Joan Plowright, the distinguished actress of the post-war British stage whose considerable skill as a performer was at times eclipsed by her fame as the third and last wife of Laurence Olivier, has died. She was 95.

Joan Plowright, an English actress whose marriage to celebrated actor-director Laurence Olivier conferred on her instant rank among the theatrical nobility and who carved her own considerable and singular place on the British stage,

Joan Ann Plowright was born on 29 October 1929 in Brigg, Lincolnshire. Her mother, Daisy, was a keen amateur actor and by the age of three, her daughter had taken to the stage. She went to Scunthorpe Grammar School before studying drama at the Bristol Old Vic.