Yootha Joyce

In 2001, a tribute documentary entitled The Unforgettable Yootha Joyce was aired by ITV. She died of breast cancer. In 1986, a photograph of Yootha Joyce adorned the sleeve of Ask, a single released by British band The Smiths. Some of these films, particularly "The Web of Love," have gone on to become camp classics. Yootha Joyce married once, to the actor Glynn Edwards, best known for playing Dave the landlord in Minder, but the marriage ended in divorce. She starred in short musical films for the Scopitone video-jukebox system, which anticipated MTV by decades. The actor Brian Murphy, who played her screen husband George Roper, was at her bedside. Later movie roles included a part in 1967's "Hillbillies in a Haunted House.".

For many years she battled alcoholism and ultimately succumbed, in hospital, to hepatitis four days after her 53rd birthday in 1980. In 1952, she played a uncredited role in the MGM blockbuster "Singing in the Rain." On television she appeared on "The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok," "I Love Lucy," and "The Beverly Hillbillies" in a recurring role. A feature film was made of George And Mildred in 1980, but this was to be Joyce's last work. Her earliest work was as a model, and she began her film career in 1948. 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 buxom blonde model and actress, Lansing was often cast in roles similar to those played by contemporaries Jayne Mansfield and Mamie Van Doren. The couple were seen moving from the London house which they'd owned in the previous programme and into a suburban semi-detached property. Joi Lansing was the screen name of Joyce Wassmansdoff, born in Salt Lake City, Utah on April 6, 1928.

When the series reached a natural end, a spin-off was written for the Ropers, and George and Mildred first aired in 1976. 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. 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. First coming to prominence in the renowned Joan Littlewood Theatre Group, she made her film debut in 1962 in Sparrows Can't Sing.

Yootha Joyce (20th August 1927 - 24th August 1980) was a British actress.