1908-01-26 ( 117 years old ) in London, England, UK
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Jill Esmond (26 January 1908 – 28 July 1990) was an English actress and first wife of Sir Laurence Olivier.
In 1928 Esmond (billed as Jill Esmond Moore) appeared in the production of Bird in the Hand, where she met fellow cast member Laurence Olivier for the first time. Three weeks later, he proposed to her. In his autobiography Olivier later wrote that he was smitten with Esmond, and that her cool indifference to him did nothing but further his ardour. When Bird in the Hand was being staged on Broadway, Esmond was chosen to join the American production – but Olivier was not.
Determined to be near Esmond, Olivier travelled to New York City where he found work as an actor. Esmond won rave reviews for her performance. Olivier continued to follow Esmond, and after proposing to her several times, she agreed and the couple were married on 25 July 1930 at All Saints', Margaret Street; within weeks, the couple regretted their marriage. They had one son, Tarquin Olivier (born 21 August 1936).
Returning to the United Kingdom, Esmond made her film debut with a starring role in an early Alfred Hitchcock film The Skin Game (1931), and over the next few years appeared in several British and (pre-Code) Hollywood films, including Thirteen Women (1932). She also appeared in two Broadway productions with Olivier, Private Lives in 1931 with Noël Coward and Gertrude Lawrence and The Green Bay Tree in 1933.
Esmond's career continued to ascend while Olivier's own career languished, but after a couple of years, when his career began to show promise, she began to refuse roles. Esmond had been promised a role by David O. Selznick in A Bill of Divorcement (1932) but at only half-salary. Olivier had discovered that Katharine Hepburn had been offered a much greater salary, and convinced Esmond to turn down the role. Description above from the Wikipedia article Jill Esmond, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Movies
A Man Called Peter
1955-03-31
Night People
1954-03-11
Private Information
1952-03-26
Escape
1948-03-01
Bedelia
1946-07-08
The Bandit of Sherwood Forest
1946-02-21
My Pal, Wolf
1944-09-25
Casanova Brown
1944-08-23
The White Cliffs of Dover
1944-05-11
Random Harvest
1942-12-17
Journey for Margaret
1942-12-17
The Pied Piper
1942-08-21
Eagle Squadron
1942-06-16
This Above All
1942-05-12
Prison Without Bars
1939-07-29
F.P.1
1933-04-02
No Funny Business
1933-03-30
Thirteen Women
1932-09-16
Is My Face Red?
1932-06-17
State's Attorney
1932-05-20
Ladies of the Jury
1932-02-02
Once a Lady
1931-11-07
The Skin Game
1931-02-26
The Eternal Feminine
1931-02-01
The Chinese Bungalow
1930-09-26
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