Joyce Carey
Encyclopedia
Joyce Carey, OBE
(30 March 1898 – 28 February 1993) was a British
actress, best known for her long professional and personal relationship with Noël Coward
. Her stage career lasted from 1916 until 1984, and she was performing on television in her nineties. Though never a star, she was a familiar face both on stage and screen. In addition to light comedy, she had a large repertory of Shakespearean roles.
. Lawrence was a handsome matinée idol, who had been a juvenile in Henry Irving
's Shakespeare company; Braithwaite was a major West End
star. Carey was educated at the Florence Etlinger Dramatic School.
Carey made her stage debut, aged 18, in October 1916 as Princess Katherine in an all-female production of Henry V
. She joined Sir George Alexander's
company at the St James's Theatre
playing Jacqueline, a French countess, in The Aristocrat. After a succession of West End roles in light comedy, Carey took on further Shakespeare parts, appearing at Stratford-upon-Avon
as Anne Page, Perdita, Titania, Miranda and Juliet. Over the next few years she added Hermia, Celia and Olivia to her Shakespearean repertoire, in between regular appearance in West End comedies.
Her first appearance in a Noël Coward
play was as Sarah Hurst in Easy Virtue
in New York in 1926. For most of the following seven years, Carey's career was chiefly in New York, following a great success in The Road to Rome in 1927. In 1934 she wrote (pseudonymously), and acted a supporting role in, a comedy, Sweet Aloes, which ran in London for more than a year. In 1936 she resumed her connection with Coward, playing a series of character roles in his cycle of short plays, Tonight at 8:30
in London and New York.
During World War II
, Carey toured with John Gielgud
for the Entertainments National Service Association
(ENSA) bringing theatre to members of the armed forces at home and abroad, recreating some of her roles from Tonight at 8:30. In 1942 she rejoined Coward to tour in his three newest plays, This Happy Breed
as Sylvia, Blithe Spirit
as Ruth, and Present Laughter
as Liz – a character based partly on the actress herself. She later played all three roles in London. After the war she played in new Coward plays, Quadrille
(with Alfred Lunt
and Lynn Fontanne
) and Nude with Violin
(with Gielgud in London and Coward in New York).
The Times
said of her film work: "One role in a film written by Coward will remain always in the memory: with haughty disdain and an accent of fearful gentility Carey was the manageress of the station buffet in Brief Encounter
, who froze her customers and slapped down attempts at familiarity from Stanley Holloway
's ticket collector." Carey's other Coward film roles were the petty officer's wife in In Which We Serve
and Mrs Bradman in Blithe Spirit
. Her other films included The Way to the Stars
and Cry the Beloved Country
.
Between 1976 and 1979 she starred in the popular ITV series The Cedar Tree
.
Her last stage performance, opposite Peter O'Toole
, was as Mrs Higgins in Pygmalion
in 1984, but she continued working on screen into her nineties, attracting enthusiastic notices for her portrayal of a frail old lady faced with eviction in Michael Palin
's BBC
play, No 27.
, accompanied him to the ceremony at Buckingham Palace
. She died in London, aged 94.
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(30 March 1898 – 28 February 1993) was a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
actress, best known for her long professional and personal relationship with Noël Coward
Noël Coward
Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy...
. Her stage career lasted from 1916 until 1984, and she was performing on television in her nineties. Though never a star, she was a familiar face both on stage and screen. In addition to light comedy, she had a large repertory of Shakespearean roles.
Career
Joyce Carey was born as Joyce Lawrence, the daughter of actors Gerald Lawrence and Lilian BraithwaiteLilian Braithwaite
Dame Lilian Braithwaite DBE , born Florence Lilian Braithwaite, was an English actress.She was the daughter of a clergyman, and born in Ramsgate, Kent. She was educated at Croydon High School, and married actor-manager Gerald Lawrence, first acting with amateur companies...
. Lawrence was a handsome matinée idol, who had been a juvenile in Henry Irving
Henry Irving
Sir Henry Irving , born John Henry Brodribb, was an English stage actor in the Victorian era, known as an actor-manager because he took complete responsibility for season after season at the Lyceum Theatre, establishing himself and his company as...
's Shakespeare company; Braithwaite was a major West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
star. Carey was educated at the Florence Etlinger Dramatic School.
Carey made her stage debut, aged 18, in October 1916 as Princess Katherine in an all-female production of Henry V
Henry V (play)
Henry V is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to be written in approximately 1599. Its full titles are The Cronicle History of Henry the Fifth and The Life of Henry the Fifth...
