Joyce Blair was an English actress and dancer. She was the younger sister of Lionel Blair, with whom she often performed. She was the mother of actress Deborah Sheridan-Taylor, who played Saskia Duncan in EastEnders.
Early life and education
Blair was born in London, as the daughter of Myer Ogus, a Lithuanian Jewish barber, who changed the family name to Blair. and Debora "Della" Greenbaum. Her family was Jewish. Her father changed the family name to Blair in her youth; he died when Joyce was 12 years old. Blair was educated at Cone's School in London, 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.
Career
She and her brother took up showbusiness as professionals to support their mother after their father's death in 1944. She made her first professional stage appearance in the J.M. Barrie play Quality Street at the Embassy Theatre in 1945, aged 13. She appeared in minor roles in the original London productions of South Pacific in 1951 and Guys and Dolls in 1953, and also appeared in off-Broadway musicals and pantomimes. She appeared in several films, but 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. In 1962, she released the single "Baby, It's Cold Outside", sung with Oliver Reed. In 1963, credited as "Miss X", she recorded "Christine", a tune written by John Barry 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. In 1978, she returned to the West End stage in Bar Mitzvah Boy and in 1984 she appeared in The Last Days of Pompeii. 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.
Private life
Blair was married three times; first to Edward Lever in 1956; second to Henry Sheridan-Taylor; and third, to an American, briefly, but with whom she moved to California, where she took television work and did voice-overs. She also worked in a Santa Monicaantiques shop. She was the mother of actress Deborah Sheridan-Taylor, who played Saskia Duncan in EastEnders, and of a son, Adam, who is a photographer.
Death
Blair died from cancer in Santa Monica, California, aged 73. She was survived by her brother Lionel and her two children.
