Yootha Joyce

Yootha Joyce Needham (20 August 1927 – 24 August 1980), known as Yootha Joyce, was a British actress best known for playing Mildred Roper opposite Brian Murphy in the sitcom Man About the House (1973–1976) and its spin-off George and Mildred (1976–1979). She had a large number of film and television credits to her name, and also made many appearances on stage.

Early life Yootha Joyce Needham was born in Wandsworth, London, the only child of musical parents Percival "Hurst" Needham, a singer, and Jessie Maud (née Revitt), a concert pianist. She was named "Yootha" after a New Zealand dancer in her father's touring company, a name she would later say she "loathed and detested". Joyce's biography states that her heavily pregnant mother went for a walk on Wandsworth Common during an interval of one of her husband's performances and began feeling contractions; searching for a house to call an ambulance, she came across a nursing home, where she gave birth.

Career Early roles and repertory theatre Following her departure from RADA, Joyce toured with ENSA from 1946 to 1948. She then toured the UK in many repertory theatre groups, including the Harry Kendall Players, the Reginald Salberg Players, the Jack Rose Players and the Harry Hanson Players, and received many positive reviews of her performances. Joyce and Edwards would later divorce in 1969. Joyce appeared in two episodes of the comedy series Steptoe and Son, as the girlfriend of Harold Steptoe. She also appeared in the Hammer Horror film Fanatic (1965) as a villain, and then had a role in the films Catch Us If You Can (1965) - a vehicle for the Dave Clark Five - and A Man for All Seasons (1966). Joyce then had a role as brassy housekeeper Mrs Quayle in Clayton's next film Our Mother's House (1967), a dark drama starring Dirk Bogarde. Joyce also took a leading role opposite Robert Shaw in the television film Luther. Joyce played villains in the television series The Saint and The Avengers, and then followed this with a role in the sitcom George and the Dragon opposite Sid James. Joyce had a role in the film Charlie Bubbles (1968).

Joyce's first main recurring role was that of Miss Argyll, the frustrated girlfriend of the star Milo O'Shea, in three series of Me Mammy (1968–1971); most of the episodes of that series are lost. She had a role in the short film Twenty-Nine (1969) and appeared in five episodes of Dixon of Dock Green. Joyce appeared in the horror films The Night Digger (1971), and Burke & Hare (1972). She followed this with a role in Jason King as a villainous nurse.

Joyce then had roles in the TV spin-off films Nearest and Dearest (1972), Never Mind the Quality Feel the Width (1973) and Steptoe and Son Ride Again (1973), and then played a hospital matron in the television film Frankenstein: The True Story (1973) alongside Jane Seymour and David McCallum. She also appeared as customer Mrs. Scully in the pilot episode of Open All Hours, and as militant clippie Jessie Crawford in an episode of On the Buses (both 1973). In 1973, Joyce also appeared in a series of advertisements for the Yorkshire Post with Tommy Godfrey.

Man About the House and George and Mildred It was not until 1973 that Joyce 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.

In 1975, Joyce began a relationship with Terry Lee Dixon, the tour manager of the play Boeing-Boeing in which she starred, who was twenty years her junior. The relationship drew much media attention due to their age gap; they separated in 1978 after Dixon began an affair with a younger woman.

A feature film version of George and Mildred (1980) was her last work. Friends noticed that Joyce had become increasingly withdrawn, lower in mood and had become thin and frail, weighing just under seven stone. Amidst growing concern over her health, she was admitted to hospital in the summer of 1980 after collapsing at home. Joyce died in hospital of liver failure shortly after her 53rd birthday on 24 August 1980. Her co-star and good friend Brian Murphy was at her bedside. Joyce's funeral took place on 3 September 1980 at Golders Green Crematorium, where she was cremated. Her ashes were scattered on the crocus lawn in the grounds of the crematorium. 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. He also went on to mention her in a later entry in his diary (9 April 1988, just days before his own death) that "there was a break in her voice when she got to [the line] tomorrow may never come... she was a lady who made so many people happy and a lady who never complained".

Legacy 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 design (other Smiths 'cover stars' included Truman Capote, Alain Delon, Terence Stamp, Elvis Presley, Pat Phoenix, Viv Nicholson, Billie Whitelaw and Shelagh Delaney).

In October 2001, a tribute documentary entitled The Unforgettable Yootha Joyce was broadcast by ITV, which featured Glynn Edwards as well as 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.

In 2014, a biography was written by Paul Curran, 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. Curran also published The Yootha Joyce Scrapbook, featuring rare and unseen photographs detailing events from Joyce's life in 2015. There was also a third book, entitled Yootha Joyce: Pieces of a Life, published in 2021.

