Stage and screen actress Joan Plowright died on Thursday, January 16, 2025. She was 95 years old.

Plowright was Tony winning, Oscar and Emmy nominated actress known for film adaptation of The Entertainer, for playing Martha Wilson in Dennis the Menace, and for portraying Aunt Lucinda in The Spiderwick Chronicles.

Born on October 28, 1929, in Brigg, England, Plowright spent much of her childhood involved in an amateur drama group. Her professional stage debut was in 1948, and she studied at London’s Old Vic Theater School. In 1954, Plowright had her first performance in London, followed by performances in The Crucible, Dom Juan, and The Country Wife. It was around that time that she met future husband, actor-director Laurence Olivier.

Plowright and Olivier starred in London and Broadway productions of The Entertainer. Her stage career also included performances in A Taste of Honey, for which she won a Tony, Much Ado About Nothing, The Seagull, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and The Merchant of Venice.

Her onscreen career began in 1951 in episodes of Sara Crewe. She was in Time Without Pity, Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters, Equus, The Diary of Anne Frank TV movie, and The Dressmaker. Plowright earned an Academy Award nod for Enchanted April and she was nominated for an Emmy for the miniseries Stalin.

She starred in the Driving Miss Daisy TV movie, Last Action Hero, The Scarlet Letter, Jane Eyre, and played Nanny in 101 Dalmatians. Plowright was in Tea with Mussolini, Bringing Down the House, and her final film role was in 2009’s Knife Edge.