Jill Esmond

Jill Esmond made her London stage bow at 14, several years before she attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. In 1931, she came to Hollywood with her then-husband Laurence Olivier. RKO Radio optioned the services of both Esmond and Olivier -- then kept only Esmond, after deciding that the future Sir Laurence wasn't suitable for films. Of her RKO films, only Ladies of the Jury (1932) and Thirteen Women (1932) are truly memorable. She returned to England with Olivier in the 1930s, where she concentrated on the stage. When she came back to Hollywood in 1942, it was as a husbandless character actress (Olivier had married Vivien Leigh in the interim); she remained in films until her retirement in 1955. Jill Esmond was the daughter of Eva Moore, a character actress best remembered for her performance as Ernst Thesiger's prudish sister in The Old Dark House (1932).

~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide