Yootha Joyce

Yootha Joyce (20 August 1927 – 24 August 1980) was an English actress, best known for playing Mildred Roper in sitcom Man About the House and its spin-off George and Mildred.

Early life

Yootha Joyce Needham was born in Wandsworth, London, the only child of musical parents Hurst Needham, a well-known singer, and Jessica Revitt, a concert pianist. Her mother named her "Yootha" an Aboriginal name meaning "thirsty". Joyce was evacuated to Hampshire during World War II. She left school at 15, then trained at RADA where Roger Moore was a fellow student and toured with Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA).

In 1956, she married the actor Glynn Edwards, best known for playing Dave, landlord of the Winchester Club 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 Sparrers 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.