Laurence Olivier: Love, Illness, and Rumored Relationships

Few actors define a national theatre the way Laurence Olivier defined Britain’s, and he became the public face of classical acting for almost half a century, winning the Best Actor Oscar for Hamlet in 1948, according to Encyclopaedia Britannica. Three marriages, a muscle disease that changed how he worked, and a funeral he stayed away from all belong to the same complicated biography; the challenge is separating what is documented from what is still rumored.

Born: 22 May 1907 (Encyclopaedia Britannica) ·
Died: 11 July 1989 (The Washington Post) ·
Spouses: 3 ·
Children: 4

Seven biographical checkpoints, one pattern: Olivier’s public identity was built on Shakespeare, while his private identity was built on three very different marriages.

Who was the love of Laurence Olivier’s life?

The documented answer has three parts. Olivier married three actresses, and each marriage tells a different story about who he was offstage.

Joan Plowright: his third wife and lifelong partner

• After his divorce from Vivien Leigh in 1960, Olivier married Joan Plowright in 1961; the marriage lasted until his death in 1989 (Vanity Fair).
• Plowright was the mother of three of his children: Julie-Kate, Tamsin, and Richard (The Washington Post).
• Biographers who argue for Plowright as the love of his life point to the length and stability of the third marriage: it was by far the longest of his three.

The pattern is clear: Plowright was the constant partner of Olivier’s later decades.

Vivien Leigh: the turbulent marriage

• Olivier and Leigh began their relationship while both were married to other people, and they married in California in 1940 (Vanity Fair; The Washington Post).
• The marriage lasted roughly 20 years and ended in divorce in 1960 (Vanity Fair).
• Together they made three films, including Fire Over England and That Hamilton Woman (IMDb).

The same intensity that made them a legendary couple also made them volatile; their public glamour never matched their private equilibrium.

Jill Esmond: first marriage and son Tarquin

• Olivier married actress Jill Esmond in 1930 (Encyclopaedia Britannica).
• They had one son, Simon Tarquin Olivier, before the marriage broke apart (The Washington Post).
• The divorce from Esmond was finalized in 1940, the same year he married Leigh.

Esmond is often reduced to a footnote, but she was the first marriage Olivier had to leave behind on his way to becoming the public figure we remember.

The implication: each marriage reflects a different phase of Olivier’s identity, and the label “love of his life” depends on which phase you value most.

What illness did Laurence Olivier have?

Olivier lived with two major health battles in his later career: dermatomyositis, a rare muscle disease, and prostate cancer. The treatment itself became part of the story of his late acting.

Dermatomyositis diagnosis

• Biographical accounts date Olivier’s dermatomyositis diagnosis to the 1950s; the condition inflames and weakens muscles (Encyclopaedia Britannica).
• By the 1960s, his health had become a factor in how he chose stage and screen roles.

Prostate cancer later in life

• The Washington Post obituary placed cancer in Olivier’s final health decline (The Washington Post).
• He continued acting after the diagnosis; his film and television roles stretched into the 1980s.

Impact on his career and acting

• Despite health limits, Olivier played the villain in Marathon Man in 1976, one of his most visible late roles (IMDb).
• In 1963 he became the first director of the National Theatre company at the Old Vic, a leadership role he held while managing his health (Official London Theatre).

The pattern: illness reshaped Olivier’s decisions, but it never stopped him from performing.

Why did Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier split up?

There was no single breaking point. The marriage collapsed under the weight of Leigh’s mental-health struggles, the pressure of two demanding careers, and Olivier’s relationship with another actress.

Vivien Leigh’s mental health struggles

• Vanity Fair describes Leigh’s recurrent mental-health crises as a severe source of strain on the marriage (Vanity Fair).
• Leigh also went through recurrent tuberculosis, including a diagnosis involving her left lung in the mid-1940s (Wikipedia).
• The combination of physical illness and emotional instability made sustained equilibrium difficult.

Olivier’s work demands and affairs

• The same biographical account lists drinking, infidelity, professional pressure, and illness as forces on the relationship, while noting that some details remain disputed (Vanity Fair).
• Their three films together were the exception rather than the rule; separate projects kept them apart for long stretches (IMDb).

Irreconcilable differences and divorce

• The marriage ended in divorce in 1960, about 20 years after it began (Vanity Fair).
• Olivier married Joan Plowright the following year, confirming the direction his private life had already taken.

What this means: the break was accumulated strain, interrupted by public glamour, and it did not end with the divorce decree.

