Acting legend Dame Joan Plowright dies at 95

Dame Joan Plowright, one of Britain’s most acclaimed stage and screen stars and the widow of Sir Laurence Olivier, has died at the age of 95.

Her career spanned 60 years and included an Oscar 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 set up.

In 2014, she retired from the stage – having lost her eyesight and been registered as blind.

Born in Scunthorpe, she became a leading lady in London’s West End in the 1950s, and first appeared opposite Olivier in The Entertainer at the Royal Court in 1957.

They were both nominated for Bafta awards for the film version, which came out three years later.

Plowright won a Tony Award for starring in A Taste of Honey on Broadway in New York, also in 1960.

She received another Bafta nomination in 1978 for Equus, alongside Richard Burton.

A family statement said: “It is with great sadness that the family of Dame Joan Plowright, the Lady Olivier, inform you that she passed away peacefully on January 16 2025 surrounded by her family at Denville Hall aged 95.

“She enjoyed a long and illustrious career across theatre, film and TV over seven decades until blindness made her retire.

“She cherished her last 10 years in Sussex with constant visits from friends and family, filled with much laughter and fond memories.”

They added: “We are so proud of all Joan did and who she was as a loving and deeply inclusive human being.

“She survived her many challenges with Plowright grit and courageous determination to make the best of them, and that she certainly did.

“Rest in peace, Joan…”

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