Yootha Joyce
Birthday: Born in 1927-08-20 in Wandsworth, London, England, UK
Deathday: 1980-08-24
British actress best known for her role as Mildred Roper in the '70s sitcom Man About the House and its spin-off George and Mildred. Born to musical parents Hurst Needham and Jessica Rivett in 1927, Joyce was trained at RADA, toured with ENSA and came to prominence via the Joan Littlewood Theatre Workshop, securing roles in TV shows such as The Avengers, Man in a Suitcase, Te Saint, Jason King and Steptoe and Son, and the films The Pumpkin Eater, A Man For All Seasons, Charlie Bubbles, All the Right Noises and Burke and Hare. She was married to fellow actor Glynn Edwards from 1956 to 1968, and they remained friends all her life. An alcoholic, Joyce died from liver failure in 198o, just four days after her 53rd birthday. Her sitcom co-star Brian Murphy was by her side. 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" securing her place as a British cultural icon.
TV Credits
Seven of One
Character:
Seven of One was a British comedy series that aired on BBC2 in 1973. Starring Ronnie Barker, 7 of One is a series of seven separate comedies that would serve as possible pilots for sitcoms. Originally it was to be called Six of One, which Barker planned to follow up with another series called Half Dozen of the Other. This was a BBC version of a similar showcase for LWT called Six Dates with Barker created in 1971....
On the Buses
Character:
On the Buses is a British comedy series created by Ronald Wolfe and Ronald Chesney, broadcast in the United Kingdom from 1969 to 1973. The writers' previous successes with The Rag Trade and Meet the Wife were for the BBC, but the corporation rejected On the Buses, not seeing much comedy potential in a bus depot as a setting. The comedy partnership turned to a friend, Frank Muir, Head of Entertainment at London Weekend Television, who loved the idea; the show was accepted and despite a poor criti...
Man About the House
Character:
Sitcom exploring the trials and tribulations created by one man and two women flat-sharing in the 70s....
George and Mildred
Character: Mildred Roper
A middle-aged housewife feels frustrated with her mean and miserable husband, the married couple adapting to life in an up-market housing estate....
The Avengers
Character: Miss Lister
The Avengers is a British television series created in the 1960s. It initially focused on Dr. David Keel and his assistant John Steed. Hendry left after the first series and Steed became the main character, partnered with a succession of assistants. His most famous assistants were intelligent, stylish and assertive women: Cathy Gale, Emma Peel and Tara King. Later episodes increasingly incorporated elements of science fiction and fantasy, parody and British eccentricity....
Jason King
Character:
Jason King - a suavely sophisticated former secret agent turned novelist - travels the world searching for material to fill his books, encountering an endless parade of glamorous women, exotic locales, menacing villains and daring intrigue! Before Austin Powers swung into action, Jason King set the standard for the hip crime-fighting international playboy! ...
Frankenstein: The True Story
Character: Hospital Matron
Victor Frankenstein witnesses his creation turn uncontrollable after he's duped by his associate, Dr. Polidori....
The Saint
Character: Milanov
Simon Templar is The Saint, a handsome, sophisticated, debonair, modern-day Robin Hood who recovers ill-gotten wealth and redistributes it to those in need....
No Hiding Place
Character:
No Hiding Place is a British television series that was produced at Wembley Studios by Associated-Rediffusion for the ITV network between 16 September 1959 and 22 June 1967. It was the sequel to the series Murder Bag and Crime Sheet, all starring Raymond Francis as Detective Superintendent, later Detective Chief Superintendent Tom Lockhart....
Manhunt
Character: Denise
Manhunt is a World War II drama series consisting of 26 episodes, produced by London Weekend Television in 1969 and broadcast nationwide....
Movie Credits
A Man for All Seasons
Character: Averil Machin
A depiction of the conflict between King Henry VIII of England and his Lord Chancellor, Sir Thomas More, who refuses to swear the Oath of Supremacy declaring Henry Supreme Head of the Church in England....
Our Mother's House
Character: Mrs. Quayle
Seven British children bury their mother and hide her death, until their long-lost father returns....
George & Mildred
Character: Mildred Roper
Big screen spin-off of the Seventies sitcom. Mildred Roper is determined to make husband George celebrate their wedding anniversary in style, at a posh hotel in London. However, upon arrival George is mistaken by a gangland criminal for a rival hitman, and soon the Ropers find themselves up to their necks in trouble on the wrong side of the law!...
Fanatic
Character: Anna
A young woman is terrorized by her fiance's demented mother who blames her for her son's death....
Burke & Hare
Character: Mrs. Hare
Two men go into business supplying medical colleges with cadavers by robbing graves....
Luther
Character: Katharine Luther
An epic drama of the 16th Century Catholic monk Martin Luther who started the Reformation....
