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 Londons Embassy Theatre He cast the 19yearold 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 wellreceived 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 Picassos Painted Ladies At the request of Henry Millers widow Howard collated edited and wrote the introduction to Letters by Henry Miller to Hoki Tokuda Miller 1986