Dame Joan Plowright: the acting star whose first love was the theater

Joan Plowright, who has Died at the age of 95She was one of Britain’s finest stage actresses – and later found fame on the cinema screen, although she mostly preferred stage work.

The Tony and Golden Globe-winning actress once said that movies are a recourse to pay the bills, saying: “If the roof needs repairing you do movies.”

Theater audiences enjoyed his versatility and good humor, and in his 1961 Tony-winning Broadway role A Taste of Honey he played a troubled teenager, with Angela Lansbury playing his mother.

Other notable stage roles include St. Joan in 1963 and Saturday, Sunday, Monday a decade later, as well as films such as 1992’s Enchanted April and 1999’s Tea with Mussolini.

She was also married to acting great Sir Laurence Olivier for 28 years, until his death in 1989.

After his death, Plowright continued acting until the age of 80, when failing eyesight forced him into retirement.

Joan Ann Plowright was born on 29 October 1929 in Brigg, Lincolnshire.

Her mother, Daisy, was a keen amateur actress and by the age of three, her daughter was on the stage.

She went to Scunthorpe Grammar School, before studying drama at Bristol Old Vic.

His mother encouraged his career choice, although with extreme frankness.

“You’re no oil painting,” Daisy said, “but you’ve got a spark. Just thank God you’ve got my feet, and not your father’s.”

She made her stage debut as a professional actress in Croydon in 1948, and by 1956, she had joined the Royal Court Theater in London.

At the time, the Royal Court was a center for new talents specializing in controversial works. It was also the spiritual birthplace of kitchen-sink drama.

Plowright gained recognition in a series of productions written by this group of Angry Young Men, in roles that depended on acting ability rather than mere glamour.

As the daughter of a Lincolnshire newspaper editor, she was far from working class – but her practicality and emotional honesty helped modernize British theatre.

In 1957, he co-starred with Sir Laurence Olivier in a production of John Osborne’s play The Entertainer.

Olivier, who played Archie Rice, was at the peak of his acting career and was considered a matinee idol.

Plowright played his daughter and a romance arose due to the actors’ mutual respect. He said, “There’s nothing sexier than talent in any person.”

She was initially cautious about a relationship with him – Olivier was 22 years her senior and already one of Britain’s best-known theater couples, having been married to Vivien Leigh.

Plowright was married to fellow actor Roger Gage.

But Sir Lawrence’s second wife Leigh, suffering from mental illness, divorced Olivier in 1960.

Plowright and her husband divorced that same year.

A year later, Olivier married Plowright in Connecticut – around the same time she won a Tony Award on Broadway for her role in A Taste of Honey.

The pair were soon to appear together in a series of plays in Chichester in the UK, including a notable staging of Uncle Vanya.

Michael Billington of The Guardian called it “one of the great Chekhov experiences of the 20th century… which brought tears to my eyes”.

They had three children, but their marriage was not without difficulties.

He later said, “His behavior is at an extreme level, which you understand.” “You just find a way not to get sucked in by his demons.”

Their relationship caused her to refuse to appear for five years at the National Theatre, where her husband was director from 1962–1973.

The actress felt that she could have been vulnerable to allegations of bias.

However, eventually, he took a contract with the theater for a decade, taking on far more grandiose roles than those at the Royal Court.

By now, her husband had been promoted to the peerage – making her Lady Ollivier – but she did not use the title.

Plowright won a Golden Globe and was Oscar-nominated for her role in the 1992 film Enchanted April.

In fact, he won two Golden Globes in one year – the second for the HBO TV movie Stalin.

Her other films included Three Sisters in 1970 and The Merchant of Venice in 1973 – both with her husband and both based on National Theater productions.

She also played Mrs. Fairfax in 1996’s Jane Eyre, and her roles in films like Dennis the Menace, Last Action Hero, and 101 Dalmatians went on to become classics.

As Lord Olivier’s health declined, his wife accepted her first big screen role in the 1990 black comedy I Love You to Death, alongside Kevin Kline and Tracey Ullman.

In 1989, Lord Olivier died of kidney failure at the age of 82.

A decade later, the actress won praise in Franco Zeffirelli’s autobiographical 1999 film Tea with Mussolini alongside her close friends, Judi Dench and Maggie Smith.

Dame Joan found a great solace after her husband’s death by starring in a dozen films between 2000 and 2010.

These include 2003’s I Am David, about a boy who escapes the Gulag in Bulgaria, and the same year’s comedy Bringing Down the House, starring Steve Martin.

However, he clearly saw the silver screen as a poor cousin of the theatre.

He said, “One cannot pretend that most film dialogues are that challenging.” “You do movies if the roof needs repair.”

As if in agreement, the theater in his native Scunthorpe changed its name in his honour.

His main hindrance to more theater work was his eyesight, he had macular degeneration, which made the stage more difficult.

In 2014, she had to retire from all forms of acting due to blindness.

Four years later, she appeared in the BBC Arena film with three old friends – Maggie Smith, Eileen Atkins and Judi Dench. nothing like a dame,

The grand dames of British theater recall their lives and careers with deep honesty and humility.

Filmed in the garden of the home she shared with Olivier, Plowright spoke candidly about how she had tried to avoid playing the role of Cleopatra at the National Theatre, feeling that she would be ridiculed for her lack of beauty. Will go.

“They all think we think we’re the bee’s knees,” she confessed. “They don’t realize that we are trembling inside.”