• Biography
• Movies

• More ...
• Filmbug Top 100
• Movie Dictionary

Browse ..
A-Z
By Date
By Year
By State
By Country

•  

Acknowledged as one of the finest stage actresses of her generation, Joan Plowright was the daughter of a newspaper editor who was encouraged by her mother to pursue her acting career. She first garnered attention as a member of the Royal Court Theatre in such productions as The Crucible and The Constant Wife. In 1957 she landed a role in the acclaimed The Entertainer and went on to repeat that role on Broadway (1958) and on film (1960). For her performance in A Taste of Honey, she received a 1961 Tony Award. From there she went on to star in St. Joan, The Merchant of Venice and Filumena. By the end of the '80s, as her film work increased, she made fewer stage appearances.

Her first significant film role was in the thriller Time Without Pity. Other film credits include Equus, Brimstone and Treacle and Drowning By Numbers. In 1990 she appeared in I Love You to Death and in Barry Levinson's Avalon. In 1992, Plowright was nominated for the Academy AwandP, and won the Golden Globe, for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture for her performance in Enchanted April. She also won the Golden Globe that year for Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV for HBO's Stalin.

Plowright went on to appear in Dennis the Menace, Widow's Peak, a remake of Jane Eyre, and Tea With Mussolini (the latter two directed by Franco Zeffirelli). She also appeared in Disney's live action version of 101 Dalmatians and voiced the role of Baylene in Disney's animated motion picture Dinosaur.