Joyce Carey

Joyce Carey (30 March 1898 – 28 February 1993) was an English actress born Joyce Lilian Lawrence in London, England. She was the daughter of two prominent theatrical figures: actor Gerald Lawrence, a matinée idol who had trained as a juvenile in Henry Irving's Shakespeare company, and actress Lilian Braithwaite, a major West End star. Carey received her training at the Florence Etlinger Dramatic School and went on to build a stage career spanning from 1916 to 1987, with television work continuing into her nineties. She appeared on Broadway between 1925 and 1958 and maintained a long professional and personal relationship with Noël Coward throughout her career.

Carey's stage debut came in 1916 at the age of 18, when she played Princess Katherine in an all-female production of Henry V. She subsequently joined Sir George Alexander's company at the St James's Theatre, taking the role of Jacqueline, a French countess, in The Aristocrat. Alongside her work in West End light comedy, she developed an extensive Shakespearean repertoire, appearing at Stratford-upon-Avon as Anne Page, Perdita, Titania, Miranda, and Juliet, and later adding Hermia, Celia, and Olivia to her credits.

Her Broadway career began in 1925, and her first appearance in a Coward play came in 1926 when she played Sarah Hurst in Easy Virtue in New York. The following year she achieved considerable success on Broadway in The Road to Rome. For most of the seven years that followed, her career was centered primarily in New York. In 1932 she portrayed Emilia in the Broadway production of Lucrece. In 1934 she wrote, under a pseudonym, the comedy Sweet Aloes, in which she also acted a supporting role; the play ran in London for more than a year before receiving a Broadway production. She resumed her association with Coward in 1936, playing a series of character roles in his cycle of short plays Tonight at 8.30, which ran in both London and New York. In 1938 she starred in the West End comedy Spring Meeting.

During the Second World War, Carey toured with John Gielgud for the Entertainments National Service Association, revisiting roles from Tonight at 8.30. In 1942 she rejoined Coward to tour in three of his newest plays: This Happy Breed, in which she played Sylvia; Blithe Spirit, in which she played Ruth; and Present Laughter, in which she played Liz, a character drawn partly from Carey herself. She subsequently performed all three roles in London. Present Laughter was among the Broadway credits she carried across her career. After the war she appeared in further Coward productions, including Quadrille alongside Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, and Nude with Violin, which featured Gielgud in London and Coward in New York. Additional Broadway credits from her career include The Barretts of Wimpole Street.

Carey's film work included several Coward projects. She played the manageress of a station buffet in Brief Encounter, a petty officer's wife in In Which We Serve, and Mrs Bradman in the film adaptation of Blithe Spirit. Her other film appearances included The Way to the Stars and Cry the Beloved Country. On television, she starred in the series The Cedar Tree from 1976 to 1979, playing Alice, Lady Bourne. Her television credits also included Danger Man, Father Dear Father, The Secret Agent, The New Avengers, My Son My Son, and the BBC Miss Marple production A Murder is Announced, in which she played Belle Goedler. Her final stage performance came in 1984, when she played Mrs Higgins in Pygmalion opposite Peter O'Toole. She continued working on screen into her nineties, appearing in the BBC television film No 27, written by Michael Palin, in which she portrayed a frail elderly woman facing eviction.

In 1982 Carey was awarded the OBE. She was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1985, when she was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at London's Waldorf Hotel. She never married and remained part of Coward's close personal circle throughout his life; when Coward received his knighthood in 1970, Carey and costume designer Gladys Calthrop accompanied him to the ceremony at Buckingham Palace. Carey died in London on 28 February 1993 at the age of 94.