Yootha Joyce became famous in the 1970s playing Mildred Roper (Image: Getty)
George and Mildred star Yootha Joyce was one of the biggest stars of the 1970s. Sadly, her fame would not carry through into the next decade as she died at the height of her success four days after her 53rd birthday on 24 August 1980.
Years of alcoholism finally caught up with her and she had been admitted to hospital amidst growing concern over her health. Her on screen husband and good friend Brian Murphy was at her bedside.
The inquest into her death revealed she had been drinking up to half a bottle of brandy a day for ten years and much more than that in the lead up to her death. Her lawyer Mario Uziell-Hamilton, explained she had become a victim of her own success, and dreaded the thought of being typecast in the Mildred Roper role that made her famous.
The pathologist stated her liver was twice the normal size and that her heart and lungs had also suffered because of her drinking. He cited her cause of death as portal cirrhosis of the liver.
That very forensic analysis doesn’t get to the heart of what drove her to drink herself to death, in what was a tragic end for a shining star. A 2014 biography Dear Yootha… The Life of Yootha Joyce gave a clearer insight into her issues saying she turned to drink to steady her nerves, particularly after her divorce and subsequent failed relationships. It claimed she was depressed due to loneliness, typecasting, lack of other work, and lack of privacy due to her TV fame.
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Yootha Joyce found fame playing Mildred Roper opposite Brian Murphy as her husband George (Image: Getty)
It was only through sheer tenacity Yootha found herself thrust into the limelight. She was in her mid 40s when she landed the role of Mildred in 1973 after being told thoughout the years she would never make it.
Her first naysayers were her parents. Despite being in showbusiness themselves, her father was a snger and her mother was a concert pianist, they balked at the idea their only child would pursue a career in the arts stating she “wasn’t much good at anything”.
Defying their protestations she successfully auditioned for a place at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), alongside future James Bond . Her first performance was playing Lydia Bennet in a production of Pride and Prejudice but she faced further negativity when her her director said she “had nothing to offer the profession”.
She left RADA after just two years and toured the UK in many repertory theatre groups. It was in one such group she met her future husband Glynn Edwards. The couple married 8 December 1956 and her insecurities were already showing. She confided in her husband that her greatest fear was being without work, and that she thought every job she had would be her last. They had no children and divorced in 1969 but remained close friends until her death.
Her admission to Glynn seems rather unfounded as, while she may not have been a huge star, she was in almost constant employment in supporting roles. She appeared in a large number of theatre legend Joan Littlewood’s productions and made her first television appearance in her mid-30s in 1962 in an episode of Brothers in Law.
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Yootha Joyce was in her md-40s before she found TV fame (Image: Getty)
She quickly became a familiar face on screens in one-off appearances in sitcoms such as Steptoe and Son and On the Buses. However she could also turn her hand to playing a villain as she demonstrated in shows such as The Saint and The Avengers. She was also in demand for featured roles on the big screen.
Then in 1973 ame the role that would make her famous and ultimately aid her self destruction when she was cast as Mildred Roper in Man About The House and later in the spin off show George and Mildred. Little did ppeole who watched the later episodes of the show know the actress who brought Mildred to life really was sowly dying.
Filming on a new series of George and Mildred was scheduled to begin shortly after her death. Naturally the series ended with her passing meaning her last appearance as the character was a big screen outing for the show, which was released in cinemas just a month before her death.
However her final on screen appearance was posthumously as herself duetting with Max Bygraves on his variety show Max, singing the song For All We Know We May Never Meet Again which aired in January of the following year.
Carrry on star Kenneth Williams was one of those watchng and wrote in his diary “she looked as though she was crying… as she got up [and left the set] one had the feeling she never intended to return.”