Joyce Howard
Joyce Howard (28 February 1922 in London – 23 November 2010 in Santa Monica, California) was an English actress, writer, and film executive.
After studying at RADA, she was spotted by film director Anthony Asquith in a play at London's Embassy Theatre. He cast the 19-year-old in Freedom Radio (1941), and starring roles in films followed, including opposite James Mason in The Night Has Eyes and They Met in the Dark, the former winning her rave reviews.
She was also active in theatre, including Romeo and Juliet at the Old Vic and in A Streetcar Named Desire. She performed in London throughout World War II, even as Nazis were bombing the city. In 1950, after 13 films, she more or less retired from acting to raise her three children by actor Basil Sydney. 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 at Paramount Pictures 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's widow, Howard collated, edited and wrote the introduction to Letters by Henry Miller to Hoki Tokuda Miller (1986).
Known For | Acting |
---|---|
Most Rating | 2.08 |
Birthday | 1922-02-28 |
Place of Birth | London, England, UK |
Also Known As |
1942
Back-Room Boy
6.4/10
Jilted by his fiancee, Arthur Pilbeam gets a job as far away from women as possible. Alone in a lighthouse, he soon finds that 12 other people end up...
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Back-Room Boy
1941
Love on the Dole
5.727/12
Depressing and realistic family drama about the struggles of unemployment and poverty in 1930s Lancashire. The 20-year-old Kerr gives an emotionally c...
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Love on the Dole
1943
They Met in the Dark
6.308/13
A Royal navy Commander is tricked by a pretty girl who is working for the Nazis. She tricks him into revealing some military secrets and he is court m...
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They Met in the Dark
1946
Appointment with Crime
5.9/15
Small-time jewel thief Leo Martin is deserted by his partners-in-crime, club owner Gus Loman and driver Hatchett, when the robbery they are committing...
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Appointment with Crime
1942
The Night Has Eyes
6.3/16
Two teachers, man-hungry Doris and restrained Marian, visit the Yorkshire moors a year after friend Evelyn disappeared there. On a stormy night, they...
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The Night Has Eyes
1941
The Common Touch
7/2
The Common Touch is a 1941 British drama film directed by John Baxter and starring Geoffrey Hibbert, Harry Welchman, Greta Gynt and Joyce Howard. On t...
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The Common Touch
1946
They Knew Mr. Knight
5.9/4
After a chance train encounter with Laurence Knight, Tom Blake's family's fortunes prosper on the beneficence of the great financier. A developing fri...
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They Knew Mr. Knight
1941
Freedom Radio
6.3/3
Hitler's doctor is gradually realising that the Nazi regime isn't as good as it pretends to be when his friends start to "disappear" into the camps. H...
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Freedom Radio
1943
The Gentle Sex
7/10
During the War seven women from very different backgrounds find themselves together in the Auxiliary Territorial Services. They are soon drilling, dri...
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The Gentle Sex
1959
Hot Summer Night
0/0
Jacko, a respected union man, is fighting for the promotion of a Jamaican colleague to chargehand, but when his daughter brings home her black boyfrie...
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Hot Summer Night
1942
Talk About Jacqueline
0/0
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Talk About Jacqueline
1947
Mrs. Fitzherbert
6/2
The tangled affairs of George, Prince of Wales, leading to his illegal marriage to commoner Mrs. Fitzherbert. Also portrayed is the conflict between t...
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Mrs. Fitzherbert
1950
Shadow of the Past
0/0
A man catches sight of a woman believed by everyone to be dead.
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