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Jill Esmond (January 26, 1908 – July 28,
1990) was a United Kingdom|British actor|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 of London|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 United States|American
production - but Olivier was not. Determined to be
near Esmond he travelled to New York, New York|New
York 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 in 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 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.

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 in 1940. She returned briefly to acting
and appeared in such popular films as Journey for
Margaret, The Pied Piper (1942 movie)|The Pied
Piper and Random Harvest (all 1942) and The White
Cliffs of Dover (1944). She starred in the
Broadway production of Morning Star|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.  

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. She did not remarry, and died
in Wimbledon, London.  

Since the deaths of Esmond and Olivier,
biographers have written that Olivier was
bisexuality|bisexual for his entire life, and that
his marriage with Esmond was convenient for both
of them, as she was primarily lesbian. The
biographies describe the marriage as a relatively
happy one, based on mutual respect and affection
and their shared love of theatre. They write that
Esmond's feelings of betrayal were genuine despite
the unconventional nature of the marriage.