Born in Scunthorpe, Plowright became a leading lady in London’s West End in the 1950s, and first appeared opposite Olivier in John Osborne’s The Entertainer at the Royal Court in 1957.
He was still married to Gone With The Wind star Vivien Leigh at the time, and Plowright was married to her first husband Roger Gage.
Plowright and Olivier fell in love, and their acting partnership earned them both Bafta nominations for the film version of The Entertainer, which came out in 1960.
That year, Plowright also made her breakthrough in the US in A Taste of Honey on Broadway, winning a Tony Award for her performance.
Her other notable plays included George Bernard Shaw’s Saint Joan, about Joan of Arc, in 1963, which for which she was named best actress at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards.
And she won a Society of West End Theatre Award – later renamed the Olivier Awards after her husband – in 1978 for Filumena.
She received another Bafta nomination that same year for her performance in the film version of Equus alongside Richard Burton.
In Enchanted April, her role as the elegant but peevish Mrs Fisher earned her a Golden Globe as well as a nomination for the Oscar for best supporting actress in 1993.