. She joined Sir George Alexander's
George Alexander (actor)
Sir George Alexander , born George Alexander Gibb Samson, was an English actor and theatre manager.Alexander was born in Reading, Berkshire. He began acting in amateur theatricals in 1875. Four years later he embarked on a professional acting career, making his London debut in 1881...
company at the St James's Theatre
St James's Theatre
The St James's Theatre was a 1,200-seat theatre located in King Street, at Duke Street, St James's, London. The elaborate theatre was designed with a neo-classical exterior and a Louis XIV style interior by Samuel Beazley and built by the partnership of Peto & Grissell for the tenor and theatre...
playing Jacqueline, a French countess, in The Aristocrat. After a succession of West End roles in light comedy, Carey took on further Shakespeare parts, appearing at Stratford-upon-Avon
Royal Shakespeare Theatre
The Royal Shakespeare Theatre is a 1,040+ seat thrust stage theatre owned by the Royal Shakespeare Company dedicated to the British playwright and poet William Shakespeare. It is located in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon - Shakespeare's birthplace - in the English Midlands, beside the River Avon...
as Anne Page, Perdita, Titania, Miranda and Juliet. Over the next few years she added Hermia, Celia and Olivia to her Shakespearean repertoire, in between regular appearance in West End comedies.
Her first appearance in a Noël Coward
Noël Coward
Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy...
play was as Sarah Hurst in Easy Virtue
Easy Virtue (play)
Easy Virtue is a three-act play by Noël Coward. He wrote it in 1924 when he was 25 years old, and it is his 16th play. The play had a successful first run in New York in 1925 and then opened in London in 1926...
in New York in 1926. For most of the following seven years, Carey's career was chiefly in New York, following a great success in The Road to Rome in 1927. In 1934 she wrote (pseudonymously), and acted a supporting role in, a comedy, Sweet Aloes, which ran in London for more than a year. In 1936 she resumed her connection with Coward, playing a series of character roles in his cycle of short plays, Tonight at 8:30
Tonight at 8:30
Tonight at 8.30 is a cycle of ten one-act plays by Noël Coward. In the introduction to a published edition of the plays, Coward wrote, "A short play, having a great advantage over a long one in that it can sustain a mood without technical creaking or over padding, deserves a better fate, and if,...
in London and New York.
During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Carey toured with John Gielgud
John Gielgud
Sir Arthur John Gielgud, OM, CH was an English actor, director, and producer. A descendant of the renowned Terry acting family, he achieved early international acclaim for his youthful, emotionally expressive Hamlet which broke box office records on Broadway in 1937...
for the Entertainments National Service Association
Entertainments National Service Association
The Entertainments National Service Association or ENSA was an organisation set up in 1939 by Basil Dean and Leslie Henson to provide entertainment for British armed forces personnel during World War II. ENSA operated as part of the Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes...
(ENSA) bringing theatre to members of the armed forces at home and abroad, recreating some of her roles from Tonight at 8:30. In 1942 she rejoined Coward to tour in his three newest plays, This Happy Breed
This Happy Breed
This Happy Breed is a play by Noël Coward. It was written in 1939 but, because of the outbreak of World War II, it was not staged until 1942, when it was performed on alternating nights with another Coward play, Present Laughter. The two plays later alternated with Coward's Blithe Spirit...
as Sylvia, Blithe Spirit
Blithe Spirit (film)
Blithe Spirit is a British fantasy comedy film directed by David Lean. The screenplay by Lean, Anthony Havelock-Allan, Ronald Neame, and Noël Coward is based on Coward's 1941 play of the same name...
as Ruth, and Present Laughter
Present Laughter
Present Laughter is a comic play written by Noël Coward in 1939 and first staged in 1942 on tour, alternating with his lower middle-class domestic drama This Happy Breed...
as Liz – a character based partly on the actress herself. She later played all three roles in London. After the war she played in new Coward plays, Quadrille
Quadrille (play)
Quadrille is a play by Noël Coward. The romantic comedy premiered in 1952 and starred Lynn Fontanne and Alfred Lunt. It played on Broadway in 1955, where Lunt won a Tony Award for his performance.-History:...
(with Alfred Lunt
Alfred Lunt
Alfred Lunt was an American stage director and actor, often identified for a long-time professional partnership with his wife, actress Lynn Fontanne...
and Lynn Fontanne
Lynn Fontanne
Lynn Fontanne was a British actress and major stage star in the United States for over 40 years. She teamed with her husband Alfred Lunt.She lived in the United States for more than 60 years but never relinquished her British citizenship. Lunt and Fontanne shared a special Tony Award in 1970...
