Joan Plowright

Joan Ann Olivier, Baroness Olivier, DBE[1] (née Plowright; born 28 October 1929), commonly known as Dame Joan Plowright, is a retired English actress whose career has spanned over six decades. She has won two Golden Globe Awards and a Tony Awardand has been nominated for an Academy Award, an Emmy and two BAFTA Awards. She is also one of only four actresses to have won two Golden Globes in the same year.
== Early life ==
Plowright was born in Brigg, Lincolnshire, the daughter of Daisy Margaret (née Burton) and William Ernest Plowright, who was a journalist and newspaper editor.[2][3] She attended Scunthorpe Grammar School[4] and trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in London.[5]
== Career ==
Plowright made her stage debut at Croydon in 1948[6] 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, Shaw's Major Barbara and Saint Joan.
In 1957, she 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 Laurence Olivier, she became closely associated with his work at the National Theatre from 1963 onwards. In the 1990s she began to appear more regularly in films, including Enchanted April (1992), for which she won a Golden Globe Awardand an Academy Award nomination, Dennis the Menace(1993), a cameo in Last Action Hero (also 1993) and Tea With Mussolini (1999). She was also the Nanny in 101 Dalmatians (1996). 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. In 1994, she was awarded the Women in Film Crystal Award.[7]
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.[8]
Plowright was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1970 New Year Honours[9] and was promoted to Dame Commander (DBE) in the 2004 New Year Honours.[10]
Plowright's eyesight 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 completely blind.[11]
== Personal life ==
Plowright was first married to Roger Gage, an actor, in September 1953. She divorced him and, in 1961, married Laurence Olivierafter the ending of his 20-year marriage with the actress Vivien Leigh. The couple had three children, Hon. Richard Kerr Olivier (born December 1961), Hon. Tamsin Agnes Margaret Olivier (born January 1963) and Hon. Julie-Kate Olivier (born July 1966). Both daughters are actresses.[12] The couple remained married until Lord Olivier's death in 1989.
Her brother, David Plowright (1930–2006), was an executive at Granada Television.
== Legacy ==
The Plowright Theatre in Scunthorpe is named in Plowright's honour.
== Styles ==
Upon her marriage to Sir Laurence Olivier, her formal title became Lady Olivier; however, she never used it in her professional career. Her husband was made a life peer in 1970 and so she became Baroness Olivier. Professionally, she is known as Dame Joan Plowright.
As of 2004 her full and official title, as the widow of a peer and Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, is The Right Honourable The Baroness Olivier DBE.
== Filmography ==
Year 	Title 	Role 	Notes
1951 	Sara Crewe 	Winnie 	4 episodes
1954 	Sunday Night Theatre 	Adriana 	Episode: "The Comedy of Errors"
1955 	Moby Dick—Rehearsed 	A Young Actress/Pip 	Uncompleted and lost Orson Welles film
1956 	Moby Dick 	Starbuck's wife 	Uncredited
1957 	Sword of Freedom 	Lisa Giocondo 	Episode: "The Woman in the Picture"
1957 	Time Without Pity 	Agnes Cole 	
1959 	The School for Scandal 	Lady Teazle 	TV drama
1960 	The Entertainer 	Jean Rice 	Nominated—BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles
1963 	Uncle Vanya 	Sonya 	
1969 	ITV Saturday Night Theatre: Twelfth Night	Viola 	UK videotaped TV drama
1970 	ITV Playhouse 	Lisa 	Episode: "The Plastic People"
1970 	Three Sisters 	Masha 	
1973 	The Merchant of Venice 	Portia 	UK Videotaped TV drama
1977 	Equus 	Dora Strang 	Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role
1978 	Daphne Laureola 	Lady Pitts 	UK Videotaped TV drama
1978 	Saturday, Sunday, Monday 	Rosa 	UK Videotaped TV drama
1980 	The Diary of Anne Frank 	Mrs. Frank 	US Television film
1982 	Brimstone & Treacle 	Norma Bates 	
1982 	All for Love 	Edith 	Episode: "A Dedicated Man"
1982 	Britannia Hospital 	Phyllis Grimshaw 	
1983 	Wagner 	Mrs. Taylor 	Episode: "1.2"
1985 	Revolution 	Mrs. McConnahay 	
1986 	The Importance of Being Earnest 	Lady Bracknell 	UK videotaped TV drama
1987 	Theatre Night 	Meg Bowles 	Episode: "The Birthday Party"
1988 	Drowning by Numbers 	Cissie Colpitts 1 	
1988 	The Dressmaker 	Nellie 	
1989 	And a Nightingale Sang 	Mam 	Television film
1990 	Avalon 	Eva Krichinsky 	Nominated—New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress
1990 	I Love You to Death 	Nadja 	
1990 	Sophie 	Sophie 	Television film
1991 	The House of Bernarda Alba 	La Poncia 	Television film
1992 	Stalin 	Olga 	Television film
Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film
Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie
1992 	Driving Miss Daisy 	Daisy Werthan 	Television film
1992 	Enchanted April 	Mrs. Fisher 	Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture
Nominated—Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
1993 	Dennis the Menace 	Mrs. Martha Wilson 	
1993 	Last Action Hero 	Teacher 	
1993 	Screen Two 	Mrs. Monro 	Episode: "The Clothes in the Wardrobe"
1994 	The Return of the Native 	Mrs. Yeobright 	Television film
1994 	A Pin for the Butterfly 	Grandma 	
1994 	A Place for Annie 	Dorothy 	Television film
1994 	On Promised Land 	Mrs. Appletree 	Television film
Nominated—CableACE Award for Best Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie
1994 	Widows' Peak' 	Mrs. Doyle-Counihan 	
1995 	The Scarlet Letter 	Harriet Hibbons 	
1995 	A Pyromaniac's Love Story 	Mrs. Linzer 	
1995 	Hotel Sorrento 	Marge Morrisey 	
1996 	101 Dalmatians 	Nanny 	
1996 	Surviving Picasso 	Françoise's Grandmother	
1996 	Mr. Wrong 	Mrs. Crawford 	
1996 	Jane Eyre 	Mrs. Fairfax 	
1997 	The Assistant 	Mrs. Ida Bober 	
1998–1999	Encore! Encore! 	Marie Pinoni 	12 episodes
1998 	Aldrich Ames: Traitor Within 	Jeanne Vertefeuille 	Television film
1998 	This Could Be the Last Time 	Rosemary 	Television film
1998 	Dance with Me 	Bea Johnson 	Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture
1999 	Tom's Midnight Garden 	Mrs. Bartholomew 	
1999 	Tea with Mussolini 	Mary Wallace 	
2000 	Frankie & Hazel 	Phoebe Harkness 	Television film
2000 	Dinosaur 	Baylene 	Voice
2001 	Bailey's Mistake 	Aunt Angie 	Television film
2001 	Back to the Secret Garden 	Martha Sowerby 	
2001 	Scrooge and Marley 	Narrator 	Television film
2002 	Global Heresy 	Lady Foxley 	
2002 	Callas Forever 	Sarah Keller 	
2003 	Bringing Down the House 	Virginia Arness 	
2003 	I am David 	Sophie 	Monaco Film Festival Award for Best Actress
2004 	George and the Dragon 	Mother Superior 	
2005 	Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont 	Mrs. Palfrey 	Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
2006 	Goose on the Loose 	Beatrice Fairfield 	
2006 	Curious George 	Ms. Plushbottom 	
2008 	The Spiderwick Chronicles 	Aunt Lucinda Spiderwick	
2009 	Knife Edge 	Marjorie 	
2018 	Nothing Like a Dame 	Herself