Joan Plowright dies after long stage and screen career
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Actor helped shape British postwar theatre through her performances at the Royal Court, National Theatre and in the West End. The actor Joan Plowright, who was celebrated for her long career in theatre and film, has died at the age of 95, her family have announced.
![[Plowright with her second husband, Laurence Olivier]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/be2981cde98a04e5a80910e1c8d6f2a5eb65a433/0_134_2945_1767/master/2945.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Plowright won acclaim for performances during the early years of the English Stage Company at the Royal Court and the National Theatre when it was based at the Old Vic and led by her second husband, Laurence Olivier. A statement from her family 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.
![[Joan Plowright with Oliver Ford Davies in Absolutely! (Perhaps) at Wyndham’s theatre, London, in 2003]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/ad36c2d535e7845925eb4ac44c4fcbc07d0d0b6e/0_0_2464_1648/master/2464.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
“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. The family are deeply grateful to Jean Wilson and all those involved in her personal care over many years.”.
She and Olivier appeared together in the West End and on Broadway in John Osborne’s The Entertainer, as well as starring in the screen version. At the National, she played Portia to Olivier’s Shylock in The Merchant of Venice as well as roles including Masha in Three Sisters, Sonya in Uncle Vanya and the eponymous heroine of Shaw’s Saint Joan.
Plowright was born on 28 October 1929 in Brigg, Lincolnshire, and attended Scunthorpe grammar school on a scholarship. She was the second of three children of Daisy Margaret Burton and William Ernest Plowright. Her mother was an amateur actor and opera singer who taught dancing; her father was a journalist with a passion for am-dram. She always wanted to be an actor and won a drama trophy at a local theatre festival aged 15. After leaving school at 17 she worked briefly as a supply teacher before training at the Old Vic theatre school in London.
