Yootha Joyce
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Yootha Joyce (20th August 1927 - 24th August 1980) was a British actress. First coming to prominence in the renowned Joan Littlewood Theatre Group, she made her film debut in 1962 in Sparrows Can't Sing.
In the 1960s and 1970s, she became a familiar face in many one-off sitcom roles and supporting parts in films, but it wasn't until 1973 that she acquired a starring role, when she was cast as man-hungry Mildred Roper, wife of landlord George, in the innovative sitcom Man About The House, which was to prove a massive hit with viewers. This series ran until 1976 and told the story of two young women and a young man sharing the Ropers' upstairs flat, and the sexual tension and misunderstandings such living arrangements provide.
When the series reached a natural end, a spin-off was written for the Ropers, and George and Mildred first aired in 1976. The couple were seen moving from the London house which they'd owned in the previous programme and into a suburban semi-detached property. 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 lifeskill-lacking husband's desire for a quiet life.
A feature film was made of George And Mildred in 1980, but this was to be Joyce's last work. For many years she battled alcoholism and ultimately succumbed, in hospital, to hepatitis four days after her 53rd birthday in 1980. The actor Brian Murphy, who played her screen husband George Roper, was at her bedside.
Yootha Joyce married once, to the actor Glynn Edwards, best known for playing Dave the landlord in Minder, but the marriage ended in divorce.
In 1986, a photograph of Yootha Joyce adorned the sleeve of Ask, a single released by British band The Smiths.
In 2001, a tribute documentary entitled The Unforgettable Yootha Joyce was aired by ITV.