Plowright brought stage and screen characters to vibrant life for more than six decades in such works as A Taste of Honey, Tea with Mussolini and Enchanted April.

Joan Plowright, perhaps the greatest Anglophone actor of the 20th century and the widow of Laurence Oliver, has died. She was 95.

Joan Plowright, an award-winning British actress and widow of Laurence Olivier, has died. She was 95. "She enjoyed a long and illustrious career across theatre, film and TV over seven decades until blindness made her retire,