Joan Benham

Joan Benham (17 May 1918 – 13 June 1981) was an English actress born in London and a first cousin of Hollywood actress Olive Sturgess. She is best remembered for her recurring role as Lady Prudence Fairfax in the ITV period drama Upstairs, Downstairs.

Benham launched her career on the West End stage in the 1940s and continued to appear in London theatre periodically throughout her professional life. Her single Broadway credit came in 1954, when she played Helena in a revival of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, appearing opposite Patrick Macnee, who portrayed Demetrius.

Although stage work marked her beginnings, the majority of Benham's career was built in television. She appeared in sixteen episodes of Upstairs, Downstairs across the full run of the series, playing Lady Prudence Fairfax, a friend of the Bellamy family. For London Weekend Television she also took on the role of Lady Loftus across three comedy series — Doctor in the House, Doctor in Charge, and Doctor on the Go — and played Cecily Foyle, a recurring friend of prison governor Faye Boswell, in the drama Within These Walls. Additional television appearances included Mrs Thursday, Father Brown, The Duchess of Duke Street, Just William, and Take My Wife.

Benham's film work included the Miss Marple picture Murder Ahoy! (1964), Ladies Who Do (1963), Perfect Friday (1970), and Carry On Emmannuelle (1978). Her final screen role was Melinda Spry in the sitcom Terry and June. The episode, titled The Lawnmower, aired on 13 November 1981, five months after Benham died in Westminster, London, at the age of 63.