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.

Part of an astonishing generation of British actors, including Judi Dench,​ Vanessa Redgrave, Eileen Atkins and Maggie Smith​, Joan Plowright won a Tony Award, two Golden Globes and nominations for an Oscar and an Emmy.

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