Joyce Howard (28 February 1922 – 23 November 2010) was an English actress, writer, and film executive.

Acting career

After studying at

RADA The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, also known by its abbreviation RADA (), is a drama school in London, England, which provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in Bloomsbury, Central Lond ...

, she was spotted by film director

Anthony Asquith Anthony Asquith (; 9 November 1902 – 20 February 1968) was an English film director. He collaborated successfully with playwright Terence Rattigan on ''The Winslow Boy'' (1948) and '' The Browning Version'' (1951), among other adaptations ...

in a play at London's Embassy Theatre. He cast the 19-year-old in ''

Freedom Radio ''Freedom Radio'' (a.k.a. ''A Voice in the Night'') is a 1941 British propaganda film directed by Anthony Asquith and starring Clive Brook, Diana Wynyard, Raymond Huntley and Derek Farr. It is set in Nazi Germany during the Second World War a ...

'' (1941), and starring roles in films followed, including opposite

James Mason James Neville Mason (; 15 May 190927 July 1984) was an English actor. He achieved considerable success in British cinema before becoming a star in Hollywood. He was nominated for three Academy Awards, three Golden Globes (winning once) and two ...

in '' The Night Has Eyes'' and ''

They Met in the Dark ''They Met in the Dark'' (also known as ''Dark End'' and ''Spionagering M'' ) is a 1943 British comedy thriller film directed by Karel Lamač and starring James Mason, Joyce Howard and Edward Rigby. The screenplay concerns a cashiered Royal N ...

'', the former winning her rave reviews. She was also active in theatre, including ''

Romeo and Juliet ''The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet'', often shortened to ''Romeo and Juliet'', is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare about the romance between two young Italians from feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's ...

'' at the

Old Vic Old or OLD may refer to: Places *Old, Baranya, Hungary *Old, Northamptonshire, England *Old Street station, a railway and tube station in London (station code OLD) *OLD, IATA code for Old Town Municipal Airport and Seaplane Base, Old Town, Mai ...

and 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 ...

''. She performed in London throughout World War II, even as Nazis were bombing the city.

Writing career and personal life

In 1950, after 13 films, she more or less retired from acting to raise her three children by actor

Basil Sydney Basil Sydney (23 April 1894 – 10 January 1968) was an English stage and screen actor. Career Sydney made his name in 1915 in the London stage hit ''Romance (Sheldon play), Romance'' by Edward Sheldon, with Broadway star Doris Keane, and he c ...

. Howard also began a second career as a writer. She wrote three well-received novels, ''Two Persons Singular'' (1960), ''A Private View'' (1961) and ''Going On'' (2000). She also wrote plays, including ''Broken Silence'', which was produced by the BBC. After her divorce from Sydney, Howard married American psychoanalyst Joel Shor, and moved to California in 1964. Although the couple eventually separated, Howard remained in California. To support her family as a single mother, she embarked on a third career as a story analyst for network television. She was promoted to executive and

story editor Story editor is a job title in motion picture and television production, also sometimes called supervising producer. The responsibilities of the story editor vary depending on the production; this article describes the duties the role most commo ...

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation, commonly known as Paramount Pictures or simply Paramount, is an American film production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the flagship namesake subsidiary of Paramount ...

and Paramount TV, eventually becoming responsible for property acquisition and development. She also continued to write for television and wrote original treatments for the miniseries ''The Whiteoaks'' and ''Picasso's Painted Ladies''. At the request of

Henry Miller Henry Valentine Miller (December 26, 1891 – June 7, 1980) was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist. He broke with existing literary forms and developed a new type of semi-autobiographical novel that blended character study, so ...

's widow, Howard collated, edited and wrote the introduction to ''Letters by Henry Miller to Hoki Tokuda Miller'' (1986).

Filmography

References

External links

*
Obituary in ''The Telegraph''

Obituary in ''The Guardian''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Howard, Joyce 1922 births 2010 deaths English film actresses English television actresses English stage actresses Actresses from London English expatriate actresses in the United States Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art 20th-century English novelists Paramount Pictures executives