Award-winning acting legend Joan Plowright dead at 95

One of the most well known and respected actors of stage and screen, who won two Golden Globes in one year, has passed away.

Golden Globe-winning acting legend Dame Joan Plowright had died aged 95.

In a career spanning six decades, the British actor starred in Hollywood blockbusters and tread the boards in major theatres across the world.

In the 1960s she married fellow screen star Sir Laurence Olivier who she remained with until his death.

Plowright's’ family said she died on Thursday at Denville Hall, a retirement home popular with former actors in London.

“We are so proud of all Joan did and who she was as a loving and deeply inclusive human being,” her family said in a statement.

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

Actress Joan Plowright poses for pictures after being made a Dame by the then-Prince of Wales at Buckingham Palace in London, 20 February, 2004. (Photo by STEFAN ROUSSEAU / POOL / AFP)

Plowright was part of an era of British acting that has included the likes of Judi Dench, Maggie Smith and Vanessa Redgrave.

One of Plowright’s’ most recent projects was the documentary Tea with the Dames where alongside Smith and Dench she looked back on her career and joked that Dench had taken all the best roles.

Plowright was born in Brigg, in Lincolnshire in England’s north-east, in 1929.

Her career took off in the 1950s on the London stage. She met her future husband Olivier in 1957 when they both starred in the play The Entertainer.

Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Eileen Atkins, and Joan Plowright in Tea with the Dames in 2018.

Joan Plowright having tea with Australian housewife superstar Dame Edna Everage, at the Lyric Theatre in London, 1976.

Her first major award came in 1961 when she won the Best Actress in a play Tony for A Taste of Honey. She was also nominated for a BAFTA for most promising newcomer for The Entertainer in the same year.

While Plowright had a number of film roles in the following decades, she mainly concentrated on the stage and was most connected to the UK’s prestigious National Theatre.

In 1976 she starred opposite Barry Humphries’ character Dame Edna Everage at London’s Lyric Theatre.

However in the 1990s she appeared in more movies including Enchanted April, a British historical drama set after World War One in which she played the crotchety widow Mrs Fisher.

Joan Plowright in 1060 in a scene from the film The Entertainer.

Sir Laurence Olivier and Joan Plowright in 1960. (Photo by STAFF / INTERCONTINENTALE / AFP)

It was a role that would snag her the 1993 Golden Globe for best supporting actress and a nomination for the best supporting actress Oscar.

The same year, she won another Golden Globe – best supporting actor in a TV series – for the drama Stalin. She remains one of the few actors to win two Golden Globes in the same year.

Joan Plowright and Cher.

Plowright also starred in 1996 Disney flick 101 Dalmatians, Tea with Mussolini in 1999, Curious George in 2006 and Tea with the Dames in 2018.

She was made a dame by the then Prince of Wales in 2004

“I’ve been very privileged to have such a life,” Plowright said in a 2010 interview with The Actor’s Work.

“I mean its magic and I still feel, when a curtain goes up or the lights come on if there’s no curtain, the magic of a beginning of what is going to unfold in front of me.”

Plowright is survived by her three children Tamsin, Richard and Julie-Kate who are all actors.

Originally published as Award-winning acting legend Joan Plowright dead at 95