Joyce Blair

Joyce Blair
in the Edgar Wallace Mystery, Number Six (1962)
Born	Joyce Ogus (1932-11-04)November 4, 1932 London, England
Died	August 19, 2006(2006-08-19) (aged 73) Santa Monica, California
Nationality	English
Occupation	Actress, dancer
Known for	Younger sister of Lionel Blair
Notable work	Yield to the Night, Jazz Boat, Crooks Anonymous

Joyce Blair (born Joyce Ogus; 4 November 1932 – 19 August 2006^[1]) was an English actress and dancer. She was the younger sister of Lionel Blair, with whom she often performed.^[2] She was the mother of actress Deborah Sheridan-Taylor, who played Saskia Duncan in EastEnders,^[3] and of a son, Adam, who is a photographer.^[4]

Life and career

Blair was born in London, as the daughter of Myer Ogus and Deborah (Della) Greenbaum. Her family was Jewish.^[5] Her father was a Russian barber; he changed the family name to Blair in her youth, and died when Joyce was 12 years old.^[6] Blair was educated at Cone's School in London,^[4] and started her show-business career by singing and tap-dancing in front of captive audiences in London air raid shelters during the Second World War.^[4][7] She and her brother took up show-business as professionals to support their mother after their father's death in 1944.^[6] She made her first professional stage appearance in the J.M. Barrie play Quality Street at the Embassy Theatre in 1945, aged 13.^[7]

She appeared in minor roles in the original London productions of South Pacific in 1951 and Guys and Dolls in 1953,^[6] and also appeared in off-Broadway musicals and pantomimes.^[4] She appeared in several films, but she became well known for her appearances on television in the 1950s and 1960s, in shows such as Morecambe and Wise Show, The Benny Hill Show, The Adventures of Robin Hood, New Look, The Saint and Z-Cars.^[8] In 1963, credited as Miss X, she recorded "Christine", a tune written by John Barry (under an assumed name) and Leslie Bricusse, which was banned by the BBC at the height of the Profumo scandal but reached no.37 on the UK singles chart.^[9][10]

In 1978, she returned to the West End stage in Bar Mitzvah Boy and in 1984 she appeared in The Last Days of Pompeii (1984). She often appeared in dance routines with her brother Lionel until an estrangement in 1977. They did not reconcile their differences until many years later, when their mutual friend Sammy Davis, Jr. was dying of cancer.^[6]

She died from cancer in Santa Monica, California aged 73.^[1] She married three times, to Edward Lever in 1956; to Henry Sheridan-Taylor; and to an American.^[4] She was survived by her brother Lionel and her two children, both of whom came from her second marriage.

Selected filmography

• Yield to the Night (1956)
• Jazz Boat (1960)
• Crooks Anonymous (1962)
• The Wild Affair (1963)
• Be My Guest (1965)
• Mister Ten Per Cent (1967)
• The Last Days of Pompeii (1984)

Discography

• 1963 - "Christine" (Ember Records, 7") as Miss X ^[11] - UK No. 37^[12]

This record was referring to Christine Keeler, known in those days as being a crucial figure in the Profumo affair.

References