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Yootha Joyce, born Yootha Joyce Needham, (20 August 1927 — 24 August 1980), was a British actress best known for playing Mildred Roper in Man About the House and George & Mildred.

She began acting, dancing, and singing when she was evacuated to Petersfield during World War II. Joyce's parents, a singer and a concert pianist, thought she wasn't much good at anything, which gave her determination to become a straight dramatic actress, successfully auditioning for a place at RADA in 1944. She left two years later, finding RADA far too strict and unencouraging.

After this, she began to tour the UK in repertory theatre. In 1956, she was asked to join Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop, where she met Brian Murphy. Joyce's first big break was in the play Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be. Her first TV appearance was in a 1962 episode of Brothers in Law, and the following year made her film debut in Sparrows Can't Sing, the film adaptation of Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be.

While appearing in dramas such as The Saint and The Avengers (1960s), her talent for comedy was more prominent, with her making appearances in sitcoms such as Steptoe and Son, Open All Hours, and On the Buses. In 1973, she was cast in a starring role, Mildred Roper, in Man About the House, where she was reunited with Brian Murphy, who played her husband, George. Once Man About the House ended, Joyce and Murphy's characters were given their own Spin-Off, George & Mildred.

While hugely successful, plans for a sixth series were cut short due to Joyce dying of portal cirrhosis of the liver at the age of 53 due to the alcoholism she had been battling for the past ten years.


Works on TV Tropes she appeared in:

FilmsSeries
  • Z Cars, 3 episodes:
    • "Full Remission" (1962) — Clara Smales
    • "The Main Chance" (1963) — Mrs. Gilroy
    • "First Foot" (1964) — Grace
  • Steptoe and Son, 2 episodes:
    • "The Bath" (1963) — Delilah
    • "A Box in Town" (1965) — Avis
  • Dixon of Dock Green, 5 episodes:
    • "Child Hunt" (1964) — Mrs. Gates
    • "The Night Man" (1964) — Mabel Davies
    • "Forsaking All Others" (1965) — Landlady
    • "You Can't Buy a Miracle" (1966) — Joyce Watson
    • "Reluctant Witness" (1969) — Mrs. Harper
  • Redcap, episode "A Town Called Love" (1964) — Magda
  • The Saint, episode "The Russian Prisoner" (1966) — Milanov
  • The Avengers, episode "Something Nasty in the Nursery" (1967) — Miss Lister
  • Jason King, episode "If It's Got to Go - It's Got to Go" (1972) — Sister Dryker
  • Open All Hours, episode "Pilot" (1973) — Mrs. Scully
  • On the Buses, episode "The Allowance" (1973) — Jessie
  • Man About the House, 39 episodes (1973-76) — Mildred Roper
  • The Dick Emery Show, 1 episode (1974) — Vicar's Wife
  • George & Mildred, 38 episodes (1976-79) — Mildred Roper

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