Josephine Ann Maxwell-Muller (July 1944–30 October 2010) (Mrs Jo Heaton) was a British actress.
She was born in
Hendon
Hendon is an urban area in the London Borough of Barnet, northwest London northwest of Charing Cross. Hendon was an ancient Manorialism, manor and parish in the county of Middlesex and a former borough, the Municipal Borough of Hendon; it has ...
in London in 1944, the daughter of
Flight Lieutenant (later
Wing Commander
Wing commander (Wg Cdr or W/C) is a senior officer rank used by some air forces, with origins from the Royal Air Force. The rank is used by air forces of many countries that have historical British influence.
Wing commander is immediately se ...
) Leon Maxwell-Muller
OBE
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...
, RAF (1913–1984) and Beryl ''née'' Hobbs (1915–2008).
1964 was a productive year for Maxwell-Muller. On the insistence of
Christopher Plummer
Arthur Christopher Orme Plummer (December 13, 1929 – February 5, 2021) was a Canadian actor. His career spanned seven decades, gaining him recognition for his performances in film, stage and television. His accolades included an Academy Aw ...
she was cast as
Ophelia
Ophelia () is a character in William Shakespeare's drama ''Hamlet'' (1599–1601). She is a young noblewoman of Denmark, the daughter of Polonius, sister of Laertes and potential wife of Prince Hamlet. Due to Hamlet's actions, Ophelia ultima ...
in the BBC's television production ''
Hamlet at Elsinore
''Hamlet at Elsinore'' is a 1964 television version of Hamlet, the c. 1600 play by William Shakespeare. Produced by the BBC in association with Danmarks Radio, it was shown in the U.S. on National Educational Television, NET. Winning wide acclaim ...
'' (1964), a co-production with the Danmarks Radio Company. In 1964 she played Bertha, the daughter, opposite
Trevor Howard
Trevor Wallace Howard-Smith (29 September 1913 – 7 January 1988) was an English stage and screen actor. After varied work in the theatre, he achieved leading man star status in the film '' Brief Encounter'' (1945), followed by '' The Third M ...
in
Strindberg
Johan August Strindberg (; ; 22 January 184914 May 1912) was a Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist, and painter.Lane (1998), 1040. A prolific writer who often drew directly on his personal experience, Strindberg wrote more than 60 play ...
's play ''
The Father
Father is the male parent of a child.
Father or The Father may also refer to:
Name
* Daniel Fathers (born 1966), a British actor
* Father Yod (1922–1975), an American owner of one of the country's first health food restaurants
Cinema
* ''Fa ...
''. Also in 1964 Maxwell-Muller played Consuelo in ''
He Who Gets Slapped
''He Who Gets Slapped'' () is a play in four acts by Russian dramatist Leonid Andreyev; completed in August 1915 and first produced in that same year at the Moscow Art Theatre on October 27, 1915. Immensely popular with Russian audiences, the ...
'' at the
Hampstead Theatre
Hampstead Theatre is a theatre in South Hampstead, in the London Borough of Camden. It specialises in commissioning and producing new writing, supporting and developing the work of new writers.
History
The original ''Hampstead Theatre Clu ...
. In 1966
Jonathan Miller
Sir Jonathan Wolfe Miller CBE (21 July 1934 – 27 November 2019) was an English theatre and opera director, actor, author, television presenter, comedian and physician. After training in medicine and specialising in neurology in the late 19 ...
cast her in the non-speaking role of Alice's sister in his BBC
television play
A television play is a television programming genre which is a drama performance broadcast from a multi-camera television studio, usually live in the early days of television but later recorded to tape. This is in contrast to a television movi ...
''
Alice in Wonderland
''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (also known as ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English Children's literature, children's novel by Lewis Carroll, a mathematics university don, don at the University of Oxford. It details the story of a ...
''.
Other television and film roles include Wendy in ''
The Flying Swan
''The Flying Swan'' is a 1965 British TV series starring Margaret Lockwood and her daughter Julia.
It ran for 24 episodes on the BBC. The theme music for the series was composed by Ron Grainer.
Cast
* Margaret Lockwood as Mollie Manning
* Juli ...
'' (1965); Miss Carter/Fiona in ''
ITV Play of the Week
''Play of the Week'' is a 90-minute British television anthology series produced for the ITV network by a variety of companies including Granada Television, Associated-Rediffusion, ATV and Anglia Television.
Synopsis
Approximately 500 episodes ...
'' (1966); Sarah Fawcett in ''
Hadleigh'' (1971); Queen/Cuckoo in ''
Jackanory Playhouse'' (1979); Margaret Jennings in ''
Emmerdale
''Emmerdale'' (known as ''Emmerdale Farm'' until 1989) is a British television soap opera that is broadcast on ITV (TV network), ITV. The show is set in Emmerdale (known as Beckindale until 1994), a List of fictional towns and villages, fict ...
'' (1979), and Grief-stricken Woman in ''
Trauma
Trauma most often refers to:
*Psychological trauma, in psychology and psychiatric medicine, refers to severe mental and emotional injury caused by distressing events
*Traumatic injury, sudden physical injury caused by an external force, which doe ...
'' (2004).
