowright was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1970 New Year Honours{{cite web|url=http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/44999/supplements/9|title=Viewing Page 9 of Issue 44999|publisher=London-gazette.co.uk|date=30 December 1969|access-date=12 June 2012|archive-date=23 June 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120623132250/http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/44999/supplements/9|url-status=dead}} and was promoted to Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2004 New Year Honours.{{cite web|url=http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/57155/supplements/7|title=Viewing Page 7 of Issue 57155|publisher=London-gazette.co.uk|date=31 December 2003|access-date=12 June 2012|archive-date=4 November 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121104135251/http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/57155/supplements/7|url-status=dead}}
She received an honorary Doctor of Letters (DLitt) from the University of Hull in 2001.{{Cite web|title=Honorary Graduates|url=https://www.hull.ac.uk/choose-hull/university-and-region/honorary-graduates|access-date=2025-02-13|website=www.hull.ac.uk|language=en-GB}}
Acting credits
=Film=
=Television=
= Theatre =
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 2024) to have won two Golden Globe Awards in the same year.
Book
- {{cite book|last=Plowright |first=Joan|title=And That's Not All: The Memoirs of Joan Plowright|publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson|year=2001|isbn=978-0-297-64594-8}}
See also
References
{{Reflist|30em}}
External links
{{commons category|Joan Plowright}}
- {{IMDb name|0687506}}
- {{IBDB name}}
- {{Playbill person}}
- {{iobdb name|31696}}
- [http://www.bris.ac.uk/theatrecollection/search/people_sub_plays_all?forename=Joan&surname=PLOWRIGHT&job=Actor&pid=1015&image_view=Yesamp;x=19amp;y=17 Performances] – listed in Theatre Archive University of Bristol{{fv|date=January 2025}}
- {{Screenonline name|id=518866}}
- {{NPG name|id=53375}}
- [https://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/joan_plowright Joan Plowright] at rottentomatoes.com
- {{discogs artist|Joan Plowright}}
{{Navboxes
|title = Awards for Joan Plowright
|list =
{{AARP Movies for Grownups Award for Best Actress}}
{{Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Best Actress}}
{{Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actress}}
{{GoldenGlobeBestSuppActressMotionPicture 1981-2000}}
{{GoldenGlobeSupportingActressTV 1990-2009}}
{{OlivierAward PlayActress}}
{{TonyAward PlayLeadActress 1947-1975}}
}}
{{Laurence Olivier}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Plowright, Joan}}
Category:20th-century English actresses
Category:21st-century English actresses
Category:Actresses awarded damehoods
Category:Actresses from Lincolnshire
Category:Alumni of Bristol Old Vic Theatre School
Category:Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe (film) winners
Category:Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe (television) winners
Category:Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Category:English film actresses
Category:English stage actresses
Category:English television actresses
Category:Laurence Olivier Award winners
Category:Spouses of life peers
Category:English actors with disabilities