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 preCode 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 halfsalary 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 CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia
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