Jill Esmond

Jill Esmond (26 January 1908 – 28 July 1990) was a British actress who worked in stage and screen productions across a career spanning several decades. Born in London, she was the daughter of stage actors Henry V. Esmond and Eva Moore. Dramatist W.S. Gilbert and actress Maxine Elliott served as her godparents. She had a brother, Jack, and a sister, Lynette, who died in infancy.

Esmond's early years were shaped by her parents' touring schedules, which kept her in boarding schools for much of her childhood. At fourteen she resolved to pursue acting, and her first stage appearance cast her as Wendy opposite Gladys Cooper's Peter Pan. The sudden death of her father from pneumonia in Paris in 1922 interrupted her ambitions and sent her back to school. She eventually resumed her training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and returned to the West End stage in 1924. The following year she appeared alongside her mother in Mary, Mary Quite Contrary, and subsequently earned critical recognition for her portrayal of a young suicide in Outward Bound.

In 1928, billed as Jill Esmond Moore, she appeared in the London production of Bird in Hand, where she first encountered fellow cast member Laurence Olivier. When the production transferred to Broadway, Esmond was selected for the American company while Olivier was not. Determined to remain close to her, Olivier traveled independently to New York City and found acting work there. Esmond's performance in Bird in Hand drew strong reviews. After Olivier proposed to her multiple times, she accepted, and the two were married on 25 July 1930 at All Saints', Margaret Street, London. The marriage produced one son, Tarquin Olivier, born 21 August 1936. Their union deteriorated relatively quickly, in part due to Olivier's affairs, including one with Vivien Leigh. Esmond resisted seeking a divorce despite the public nature of Olivier's relationship with Leigh, but eventually agreed under pressure from Olivier, who wished to marry Leigh. Their divorce was finalized on 29 January 1940.

Esmond's Broadway career extended from 1929 to 1942 and included four productions. She appeared in Bird in Hand, then joined Olivier in two further Broadway productions: Private Lives in 1931, a production that also featured Noël Coward and Gertrude Lawrence, and The Green Bay Tree in 1933. Her final Broadway credit was the drama The Morning Star in 1942, written by Emlyn Williams, a production notable for marking the acting debut of Gregory Peck.

Alongside her stage work, Esmond built a film career on both sides of the Atlantic. She made her screen debut in Alfred Hitchcock's The Skin Game in 1931 and subsequently appeared in several British and pre-Code Hollywood films, among them Thirteen Women (1932). She and Olivier co-starred in the British comedy No Funny Business (1933), directed by Victor Hanbury. A role in David O. Selznick's A Bill of Divorcement (1932) was offered to her at half the salary being paid to Katharine Hepburn; at Olivier's urging, she declined the part. Her later film appearances included Journey for Margaret, The Pied Piper, and Random Harvest, all in 1942, as well as My Pal Wolf (1944), The White Cliffs of Dover (1944), and The Bandit of Sherwood Forest (1946). She made her final film appearance in 1955, around the same time she played Eleanor of Aquitaine in two episodes of the television series The Adventures of Robin Hood. Her last stage appearance came in 1950.

In 1937, Esmond and Olivier had appeared together in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night at London's Old Vic. Olivier continued making alimony payments to Esmond until the end of his life, and the two remained in contact. In a letter to their son Tarquin, Esmond wrote of Olivier: "It's funny after all that time how I can still love him so much." Frail and using a wheelchair, she attended Olivier's memorial service at Westminster Abbey in October 1989. Esmond died on 28 July 1990 in Wandsworth, London, at the age of 82.