Nearest and Dearest
Character:
Jimmy Jewel and Hylda Baker star in this big screen spin-off of one of ITV's most popular comedy series of all time. When the father of Eli and Nellie Pledge dies, they are left in charge of his pickle empire. The two siblings are completely different and Eli wants out of the business, but he can't leave until Nellie is married. So Eli sets about finding a husband for his old-fashioned sister....
A Place to Go
Character: Bit Role (uncredited)
Set in contemporary Bethnal Green in east London, A Place to Go charts the dramatic changes that were happening in the lives of the British working-class at the time....
Man About the House: 50 Years of Laughs
Character: Archive Footage
An affectionate look at the 1970s sitcom, with interviews and a look behind the scenes....
Never Mind the Quality, Feel the Width
Character: Mrs. Finch
Two London tailors horse around, wind up robbed, go to Rome and disrupt the Vatican....
The Road Builder
Character: Mrs. Palafox
The dreary existence of middle-aged spinster Maura Prince takes an unexpected turn with the arrival of young handyman Billy Jarvis, but there is more to Billy than meets the eye....
Your Name's Not God, It's Edgar
Character:
Edgar Lunt lives his life by scientific principles, that is, for every action there is a reaction. He believes that any pleasure he might have, will mean, somebody will suffer somewhere else. The result is he is not very happy at all, until Trevor, a young student,tries to show him a fresh outlook on life....
All the Right Noises
Character: Mrs. Bird
A married man with two small children begins an affair with a beautiful young actress which quickly blossoms into a full blown romance, until she tells him that she is only 15 years old…...
The Pumpkin Eater
Character: Woman at Hairdresser's
Jo, the mother of seven children, divorces her second husband in order to marry Jake, a successful but promiscuous screenwriter. Though they are physically and emotionally compatible, they are slowly torn apart....
Man About the House
Character: Mildred
An unscrupulous property developer wants to flatten the street to make way for new buildings. Householder George Roper is happy to take the offered money and run but his wife Mildred and their lodgers join with other residents to take a stand and keep things as they are....
Kaleidoscope
Character: Museum Receptionist
Barney Lincoln is a rambling gambling man who scores sensational wins at poker and chemin de fer because he has succeeded in marking the original plates for the backs of all the playing cards manufactured in a plant in Geneva and used in all the gambling joints in Europe. In his gambling depredation, Barney is spotted by Angel McGinnis, the daughter of a Scotland Yard Inspector 'Manny' McGinnis on the lookout for a man to do a job. The inspector enlists Barney's help in playing poker with a shad...
Fragment of Fear
Character: Miss Ward-Cadbury
A reformed drug addict travels to Italy to find out who murdered his aunt....
Frankenstein: The True Story
Character: Hospital Matron
Victor Frankenstein witnesses his creation turn uncontrollable after he's duped by his associate, Dr. Polidori....
Charlie Bubbles
Character: Woman in Cafe
Charlie Bubbles, a writer, up from the working class of Manchester, England, who, in the course of becoming prematurely rich and famous, has mislaid a writer's basic tool – the capacity to feel and to respond. Now he must visit his estranged wife and son, whom he has set up on a farm outside his native city. His journey accidentally becomes an attempt to reestablish his connections with life, people, and his own history....
Cop-Out
Character: Shooting Range Girl
John Sawyer, once an eminent barrister, has slid into a life of cynicism and drunkenness since his wife left him. When his daughter's boyfriend is accused of murder, Sawyer decides to try to pull himself together and defend him in court....
Catch Us If You Can
Character: Nan
Dinah is a famous model and actress who is getting tired of life in the limelight and wants to take a break. While shooting a commercial spot for meat, she meets Steve, a stuntman. Dinah and Steve hit it off and decide to head to an island to get away from it all, bringing along four of Steve's friends. Before long, Dinah is reported missing and everyone is looking for her, making their getaway anything but tranquil....
Steptoe & Son Ride Again
Character: Freda
Albert Steptoe and his son Harold are rag-and-bone men, complete with horse and cart to tour the neighbourhood. They also live amicably together at the junk yard. Always on the lookout for ways to improve his lot, Harold invests his father's life savings in a greyhound who is almost blind and can't see the hare. When the dog loses a race and Harold has to pay off the debt, he comes up with another bright idea. Collect his father's life insurance. To do this his father must pretend to be dead....
Sparrows Can't Sing
Character: Barmaid
Charlie returns to the East End after two years at sea to find his house demolished and wife Maggie gone. Everyone else knows she is now shacked up with married bus driver Bert and a toddler, and they all watch with more than a little interest at the trail of mayhem Charlie leaves as he goes about sorting things out....
Twenty-Nine
Character: The prostitute
Graham Baird wakes up in strange clothes in a strange apartment, both he and his wife want to know where he had been the previous night....