In 2019, a one-woman play depicting Joyce's life, titled Testament of Yootha, was performed by Caroline Burns-Cooke at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Acting credits Film Year Title Role 1963 Sparrows Can't Sing Yootha A Place to Go Woman in Wash House Uncredited1964 The Pumpkin Eater Woman at Hairdressers Uncredited1965 Fanatic Anna Catch Us If You Can Nan 1966 Kaleidoscope Museum Receptionist A Man for All Seasons Avril Machin 1967 Stranger in the House Shooting Range Girl Our Mother's House Mrs. Quayle 1968 Charlie Bubbles Woman in Cafe Luther Katharina Luther 1969 Twenty-Nine The Prostitute Short film1970 Fragment of Fear Miss Ward-Cadbury 1971 All the Right Noises Mrs. Bird The Road Builder Mrs. Palafox 1972 Burke & Hare Mrs. Hare Nearest and Dearest Rhoda Rowbottom 1973 Never Mind the Quality, Feel the Width Mrs. Finch Steptoe and Son Ride Again Freda - Lennie's Wife Frankenstein: The True Story Hospital Matron 1974 Man About the House Mildred Roper 1980 George and Mildred Mildred Roper

Television Year Title Role Notes1962 Brothers in Law Mrs. Trench Episode: "Separation Order" Armchair Theatre Cissy Episode: "The Fishing Match" Z-Cars Clara Smales Episode: "Full Remission" Benny Hill Bella Episode: "Cry of Innocence"1963 Corrigan Blake Abigail Episode: "The Removal Men" Benny Hill Elvira Crudd Episode: "Mr. Apollo" Z-Cars Mrs. Gilroy Episode: "The Main Chance" Steptoe and Son Delia Episode: "The Bath"Comedy Playhouse Mrs. Wilson Episode: "Impasse" Rita Episode: "A Clerical Error"1964 The Wednesday Play Rosalind Arnold Episode: "The Confidence Course" ITV Play of the Week The Woman Episode: "I Can Walk Where I Like Can't I?" Dixon of Dock Green Mrs. Gates Episode: "Child Hunt" ITV Play of the Week Jane Willows Episode: "A Tricycle Made for Two" Story Parade Ruth Cowley Episode: "A Travelling Woman" ITV Play of the Week Vera Maine Episode: "Gina" Diary of a Young Man Mrs. Baggerdagger Episode: "Money" Dixon of Dock Green Mabel Davies Episode: "The Night Man" Redcap Magda Episode: "A Town Called Love" 1965 Frankie Howerd Drunk Woman Episode: #1.6 Dixon of Dock Green Landlady Episode: "Forsaking All Others" Theatre 625 Jane Matthews Episode: "Try for White" Cluff Flo Darby Episode: "The Convict" The Wednesday Thriller Mrs. Seam Episode: "The Babysitter" Six of the Best Doris Episode: "Charlie's Place" Steptoe and Son Avis Episode: "A Box in Town" Theatre 625 Miss Binnington Episode: "Portraits from the North: The Nutter"1966 Dixon of Dock Green Joyce Watson Episode: "You Can't Buy a Miracle" No Hiding Place Hilda Myers Episode: "Ask Me If I Killed Her" The Saint Jovanka Milanova Episode: "The Russian Prisoner" 1966–1967 The Wednesday Play Miriam Green 3 episodes1966 George and the Dragon Irma Episode: "Merry Christmas"1967 Turn Out the Lights Monica Nolan Episode: "A Big Hand for a Little Lady" Thirty-Minute Theatre Agnes Episode: "Teeth" The Avengers Miss Lister Episode: "Something Nasty In The Nursery" Market in Honey Lane Kay Fowler Episode: "The Birds and the Business" This Way for Murder Mrs. Dyberg Episode: #1.3 Harry Worth Ingrid Episode: "Four's a Crush"1968 City '68 Hilda Episode: "Love Thy Neighbour" ITV Playhouse Phoebe / Mrs. Bewley Episode: "Your Name's Not God, It's Edgar"1968–1971 Me Mammy Miss Eunice Argyll All 22 episodes1969 Armchair Theatre Alice Episode: "Go on... It'll Do You Good" BBC Play of the Month Mademoiselle Motte Episode: "Maigret at Bay" ITV Sunday Night Theatre Erica Seydoux Episode: "A Measure of Malice" W. Somerset Maugham Elvira Episode: "Lord Mountdrago" Dixon of Dock Green Mrs. Harper Episode: "Reluctant Witness"1970 Manhunt Denise Episode: "Fare Forward, Voyagers" The Misfit Pamela Episode: "On Reading the Small Print" Conceptions of Murder Maria Kurten Episode: "Peter and Maria" 1972 Jason King Sister Dryker Episode: "If It's Got to Go - It's Got to Go" Tales from the Lazy Acre Mrs. Gaynor Episode: "The Last Great Pint-Drinking Tournament" The Fenn Street Gang Glenda Episode: "The Woman for Dennis" 1973 Comedy Playhouse Lil Wilson Episode: "Home from Home" Seven of One Mrs. Scully Episode: "Open All Hours" On the Buses Jessie Episode: "The Allowance" 1973–1976 Man About the House Mildred Roper All 39 episodes1973 All Star Comedy Carnival Mildred Roper Man About the House Christmas sketch1974 Comedy Playhouse Unknown Episode: "Bird Alone" (pilot not broadcast) The Dick Emery Show Amelia Chislett Episode: #13.4 1976–1979 George and Mildred Mildred Roper All 38 episodes

Theatre (incomplete)