Her theatre appearances include Lucy in ''
The Rivals
''The Rivals'' is a comedy of manners by Richard Brinsley Sheridan in five acts which was first performed at Covent Garden Theatre on 17 January 1775. The story has been updated frequently, including a 1935 musical and a 1958 List of Maverick ...
'' (1966) for the Library Theatre Company at the
Library Theatre
Manchester Central Library is the headquarters of the city's library and information service in Manchester, England. Facing St Peter's Square, it was designed by E. Vincent Harris and constructed between 1930 and 1934. The form of the build ...
in
Manchester
Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...
; Cathleen the maid opposite
Laurence Olivier
Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier ( ; 22 May 1907 – 11 July 1989) was an English actor and director. He and his contemporaries Ralph Richardson and John Gielgud made up a trio of male actors who dominated the British stage of the m ...
as James in ''
Long Day's Journey into Night
''Long Day's Journey into Night'' is a play in four acts written by American playwright Eugene O'Neill in 1939–1941 and first published posthumously in 1956. It is widely regarded as his magnum opus and one of the great American plays of the ...
'' (1971) at the
National Theatre in London; Sisly Milkpail in ''
A Woman Killed with Kindness
''A Woman Killed with Kindness'' is an early seventeenth-century stage play, a tragedy written by Thomas Heywood. Acted in 1603 and first published in 1607, the play has generally been considered Heywood's masterpiece, and has received the mo ...
'' (1971) at
The Old Vic
The Old Vic is a 1,000-seat, nonprofit producing theatre in Waterloo, London, England. It was established in 1818 as the Royal Coburg Theatre, and renamed in 1833 the Royal Victoria Theatre. In 1871 it was rebuilt and reopened as the Royal ...
in London; Lady Sybil Tenterden in ''
What Every Woman Knows'' (1972) for the Farnham Repertory Company at the Castle Theatre in
Farnham
Farnham is a market town and civil parish in Surrey, England, around southwest of London. It is in the Borough of Waverley, close to the county border with Hampshire. The town is on the north branch of the River Wey, a tributary of the ...
in Surrey; Maria in ''
The School for Scandal
''The School for Scandal'' is a comedy of manners written by Richard Brinsley Sheridan. It was first performed in London at Drury Lane Theatre on 8 May 1777.
Plot
Act I
Scene I: Lady Sneerwell, a wealthy young widow, and her hireling S ...
'' (1972) for the National Theatre at
The Old Vic
The Old Vic is a 1,000-seat, nonprofit producing theatre in Waterloo, London, England. It was established in 1818 as the Royal Coburg Theatre, and renamed in 1833 the Royal Victoria Theatre. In 1871 it was rebuilt and reopened as the Royal ...
, London; and Stella Kowalski in ''
A Streetcar Named Desire
''A Streetcar Named Desire'' is a play written by Tennessee Williams and first performed on Broadway on December 3, 1947. The play dramatizes the experiences of Blanche DuBois, a former Southern belle who, after encountering a series of pe ...
'' (1976) at the
Queen's Theatre in
Hornchurch
Hornchurch is a suburban town in East London in the London Borough of Havering. It is located east-northeast of Charing Cross. It comprises a number of shopping streets and a large residential area. It historically formed a large ancient par ...
. She was Kitty in ''Moving House'' (1976) with the Farnham Repertory Company at the
Redgrave Theatre
The Redgrave Theatre was a theatre in Farnham in Surrey from 1974 to 1998. The theatre, named after Sir Michael Redgrave, had regular repertory seasons and also staged a variety of plays and musical productions until financial difficulties forc ...
in Farnham in Surrey.
In 1974 she married the actor
Anthony Heaton (1947–1987) in
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...
in the
West Midlands.
On her death in
Hampstead
Hampstead () is an area in London, England, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, located mainly in the London Borough of Camden, with a small part in the London Borough of Barnet. It borders Highgate and Golders Green to the north, Belsiz ...
in 2010 her funeral service was held at
Golders Green Crematorium
Golders Green Crematorium and Mausoleum was the first crematorium to be opened in London, and is one of the oldest crematoria in Britain. The land for the crematorium was purchased in 1900, costing £6,000 (the equivalent of £136,000 in 2021), ...
JOSEPHINE ANN HEATON Jo Maxwell-Muller Actress
''Ham & High
The ''Ham & High'', officially the ''Hampstead & Highgate Express'', is a weekly paid newspaper published in the London Borough of Camden by Archant. It covers the north London areas of Hampstead and Highgate.
The newspaper is priced at £1 and ...
'', 19 July 2022 following which her ashes were interred in the grave of her husband in Hampstead Cemetery
Hampstead Cemetery is a historic cemetery in West Hampstead, London, located at the upper extremity of the NW postcode area, NW6 district. Despite the name, the cemetery is three-quarters of a mile from Hampstead, and bears a different postcode. ...
.
References
External links
Jo Maxwell-Muller
on Internet Movie Database
IMDb, historically known as the Internet Movie Database, is an online database of information related to films, television series, podcasts, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and biograp ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maxwell-Muller, Jo
1944 births
2010 deaths
People from Hendon
20th-century English actresses
21st-century English actresses
Actresses from London
English soap opera actresses
English stage actresses
English film actresses
English television actresses
Burials at Hampstead Cemetery
Actors from the London Borough of Barnet