Yootha Joyce

Yootha Joyce

Birth : 1927-08-20, Wandsworth, London, England, UK

Death : 1980-08-24

History

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.

Profile

Yootha Joyce

Movies

George & Mildred
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!
Man About the House
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, finally winning the day
Frankenstein: The True Story
Hospital Matron
Victor Frankenstein witnesses his creation turn uncontrollable after he's duped by his associate, Dr. Polidori.
Steptoe and Son Ride Again
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.
Never Mind the Quality: Feel the Width
Mrs. Finch
Two London tailors horse around, wind up robbed, go to Rome and disrupt the Vatican.
Burke & Hare
Mrs. Hare
Two men go into business supplying medical colleges with cadavers by robbing graves.
Nearest and Dearest
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.
The Road Builder
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. Based on the novel Nest in a Fallen Tree by Joy Cowley.
All the Right Noises
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…
Fragment of Fear
Miss Ward-Cadbury
A reformed drug addict travels to Italy to find out who murdered his aunt.
Twenty-Nine
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.
Your Name's Not God, It's Edgar
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.
Charlie Bubbles
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.
Our Mother's House
Mrs. Quayle
Seven British children bury their mother and hide her death, until their long-lost father returns.
Stranger in the House
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.
A Man for All Seasons
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.
Kaleidoscope
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 shady London character whom Scotland Yard wants to force to financial ruin.
Catch Us If You Can
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.
Fanatic
Anna
A young woman is terrorized by her fiance's demented mother who blames her for her son's death.
The Pumpkin Eater
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.
A Place to Go
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.
Sparrows Can't Sing
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.