Profile: Joy Olver

Loft credits (click a play title to view details)

• Ambassador’s wife, Pygmalion (1997)
• Mrs Meredith/Mademoiselle, Daisy Pulls it Off (1989)
• Matron, Caught Napping (1987)
• Sheila, Relatively Speaking (1985)
• Miss Prism, The Importance of Being Earnest (1985)
• Company/Sorceress of the North/Lady of Oz, The Wizard of Oz (1984)
• Delia, Bedroom Farce (1983)
• Marina, Uncle Vanya (1983)
• Smale, Rose (1982)
• Mrs Voysey, The Voysey Inheritance (1981)
• Old Volodkina/Gossip/Woman at banquet, The Suicide (1981)
• Mrs Higgins, Pygmalion (1980)
• Mrs Culver, The Constant Wife (1979)
• Lady Marjorie Bellamy, For Love of Love (1975)
• Fiona Foster, How the Other Half Loves (1974)
• Antonia, A Severed Head (1973)
• Susanna, Scenes from an Improper Life (1972)
• Amanda Wingfield, The Glass Menagerie (1971)
• Elvira, Blithe Spirit (1969)
• Eleanor of Aquitaine, The Lion in Winter (1969)
• Mercy Croft, The Killing of Sister George (1968)
• Reader, The Hollow Crown (1965)
• Queen Isabella, Edward II (1964)
• Mary Stuart, Mary Stuart (1961)
• Hippolyte, The Rape of the Belt (1960)
• Company, New Clothes for the Emperor (1960)
• Gertrude, The Matchmaker (1959)
• Elmire, Tartuffe (1958)
• Lobster/Dodo, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass (1958)
• Ann Deever, All My Sons (1957)
• Ortensia, Mine Hostess (1956)
• Dolly, Escape (1956)
• Dancer, The Puppet Prince (1956)
• Ruth Kelly, Harvey (1955)
• Lady Windermere, Lady Windermere’s Fan (1955)
• Peggy, He Wanted Adventure (1955)
• Silvia, Two Gentlemen of Verona (1953)
• Fair Dancer/Woman, Hassan (1953)
• Viola, Twelfth Night (1952)
• Baby, The Whiteheaded Boy (1952)
• Lady of the Harem, The Bears of Bay-Rum (1951)
• Miss Gossage, The Happiest Days of Your Life (1951)
• Linda Brown, Accent on Youth (1951)
• Eve, The Prisoner Before You (1951)
• Dancer/Tiger Lily, Alice in Wonderland (1950)
• Nellie, Mungo’s Mansion (1950)
• Cecily Cardew, The Importance of Being Earnest (1949)
• Mary Fitton, Will Shakespeare (1949)
• Company, The Witch (1948)
• Woman of Canterbury, Murder in the Cathedral (1948)
• Elida Wangel, The Lady from the Sea (1948)
• Marcia Brent, Quiet Weekend (1947)
• Lady Teazle, The School for Scandal (1946)
• Portia, The Merchant of Venice (1946)
• Margaret, Fanny’s First Play (1945)
• Adrienne, The Marquise (1944)
• Minerva, The Rose Without a Thorn (1942)

Also credited as

Joy Mileham

Notes

The following tribute was written in June 2006 by Denzil Pugh.

We were all very saddened recently to learn of the death of Joy Olver. Joy had suffered a prolonged illness lasting many years and growing more severe as time went on. The end, when it came, must have brought, for her, peace and an end to her suffering. Those of us who knew Joy and worked with her remember a fine actress and a very happy lady who, as her name implies, was a joy to be with.

She left school at 16 to look after her seriously ill mother, and because of this was unable to follow a professional career in the theatre. It was at this time that she joined the Loft Theatre Company at the age of 17. Married at 20 to Brian, she then auditioned for Peter Dews at the BBC and afterwards became an actress with them in a number of radio plays.

Following the death of her mother, Joy became a teacher of speech and drama, at first privately with Pauline Wattis before joining the Kingsley School in Leamington where she was much loved by the children. This and her teaching skills were reflected in the very successful exam results her pupils achieved. In 1984 she was asked to direct Charles Kingsley’s The Water Babies for the school’s centenary celebrations. The play was chosen because of Kingsley’s association with the school and was a great success.

She appeared in many plays over the years at the Loft and also with Spa Opera and at the Talisman Theatre. A very fine actress who was blessed with a lovely, natural, unaffected speaking voice, she became, in my opinion, one of the leading actresses in the Midlands.

We shall miss her. We send our most sincere sympathies to her daughter Rosemary and her family, and assure them we will always remember Joy, not only a lovely actress, but a warm, gracious and happy lady whom we all felt better for knowing.

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