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Jill Esmond
in Random Harvest (1942)
Born Jill Esmond Moore
26 January 1908(1908-01-26)
London,
EnglandDied
July 28,
1990 (aged 82)
Wimbledon,
England
Years active1930 - 1956 Spouse(s)(
Laurence Olivier July 25,
1930 -
January 29,
1940) (divorced) 1 child
Tarquin OlivierJill Esmond (born
Jill Esmond Moore) (
26 January 1908 –
28 July 1990) was an
English actress.
Esmond was born in
London, the daughter of stage actors
Henry V. Esmond and
Eva Moore. While her parents toured with theatre companies, Esmond spent her childhood in
boarding schools until she decided at the age of fourteen to become an actress. She made her stage debut playing Wendy to
Gladys Cooper's
Peter Pan but her success was shortlived. When her father died suddenly in 1922, Esmond returned to school and at the time considered abandoning her ambition to act.
After reassessing her future and coming to terms with her father's death she studied with the
Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, and returned to the
West End stage in 1924. In 1925, she starred with her mother in a play
Mary, Mary Quite Contrary, and after a few more successful roles, won critical praise for her part as a young
suicide in
Outward Bound.
In 1928 she appeared in the production of
Bird in the Hand where she met fellow cast member
Laurence Olivier for the first time. 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, he 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
July 25,
1930; they had one son,
Tarquin Olivier (later a film producer), in 1936.
Returning to the
United Kingdom she 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
Noel Coward and
Gertrude Lawrence, and
The Green Bay Tree in 1933.
Her career continued to ascend while Olivier's own career languished, but when his career began to show promise after a couple of years, she began to refuse roles. She had been promised a role by
David O. Selznick in
A Bill of Divorcement (1932) but at only half-salary. Meanwhile, Olivier discovered that
Katharine Hepburn had been proposed a much greater salary. He convinced Esmond to turn down the role. However,
A Bill of Divorcement was a smash hit, and the fame that became Hepburn's could have been Esmond's.
Esmond withstood the publicity of Olivier's affair with
Vivien Leigh and did not seek a divorce. Pressed by Olivier, who was anxious to marry Leigh, she eventually agreed and they were divorced on
January 29,
1940. Many biographies state that her decision was in part based on her discovering that she was a
lesbian.
[1][2] She returned briefly to acting and appeared in such popular films as
Journey for Margaret,
The Pied Piper and
Random Harvest (all 1942) and
The White Cliffs of Dover (1944).
She starred in the Broadway production of
Emlyn Williams' play
The Morning Star in 1942, a production noted for the acting debut of
Gregory Peck. Her acting appearances grew more sporadic with the passage of time and she made her final film appearance in 1955 but did have a recurring role as
Eleanor of Aquitaine in the late 50's
TV series The Adventures of Robin Hood.
In her later years, Esmond discussed the bitterness she still felt towards Olivier and her feeling that she had sacrificed her career so that he could further his own, only to find herself cruelly discarded. However she came to his memorial service in October 1989 at Westminster Abbey, frail and in a wheelchair. (
My Father Laurence Olivier by Tarquin Olivier, Headline Books, 1992)
She was 82 years old when she died on
July 28,
1990 in
Wimbledon, London.
Land-grabbing neighbor Hornblower tries to muscle in on the long-established Hillcrest's property. Does Hornblower succeed? No, he does not.
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