
British actress Joan Plowright, 95, died on Jan. 16. She is unfairly known as “the wife of Laurence Olivier”—she was, but she was much more than that. Plowright made her stage debut in 1948, and there was no stopping her after that—she became one of Britain’s most acclaimed (and busy) actresses, playing in classic and modern roles (she also appeared on Broadway, winning a Tony for A Taste of Honey). Plowright also appeared in films and on TV, gracefully aging (unlike so many Hollywood actresses!) from saucer-eyed ingénue to doughty character actress: The Entertainer, Uncle Vanya, Equus, Brimstone & Treacle, Avalon, the wonderful Enchanted April, Dennis the Menace (as Mrs. Wilson—Walter Matthau, not Laurence Olivier, played Mr. Wilson), Jane Eyre, 101 Dalmatians, Tea with Mussolini, and the documentary Tea with the Dames. “Everybody, outside the theater, thinks that actors and actresses are soppy people, and that acting is like having a lovely hobby,” Plowright said. “The truth is that actors are more tremendously disciplined than most. I was taught very early to leave my troubles at the stage door — all my aches and pains and domestic upsets."
