- Born
- Birth nameJoan Ann Plowright
- Height5′ 4″ (1.63 m)
- Dame Joan Ann Plowright, the Baroness Olivier, is one of the most distinguished actors of her generation. She may be best remembered as the third wife and widow of Laurence Olivier, generally considered the greatest anglophone actor of the 20th Century, but she had a distinguished career of her own on stage and screen spanning six decades.
Born in Brigg, Lincolnshire on October 28, 1929, she received her training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and made her professional stage debut at Croydon in 1948. Her London debut came in 1954, and two years later, she joined George Devine's English Stage Company at the Royal Court Theatre, which would change her life just as the drama at the Royal Court revolutionized the English theater.
The Royal Court's 1956 production of John Osborne's _Look Back In Anger' was a watershed in English theatrical history, ushering in the 'Angry Young Man" era in British cultural life. In 1957, Plowright first co-starred with her future husband Olivier in the Royal Court's production of Osborne's The Entertainer (1960) when she took over the role of Archie Rice's daughter Jean Rice when the play transferred to a commercial venue in the West End. She recreated the role in Tony Richardson's 1960 film of the play.
To escape the notoriety from Olivier's divorce from Vivien Leigh, Plowright and Olivier went to New York, where they appeared on Broadway, he in Becket (1964) and she in A Taste of Honey (1961). For her performance as Josephine, which Rita Tushingham played in the movie version, she won a 1961 Tony Award as Best Actress in a Play. (She had first appeared on Broadway in a twin bill of Eugène Ionesco's "The Chairs" and "The Lesson" in January 1958, a month before she appeared with Olivier in "The Entertainer".) When his divorce from Leigh came through, they were married in March 1961 in New York with Richard Burton as Larry's best man.
From 1963 onward, she was a member of the National Theatre, which was headed by Olivier. Plowright created a distinguished stage career and was acclaimed when she began appearing more frequently in movies and television starting in the the 1980s. She was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire, the female equivalent of a knighthood, in the 2004 Queen's New Year Honours.
Plowright divorced her first husband, the actor Roger Gage, to marry Olivier in 1961 and they had three children, Richard Kerr Olivier, Tamsin Olivier and Julie Kate Olivier.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Jon C. Hopwood
- SpousesLaurence Olivier(March 17, 1961 - July 11, 1989) (his death, 3 children)Roger Gage(September 19, 1953 - December 2, 1960) (divorced)
- ChildrenRichard Olivier
- ParentsWilliam Ernest PlowrightDaisy Margaret Burton
- RelativesDavid Plowright(Sibling)
- Announced her retirement from acting in 2014 due to loss of eyesight.
- Although she played Laurence Olivier's daughter in The Entertainer (1960), they married several months after the film was released.
- Lady Olivier since 1961, after Sir Laurence Olivier divorced Vivien Leigh. They became Baron and Baroness Olivier in 1970.
- In Last Action Hero (1993), she played an English teacher who showed her students Hamlet (1948), which starred her late husband Laurence Olivier in the title role and was directed by him.
- She bore her second husband Laurence Olivier three children - a son Richard Olivier (an actor and director) and two actress daughters Tamsin Olivier and Julie Kate Olivier.
- I have always resented the comments that it was I who was the homewrecker of Larry's marriage to Vivien Leigh. Danny Kaye was attached to Larry far earlier than I.
- If a man is touched by genius, he is not an ordinary person. He doesn't lead an ordinary life. He has extremes of behaviour which you understand and you just find a way not to be swept overboard by his demons. - On Laurence Olivier
- [on appearing with Michael Redgrave in her first film] He wanted from his point of view to be spontaneous on film - it was my first lesson in screen acting. I grew more confident in working Michael's way - it made me convincingly taken by surprise by his questions. I didn't feel straitjacketed.
- I Love You to Death (1990) - $250,000
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