) and Nude with Violin
Nude with Violin
Nude with Violin is a play by Noël Coward. A light comedy of manners, the play is Coward's satire on "Modern Art" and the value placed on art....
(with Gielgud in London and Coward in New York).
The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
said of her film work: "One role in a film written by Coward will remain always in the memory: with haughty disdain and an accent of fearful gentility Carey was the manageress of the station buffet in Brief Encounter
Brief Encounter
Brief Encounter is a 1945 British film directed by David Lean about the conventions of British suburban life, centring on a housewife for whom real love brings unexpectedly violent emotions. The film stars Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard, Stanley Holloway and Joyce Carey...
, who froze her customers and slapped down attempts at familiarity from Stanley Holloway
Stanley Holloway
Stanley Augustus Holloway, OBE was an English stage and film actor, comedian, singer, poet and monologist. He was famous for his comic and character roles on stage and screen, especially that of Alfred P. Doolittle in My Fair Lady...
's ticket collector." Carey's other Coward film roles were the petty officer's wife in In Which We Serve
In Which We Serve
In Which We Serve is a 1942 British patriotic war film directed by David Lean and Noël Coward. It was made during the Second World War with the assistance of the Ministry of Information ....
and Mrs Bradman in Blithe Spirit
Blithe Spirit (film)
Blithe Spirit is a British fantasy comedy film directed by David Lean. The screenplay by Lean, Anthony Havelock-Allan, Ronald Neame, and Noël Coward is based on Coward's 1941 play of the same name...
. Her other films included The Way to the Stars
The Way to the Stars
The Way to the Stars, also known as Johnny in the Clouds, is a 1945 British war drama film made by Two Cities Films and released by United Artists. It was produced by Anatole de Grunwald and directed by Anthony Asquith...
and Cry the Beloved Country
Cry, the Beloved Country (1951 film)
Cry, the Beloved Country is a 1951 British drama film directed by Zoltán Korda. Based on the novel of the same name by Alan Paton, it stars Canada Lee and Charles Carson.-Selected cast:*Canada Lee as Stephen Kumalo*Charles Carson as James Jarvis...
.
Between 1976 and 1979 she starred in the popular ITV series The Cedar Tree
The Cedar Tree
The Cedar Tree was an extremely popular television serial that ran from 1976-1979 on ITV in the United Kingdom.It involved the saga of the Bourne family, hailing from an aristocratic background, before the turn of the Second World War....
.
Her last stage performance, opposite Peter O'Toole
Peter O'Toole
Peter Seamus Lorcan O'Toole is an Irish actor of stage and screen. O'Toole achieved stardom in 1962 playing T. E. Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia, and then went on to become a highly-honoured film and stage actor. He has been nominated for eight Academy Awards, and holds the record for most...
, was as Mrs Higgins in Pygmalion
Pygmalion (play)
Pygmalion: A Romance in Five Acts is a play by Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw. Professor of phonetics Henry Higgins makes a bet that he can train a bedraggled Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, to pass for a duchess at an ambassador's garden party by teaching her to assume a veneer of...
in 1984, but she continued working on screen into her nineties, attracting enthusiastic notices for her portrayal of a frail old lady faced with eviction in Michael Palin
Michael Palin
Michael Edward Palin, CBE FRGS is an English comedian, actor, writer and television presenter best known for being one of the members of the comedy group Monty Python and for his travel documentaries....
's BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
play, No 27.
Critical opinion and personal life
The Times wrote in its obituary of Carey:Award
Carey was awarded the OBE in 1982. She never married: she enjoyed the enduring friendship of Coward's adopted "family". When Coward received his knighthood in 1970, Carey, along with costume designer Gladys CalthropGladys Calthrop
Gladys E. Calthrop was an artist and leading British stage designer. She is best known as the set and costume designer for many of Noël Coward's plays and musicals.-Life and career:...
, accompanied him to the ceremony at Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace, in London, is the principal residence and office of the British monarch. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is a setting for state occasions and royal hospitality...
. She died in London, aged 94.
Selected filmography
- Colonel NewcomeColonel Newcome (film)Colonel Newcome is a 1920 British silent historical drama film directed by Fred Goodwins and starring Milton Rosmer, Joyce Carey and Temple Bell. It was based on the novel The Newcomes by William Makepeace Thackeray.-Cast:* Milton Rosmer - B...
