Joan Plowright

The couple were married until 1989 (his death). In 2003, she took on the major role of playing Julie McNamara in the controversial television drama Nip/Tuck based on the lives of plastic surgeons. Together the couple had three children, Richard, Tamsin and Julie-Kate. Richardson expressed sympathy with Marie-Antoinette's undeserved fate, something which she tried to convey in the film. However, it was a critical failure: "an endless illustrated Harlequin paperback of mawkish backstory and corset-popping purple prose", according to Jessica Winter in the Village Voice, though Richardson's performance was listed among the "incidental pleasures" of the film by Roger Ebert and described as a "sly, commanding performance that reflects a marvelous understanding of this notorious character" by Salon.com. She divorced him and in 1961 married Laurence Olivier. This was a lavish costume drama based on a scandal in the final days of the French monarchy, when Marie-Antoinette's reputation was trashed by a confidence trickster, who absconded with a lavish diamond necklace which she had purchased using the Queen's name but without her knowledge. Joan Plowright was first married to Roger Gage. Thus, she secured the role of that queen in the 2001 film The Affair of the Necklace.

As of July 2003 she was performing in the stage production Absolutely! (perhaps) in London. Later that year she was modelling on a necklace, when director Charles Shyer noticed her resemblance to doomed 18th-century royal Marie Antoinette. After a brief hiatus to devote time to her family she has returned to the screen and can be seen in films such as Dennis the Menace, Enchanted April and Tea With Mussolini. Two years later she played opposite Mel Gibson in the successful film, The Patriot loosely based on the American Revolution. In 1961 she was awarded a Tony for her role in A Taste of Honey on Broadway. In 1998 in the popular television drama The Echo she played sultry Amanda Powell. Plowright continued to appear on stage and in films such as The Entertainer and The Three Sisters. In 1996 she played the fashion designer Anita in the popular Disney film 101 Dalmatians opposite Glenn Close as Cruella deVil.

She appeared in The Chairs (by Eugène Ionesco), Major Barbara, Saint Joan and in 1958 she co-starred with future husband Laurence Olivier in the production of The Entertainer. She later appeared as a fictional Finnish princess, Anna, in the 1991 comedy King Ralph. Two years later, she appeared as Lady Chatterley in a televison drama of the same title. In 1956 she joined the English Theatre Company and won the role of Margery Pincher in The Country Wife. After an early leading role in Peter Greenaway's cult success Drowning by Numbers, her first major role in front of a mass audience was as Joanna Farley in a 1989 television episode of Poirot, the Agatha Christie-based detective series. Long known as a superb theatre actress, Plowright trained at the Old Vic Theatre School in London and made her stage debut in 1951 and her London debut in 1954. She is the daughter of screen legend Vanessa Redgrave and director Tony Richardson, the granddaughter of Sir Michael Redgrave, sister of Natasha Richardson and niece of Lynn Redgrave. Joely Richardson appeared as an extra at the age of three in the 1968 version of The Charge of the Light Brigade directed by her father. In addition to being Lady Olivier (later Baroness Olivier) she was made a Dame (DBE) in her own right in the New Year's Honours for 2004. Joely Richardson (born 9 January 1965) is a British actress, who was born into a theatrical family.

Joan Ann Plowright (born October 28, 1929 in Brigg, North Lincolnshire, England) is a British actress, widow of Laurence Olivier. Moby Dick (1956) (uncredited, as Starbuck's Wife) (her first film role). The Entertainer (1960) as Jean Rice. Three Sisters (1970) as Masha.

Avalon (1990) as Eva Krichinsky. Fisher. Enchanted April (1992) as Mrs. Martha Wilson.

Dennis the Menace (1993) as Mrs. The Scarlet Letter (1995) as Harriet Hibbons. Tea With Mussolini (1999) as Mary Wallace. Back to the Secret Garden (2001) as Martha Sowerby.

Goose! (2004) as Beatrice Fairfield.