Yootha Joyce

Yootha Joyce (20 August 1927 – 24 August 1980), born Yootha Joyce Needham, was a British actress best known for playing Mildred Roper opposite Brian Murphy in the sitcom Man About the House and its spin-off George and Mildred.
== Early life ==
Joyce was born in Wandsworth, London, the only child of musical parents Hurst Needham, a well-known singer, and Jessica Needham (nee Revitt), a concert pianist. She was named "Yootha", which is an Australian Aboriginal name, after a New Zealand dancer in her father's touring company. Joyce was evacuated to Hampshire during the Second World War. She left school (Lady Edridge Grammar school for girls in South Norwood) at fifteen, and then trained at RADA where Roger Moore was a fellow student, and after that toured with the Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA).
In 1956, she married actor Glynn Edwards, best known for his role in Minder. It was through Edwards that she first came to prominence in the renowned Joan Littlewood Theatre Workshop, appearing at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East, in Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be and going on to make her film debut in Sparrows Can't Sing (1963). Joyce and Edwards divorced in 1968 but remained close friends, to the extent that she used to console him after his subsequent relationships broke down.
== Career ==
In the 1960s and 1970s she became a familiar face in many one-off sitcom roles and supporting parts in films, with her first main recurring role being Miss Argyll, frustrated girlfriend of the title star Milo O'Shea in three series of Me Mammy (1968–71); most of the tapes of that series are now lost. Prior to that, she played a cameo role in Jack Clayton's The Pumpkin Eater (1964) as a psychotic young woman opposite Anne Bancroft, delivering a performance that has been called one of the "best screen acting miniatures one could hope to see." She also had a featured role (as brassy housekeeper Mrs Quayle) in Clayton's next film Our Mother's House (1967), a dark drama starring Dirk Bogarde, which dealt with a group of young children who conceal the death of their single mother to prevent being split up.
Her talent for comedy was also used to good effect in programmes such as Steptoe and Son and On the Buses. She made appearances in the films Catch Us If You Can (1965), A Man for All Seasons (1966) and Charlie Bubbles(1967), as well as TV spin-off films Nearest and Dearest (1972), Never Mind the Quality Feel the Width (1973) and Steptoe and Son Ride Again (1973). She also appeared as Jessie, a militant clippie in popular sitcom On the Buses (1973) and then as customer Mrs. Scully in the pilot episode of Open All Hours (1973).
== Mildred Roper ==
It was not until 1973 that she acquired a starring role, when she was cast as man-hungry Mildred Roper, wife of sub-letting landlord George, in the sitcom Man About the House. This series, which starred Richard O'Sullivan, Paula Wilcox, Sally Thomsett, and Brian Murphy as George Roper, ran until 1976, deriving its comic narrative from two young women and a young man sharing the flat above the Ropers.
When the series ended, a spin-off was written featuring the Ropers: George and Mildred which was first broadcast in 1976. The couple were seen moving from the London house in Myddleton Terrace in the previous programme and into a newer suburban property in Peacock Crescent, Hampton Wick. Much of the new series centred on Mildred's desire to better herself in her new surroundings, but always being thwarted, usually unwittingly, by her lifeskills-lacking husband's desire for a quiet life.
== Final years and death ==
Joyce's high-profile roles in the two sitcoms concealed her alcoholism.
A feature film was made of George and Mildred in 1980, but this was to be her last work. Amidst growing concern over her health, she was admitted to hospital in the summer of 1980. Joyce died in hospital of liver failure four days after her 53rd birthday on 24 August 1980. Her co-star and good friend Brian Murphy[8] was at her bedside. She was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium.
At the inquest into her death, it was revealed that she had been drinking upwards of half a bottle of brandy a day for ten years, and that she had, in the words of her lawyer Mario Uziell-Hamilton, become a victim of her own success, and dreaded the thought of being typecast as Mildred Roper.
She appeared posthumously in her last recorded television performance, duetting with Max Bygraves on his variety show Max. The episode was aired on 14 January 1981. The actor/comedian Kenneth Williams wrote of the performance that "...she looked as though she was crying..." He also went on to mention her in a later entry in his diary (9 April 1988) that she was "a lady who made so many people happy and a lady who never complained".
== In popular culture ==
In 1986 the Smiths used an image of Joyce on the sleeve of their UK single release "Ask" and the German release of "Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others", thereby adding her to what would become a significant set of musical releases, made iconic by their notable design (other Smiths 'cover stars' included Truman Capote, Terence Stamp, Elvis Presley, Pat Phoenix, Viv Nicholson and Billie Whitelaw).
== Documentary ==
In 2001 a tribute documentary entitled The Unforgettable Yootha Joyce was broadcast by ITV, which featured many of her co-stars and friends, including Sally Thomsett, Brian Murphy, Nicholas Bond-Owen and Norman Eshley, talking about memories and their relationships with Joyce. 
Here is a link to watch the interesting documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnWNMx62GXI 
== Biography ==
In 2014 a biography was written, entitled Dear Yootha... The Life of Yootha Joyce, to which contributions were made by those who knew and worked with her, including Glynn Edwards, Murray Melvin and Barbara Windsor.
== Television roles ==
Year 	Title 	Episode 	Role
1962 	Brothers in Law 	Separation Order 	Mrs. Trench
1963 	Corrigan Blake 	The Removal Men 	Abigail
1963 	Steptoe and Son 	The Bath 	Delia
1964 	Story Parade 	A Travelling Woman 	Ruth Cowley
1964 	Diary of a Young Man	Money 	Mrs. Baggerdagger
1964 	Redcap 	A Town Called Love 	Magda
1965 	Cluff 	The Convict 	Flo Darby
1965 	Steptoe and Son 	A Box in Town 	Avis
1966 	The Saint 	The Russian Prisoner 	Jovanka Milanova
1967 	The Avengers 	Something Nasty In The Nursery 	Miss Lister
1968 to 1971	Me Mammy 	All Episodes 	Miss Argyll
1972 	Jason King 	If It's Got to Go - It's Got to Go	Sister Dryker
1972 	The Fenn Street Gang	The Woman for Dennis 	Glenda
1973 	Seven of One 	Pilot for "Open All Hours" 	Mrs. Scully
1973 	On the Buses 	The Allowance 	Jessie
1973 to 1976
1976 to 1980	Man About the House
George and Mildred	All Episodes 	Mildred Roper
== Filmography ==
Year	Title 	Role
1963	Sparrows Can't Sing 	Barmaid
1964	The Pumpkin Eater 	Woman at Hairdressers
1965	Fanatic 	Anna
1965	Catch Us If You Can 	Nan
1966	Kaleidoscope 	Museum Receptionist
1966	A Man for All Seasons 	Avril Machin
1967	Stranger in the House 	Shooting Range Girl
1967	Our Mother's House 	Mrs. Quayle
1967	Charlie Bubbles 	Woman in Cafe
1970	Fragment of Fear 	Miss Ward-Cadbury
1971	All the Right Noises 	Mrs. Bird
1971	The Road Builder 	Mrs. Palafox
1971	Burke & Hare 	Mrs. Hare
1972	Nearest and Dearest 	Rhoda Rowbottom
1973	Never Mind the Quality, Feel the Width	Mrs. Finch
1973	Steptoe and Son Ride Again 	Freda - Lennie's Wife
1973	Frankenstein: The True Story 	Hospital Matron
1974	Man About the House 	Mildred Roper
1980	George and Mildred 	Mildred Roper