(1920) - Brief EncounterBrief EncounterBrief Encounter is a 1945 British film directed by David Lean about the conventions of British suburban life, centring on a housewife for whom real love brings unexpectedly violent emotions. The film stars Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard, Stanley Holloway and Joyce Carey...
(1945) - The October ManThe October ManThe October Man is a 1947 mystery film starring John Mills and Joan Greenwood, based on a novel by Eric Ambler, who also adapted it and produced...
(1947) - London Belongs to MeLondon Belongs to MeLondon Belongs to Me is a 1948 British film directed by Sidney Gilliat and starring Richard Attenborough and Alastair Sim. It was based on the novel of the same name by Norman Collins...
(1948) - The Astonished HeartThe Astonished Heart (film)The Astonished Heart is a 1950 drama film directed by Terence Fisher. It stars Celia Johnson and Noel Coward and is based on his play The Astonished Heart.-Plot:...
(1950) - Cry, the Beloved CountryCry, the Beloved Country (1951 film)Cry, the Beloved Country is a 1951 British drama film directed by Zoltán Korda. Based on the novel of the same name by Alan Paton, it stars Canada Lee and Charles Carson.-Selected cast:*Canada Lee as Stephen Kumalo*Charles Carson as James Jarvis...
(1951) - The End of the AffairThe End of the Affair (1955 film)The End of the Affair is a 1955 film directed by Edward Dmytryk and starring Deborah Kerr, Van Johnson, Peter Cushing and John Mills. It is based on the novel The End of the Affair by Graham Greene....
(1955) - Loser Takes AllLoser Takes All (film)Loser Takes All is a 1956 British comedy film directed by Ken Annakin and starring Glynis Johns, Rossano Brazzi and Robert Morley. It was based on a screenplay by Graham Greene.-Cast:* Glynis Johns as Cary* Rossano Brazzi as Bertrand...
(1956) - Alive and KickingAlive and Kicking (film)Alive and Kicking is a 1959 British comedy film directed by Cyril Frankel and starring Sybil Thorndike, Kathleen Harrison, Estelle Winwood and Stanley Holloway. Three woman grow dissatisfied with their lives in a retirement home and decide to search for fresh enjoyment and adventure...
(1959) - Nearly a Nasty AccidentNearly a Nasty AccidentNearly a Nasty Accident is a 1961 British comedy film directed by Don Chaffey and starring Jimmy Edwards, Kenneth Connor, Shirley Eaton and Eric Barker.-Cast:* Jimmy Edwards as Group Captain Kingsley* Kenneth Connor as AC 2 Alexander Wood...
(1961) - The Naked EdgeThe Naked EdgeThe Naked Edge is a 1961 thriller film starring Gary Cooper and Deborah Kerr. The movie was a British-American co-production distributed by United Artists, directed by Michael Anderson and produced by George Glass and Walter Seltzer with Marlon Brando Sr. as executive producer...
(1961) - The Eyes of Annie JonesThe Eyes of Annie JonesThe Eyes of Annie Jones is a 1964 British drama film directed by Reginald Le Borg and starring Richard Conte, Francesca Annis and Joyce Carey...
(1964) - A Nice Girl Like MeA Nice Girl Like MeA Nice Girl Like Me is a 1969 British comedy film directed by Desmond Davis. The plot revolves around a girl who lives with her shrewd aunts, goes on a trip, gets pregnant, and must lie to her aunts that the baby is not hers.-Cast:...
(1969) - Father, Dear FatherFather, Dear Father (film)Father, Dear Father is a 1973 film based on the popular Thames Television sitcom of the same name Father, Dear Father and directed by William G...
(1973) - The Black WindmillThe Black WindmillThe Black Windmill is a 1974 British spy thriller directed by Don Siegel and starring Michael Caine, John Vernon, Janet Suzman and Donald Pleasence The screenplay by Leigh Vance is based on Clive Egleton's novel Seven Days to a Killing. The story involves a British secret service agent, John...
(1974)
Sources
- Hoare, Philip. Noël Coward, A Biography. Sinclair-Stevenson 1995. ISBN 1-85619-265-2.
- Gaye, Freda (ed). Who's Who in the Theatre, Fourteenth edition. Pitman Publishing, London, 1967
- Lesley, Cole. The Life of Noël Coward. Cape 1976. ISBN 0-224-01288-6.