Award-winning actress Joan Plowright, widow of Laurence Olivier, has died at the age of 95, her family has announced.
A statement said: "It is with great sadness that the family of Dame Joan Plowright, the Lady Olivier, inform you that she passed away peacefully on January 16 2025 surrounded by her family at Denville Hall aged 95.
"She enjoyed a long and illustrious career across theatre, film and TV over seven decades until blindness made her retire.
"She cherished her last 10 years in Sussex with constant visits from friends and family, filled with much laughter and fond memories.
"The family are deeply grateful to Jean Wilson and all those involved in her personal care over many years.
"Joan is survived by her loving family: Tamsin and Wilf, Julie-Kate and Dan, Richard, Shelley, Troy, Ali, Jeremy, step-granddaughter and great granddaughter Kaya and Sophia, and great granddaughter soon to arrive.
"The family ask you to please respect their request for privacy at this time.
"We are so proud of all Joan did and who she was as a loving and deeply inclusive human being.
"She survived her many challenges with Plowright grit and courageous determination to make the best of them, and that she certainly did.
"Rest in peace, Joan…"
Plowright was known for her Golden Globe-winning performances in the TV biopic Stalin and the period drama Enchanted April, for which she was also nominated for an Academy Award.
She starred in Love You to Death with River Phoenix and was a star of the West End and Broadway before her international movie success.
Her many other film credits included The Entertainer, Equus, The Last Action Hero, the Ireland-filmed Widows' Peak, which was co-written by Hugh Leonard, Tea with Mussolini, and The Spiderwick Chronicles.
In 1961, she won a Tony Award for the role of Jo in Shelagh Delaney's A Taste of Honey on Broadway, which saw her star opposite the late Angela Lansbury.
Born in Scunthorpe, Plowright was educated at the local grammar school before winning a scholarship to the Old Vic Theatre School at the age of 17.
Her first stage appearance was in If Four Walls Told at the Croydon Repertory Theatre in 1948 and she later joined the English Theatre Company at the Royal Court.
She met Olivier in 1957 when he was still married to Gone with the Wind star Vivien Leigh, and they fell in love while co-starring in the stage version of John Osborne's The Entertainer.
Plowright's wedding to Olivier in 1961 was the sensation of the year, and their marriage was an enduring one until the theatre great's death in 1989 at the age of 82. She became his carer through a series of chronic illnesses, including cancer.
Plowright announced she was retiring from acting in 2014 after losing her eyesight due to macular degeneration and becoming registered as blind.
In 2021, her friend and contemporary Judi Dench spoke about having the same condition.
Prior to that, in 2014, Plowright took part in the documentary film Nothing Like a Dame alongside Dench, Eileen Atkins, and Maggie Smith, which saw them discuss their careers and lives.
Source: Press Association