Joan Plowright and Laurence Olivier’s Journey: From Secret Affair While Being Married to Other People to One of Showbusiness’ Strongest Unions

Legendary theater and screen actress Joan Plowright has passed away, leaving behind an enduring legacy and her storied romance with acclaimed theater actor Laurence Olivier. Theirs wasn’t the first romance in Hollywood, but it was destined to be remembered for years.

Olivier and Plowright’s romance had an unconventional, almost scandalous beginning, but their bond outlasted any previous unions. They remained devotedly married for years until Olivier’s tragic passing. Now, with their reunion beyond this life, it feels like the perfect time to revisit their remarkable love story.

Joan Plowright and Laurence Olivier had an illicit affair before getting married

Over the years, Hollywood has been the home to some of the dreamiest relationships people could ever think of. From couples with huge age gaps (Aaron and Sam Taylor-Johnson) to ones that shook up the industry with the sheer power of their unions (Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman), there is no shortage of celebrity couples that people have looked up to.

Joan Plowright, then 27, and Laurence Olivier, then 51, first met in the theater when the latter stepped into the actress’ dressing room after a staging of the play The Country Wife. In his autobiography, Confessions Of An Actor, he wrote (via Yahoo UK):

I went to see The Country Wife, and was entranced by the Margery Pinchwife of Miss Joan Plowright, whose very name was enough to make me think thoughts of love.

At the time, Olivier was married to Gone with the Wind actress Vivien Leigh, who was his second wife. The marriage was in a difficult position, to say the least. To divert his attention from the terrible state of that relationship, he took a role in John Osborne’s The Entertainer although it was hardly the kind of work he usually did.

Plowright was cast opposite him as his granddaughter in the play. Much like Olivier, the actress too was married at the time. However, that did not stop either of them from catching feelings for each other. What started as flirtation quickly turned into an affair that they had no choice, but to hide from their respective partners. In her memoir And That’s Not All, Plowright wrote:

There was a bond between us – a strange feeling of kinship which had nothing to do with casual flirtation. We had fallen very much in love.

Two years after their first meeting, they embarked on a clandestine trip to New York in 1958 – a pivotal moment in their relationship. Soon, they came to the realization that leaving their respective partners was the only path forward for their affair. They eventually married in 1961.

Laurence Olivier and Joan Plowright’s relationship also led to many creative collaborations

Throughout their lives, Olivier and Plowright starred together in several projects. The very first of these was in 1963 when they appeared in a film adaptation of the Anton Chekhov play Uncle Vanya. They played the on-screen couple, Astrov and Sonya.

They collaborated again in the 1970 movie Three Sisters. Ironically, this movie too was based on a play by Chekhov. Eight years later, they both starred in a TV adaptation of James Bridie’s comic play Daphne Laureola and a filmed version of Eduardo De Filippo’s Saturday Sunday Monday.

In the 1980s, Olivier’s health began to decline although he never really stopped acting. He passed away in 1989. Almost three decades later, this month (via BBC), his widow Dame Joan Plowright passed away at the age of 95.