Did Laurence Olivier attend Vivien Leigh’s funeral?

The funeral question is one of the most searched details in Olivier’s biography. The short answer is that he was not there.

Vivien Leigh’s death in 1967

• Leigh died in 1967, seven years after the divorce (Vanity Fair).
• The funeral became a public event shaped by the same press coverage that had followed the marriage.

Olivier’s decision not to attend

• The consistently repeated fact is that Olivier did not attend Leigh’s funeral (Vanity Fair).
• He was reportedly in the United States at the time and chose not to travel for it.

Reasons for absence

• Some accounts suggest he wanted to avoid the press and the public spectacle, but confirmed first-hand reasons are scarce.
• The absence should not be read as indifference: biographers describe the earlier relationship as central to both of their lives.

The catch: the absence is a fact, but the explanation is still mostly inference.

The implication: the gap between Olivier’s actions and the public understanding of them remains a central biographical puzzle.

Who were Laurence Olivier’s male lovers?

The honest answer to this heavily searched question is less colourful than the rumor. The documented record does not confirm a named male partner; the subject belongs to biography, not settled history.

Alleged relationship with Danny Kaye

• The name most often repeated in popular accounts is Danny Kaye, but the claim has never been publicly confirmed by either man.
• Biographers who raise it describe the evidence as circumstantial and secondhand.

What the public record says

• Olivier married three women and had four children; those facts are documented (The Washington Post).
• His public statements about love and marriage centred on those relationships, not on male partners.

Olivier’s own statements on bisexuality

• Olivier wrote an autobiography, Confessions of an Actor, but the existence of same-sex affairs is not documented in the records reviewed for this article.
• Researchers who want a definitive answer are left with gaps rather than evidence.

The implication: curiosity about Olivier’s sexuality is legitimate, but a responsible biography cannot convert rumor into fact.

The pattern: Olivier’s private life remains partially hidden, and the available evidence supports caution, not conclusion.

Who did Laurence Olivier leave Vivien Leigh for?

The short answer is Joan Plowright. The longer answer involves timing, a theatrical production, and a marriage that began almost immediately after the divorce.

Joan Plowright as the new partner

• Olivier and Plowright began their relationship while he was still married to Leigh, according to biographical accounts (Vanity Fair).
• They married in 1961, within a year of the divorce.

Meeting on set of The Entertainer

• Plowright was part of the 1957 stage production of The Entertainer in which Olivier played Archie Rice; the film adaptation followed in 1960 (IMDb).

Marriage shortly after divorce

• Olivier divorced Leigh in 1960 and married Plowright in 1961, making the transition unusually public and fast (Vanity Fair).

The trade-off: the relationship that ended his most famous romance became his longest and most stable marriage.

Laurence Olivier timeline

• 22 May 1907 — Born in Dorking, Surrey (Encyclopaedia Britannica).
• 1930 — Married Jill Esmond and appeared in Noël Coward’s Private Lives (Official London Theatre).
• 1940 — Divorced Esmond and married Vivien Leigh (The Washington Post).
• 1948 — Won the Best Actor Oscar for Hamlet (IMDb).
• 1950s — Diagnosed with dermatomyositis (Encyclopaedia Britannica).
• 1960 — Divorced Vivien Leigh (Vanity Fair).
• 1961 — Married Joan Plowright.
• 1967 — Vivien Leigh died; Olivier did not attend the funeral (Vanity Fair).
• 1976 — Played the antagonist in Marathon Man (IMDb).
• 11 July 1989 — Died at age 82 (The Washington Post).

These dates anchor the biography; everything else in Olivier’s story happens between them.

What we know and what we don’t

What the record says

The Olivier–Leigh marriage was affected by drinking, infidelity, professional pressure, and illness; some details remain disputed.

Vanity Fair — biographical coverage

Olivier became a leading figure in British theatre as both actor and director.

Official London Theatre — West End industry body

For another story about a legendary performer whose final project took decades to finish, read Orson Welles: The 48-Year Journey to His Final Film. And for a parallel tale about a beloved British comic actor whose private life was more complicated than her screen persona, see Hattie Jacques: The Carry On Matron’s Life and Death.

Coming at Olivier through personal drama is tempting, but the drama is meaningful only because the work gave it scale. His marriages made headlines, his illness humbled him, and his refusal to perform at Leigh’s funeral still loops through public conversation; none of that overshadows the stage and film craft that carried his name. For a viewer deciding where to start, the choice is clear: begin with Henry V or Hamlet, or you’ll miss the disciplined actor behind the legend.

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