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.Esmonds career continued to ascend while Oliviers 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.
Grace Winton
Film 1948
Mrs. Findlay
Film 1955
Nurse Harris
Film 1946
Dr. Zernerke
Film 1944
Jill Hillcrist
Film 1931
Jo Turner
Film 1932
Mrs. Cavanaugh
Film 1942
Frau Schindler / Rachel Cameron
Film 1954
The Queen Mother
Film 1946
Lillian Ulrich
Film 1932
Mildred Huntington
Film 1932
Yvette Gordon
Film 1932
Faith Penwick
Film 1931
Claire Lennartz
Film 1933
Nurse Emily Harvey
Film 1942
Mrs. Charlotte Carson
Film 1952
Anne Moore
Film 1933
Film 1939
Jean Sing
Film 1930
Susan Fleming
Film 1942
Claire Lee
Film 1931
Rosamund
Film 1944
Jill Hillcrist (archive footage) (uncredited)
Tv 1955