Yootha Joyce Yootha Joyce Yootha Joyce Needham (20 August 1927 – 24 August 1980), credited as Yootha Joyce, was a British actress best known for playing Mildred Roper opposite Brian Murphy in the sitcom "Man About the House" and its spin-off "George and Mildred". Needham was born in Wandsworth, London, the only child of musical parents Hurst Needham, a well-known singer, and Jessica Revitt, a concert pianist. She was named "Yootha", an Australian Aboriginal name, after a New Zealand dancer in her father's touring company. She was evacuated to Hampshire during the Second World War. She left school (Lady Edridge Grammar school
Yootha Joyce this was to be her last work. Amidst growing concern over her health, she was admitted to hospital in the summer of 1980. Joyce died in hospital of liver failure four days after her 53rd birthday on 24 August 1980. Her co-star and good friend Brian Murphy was at her bedside. She was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium. At the inquest into her death, it was revealed that she had been drinking upwards of half a bottle of brandy a day for ten years, and that she had, in the words of her lawyer Mario Uziell-Hamilton, become a victim of