Joan Plowright, whose career on both the stage and screen stretched for more than 60 years, has died.
Plowright was 95 years old.
Her family said she died on Thursday at Denville Hall, a retirement home for actors in England, The Associated Press reported.
“She enjoyed a long and illustrious career across theatre, film and TV over seven decades until blindness made her retire,” her family said in a statement released on Friday. “We are so proud of all Joan did and who she was as a loving and deeply inclusive human being.”
Lights will dim for two minutes in London’s West End theaters on Tuesday night in her honor.
Plowright was born in Lincolnshire, England in 1929, the BBC reported, to a mother who operated an amateur drama group. Her father was a newspaper editor.
She started acting at a young age, being involved in the theater at the age of 3, but then spent school vacations at university drama schools.
Her mother encouraged her decision to go into acting but didn’t think she had the looks.
“You’re no oil painting,” her mother told her, according to the BBC, “but you’ve got the spark. Just thank God you’ve got my legs, and not your father’s.”
She attended the Laban Art of Movement Studio in Manchester and then Old Vic Theatre’s drama school after winning a two-year scholarship.
Her stage debut was in “Croydon” in 1948, the BBC said.
Her first role was in the television series “Sara Crewe” in 1951, according to her IMDB biography.
Plowright became a member of the Royal Court Theatre in 1956.
She got her big movie break in “Time Without Pity,” in 1957, The New York Times reported.
She and her future husband starred together in 1957′s play “The Entertainer,” where she played Olivier’s daughter. They were separated in age by 22 years, according to the BBC. They reunited for the 1960 film version.
Plowright had been married to Roger Cage, but the two had split. The relationship between Olivier and Vivien Leigh also ended. Olivier and Plowright were then married in Connecticut in 1961 as they starred in two separate Broadway shows.
Olivier wrote of his love for his wife, “I sometimes feel such a peacefulness come over me when I think of you, or write to you — a gentle tenderness and serenity. A feeling devoid of all violence, passion or shattering longing... it makes me go out into the street with a smile on my face and in my heart for everybody.”
They were married until his death in 1989 at the age of 82. They had three children together, according to IMDB.
She was in her 60s when her career took off again. She appeared in “I Love You to Death” in 1990 “Dennis the Menace” in 1993, “Jane Eyre” and the nanny in the live-action remake of “101 Dalmatians,” both released in 1996.
While she found success in films, she preferred the theater, saying that “One can’t pretend that most film dialogue is all that challenging. You do films if the roof needs mending,” the BBC reported.
Her final role was in “Knife Edge” in 2009, according to IMDB.
She was nominated for an Oscar for her role in “Enchanted April,” and was a dual Golden Globe winner in the same year for both “Enchanted April” and “Stalin” in 1993.
Plowright became a Dame Commander of the British Empire in 2004, The New York Times reported.
The BBC reported that her failing eyesight caused her to retire from acting in 2014.
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