Joan Ann Plowright was born in Brigg, Lincolnshire, England. Her mother ran an amateur drama group, and Plowright began to be exposed to drama at the age of 3. She soon began spending her school holidays on summer courses at a university drama school. After high school she studied at Laban Movement Arts Studio in Manchester before winning a two-year scholarship to the Old Vic drama school in London.

Following his London stage debut in 1954, Plowright became a member of the Royal Court Theater in 1956 and gained recognition for plays written by so-called "angry young men" such as John Osborne, who made Britain The drama was thoroughly delivered. New, rugged, working-class actors such as Albert Finney, Ellen Bates, and Anthony Hopkins were her contemporaries.

In 1956, Plowright made her feature film debut in American director John Huston's uncredited epic adaptation of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, starring Gurley. Gory Peck stars as the obsessed Captain Ahab.

A year later, she co-starred with future husband Olivier in Osbourne's original London production of The Entertainer. She played Olivier's daughter in the production, and the two reunited in the 1960 film adaptation.

At that time, Plowright's marriage to British actor Roger Cage ended, and Olivier's 20-year marriage to Vivien Leigh also ended. Plowright and Olivier married in Connecticut in 1961 while both were starring on Broadway, he in "Beckett" and she in "A Taste of Honey," for which she won a Tony Award.

A love letter sent by Olivier summed up his love: "Sometimes, when I think of you or write to you, I feel a peace - a tenderness and calmness. A peace free from any violence, passion Or the feeling of broken longing...it brings me out into the streets with a smile on my face and in my heart for everyone."

Olivier died in 1989 at the age of 82. Thereafter, Plowright enjoyed a career renaissance at the age of 60, satisfying both high-end tastes and more commercial demands.

In 1996 she appeared in Franco Zeffirelli's version of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre and in the Merchant-Ivory production of Surviving Picasso (Surviving Picasso), and collaborated with Glenn on the 1996 Disney live-action remake of 101 "Dalmatians" as a strong nanny. closure.

She starred opposite Walter Matthau in the big-screen adaptation of the classic comic strip "Dennis the Menace," and made a brief appearance in 1993 in Arnold Schwarzenegger's self-referential satire "The Last Action Hero."

In 1993, Plowright won the Supporting Actress in Television Award for "Stalin" and the Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture Award for "April," becoming one of the few actors to win two Golden Globe Awards in the same year. The latter, about a group of Brits who find their lives change while on vacation in Italy, earned her her lone Academy Award nomination.

Not all of her projects were career successes, such as the disastrous "The Scarlet Letter" starring Demi Moore and the pilot for a TV series based on "Driving Miss Daisy," which went nowhere. In 2011, starring alongside Chevy Chase in the holiday family comedy Goose on the Loose did not attract critical acclaim.

An important role in her later years was as keeper of Olivier's flame - presenting awards, defending her husband in the media and curating his letters.

"It was my choice because I was privileged to live with him," she told The Daily Telegraph in 2003. "When someone with such fame and idolatry and adoration leaves, there's bound to be a backlash that creates the opposite and you get a little tired of it. I really wanted to clear things up."

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