Joyce Carey - 16336

Fine British actress, daughter of Lilian Braithwaite.

Carey was on stage from 1918 and stayed there for nearly 70 years, at 86 playing Peter O'Toole's mother in Pygmalion (1984).

She made three silent films, but her screen career really began when she played Bernard Miles's wife in In Which We Serve (1942), by No‘l Coward, in whose plays she often starred.

Her imposing screen persona covered the haughty station buffet manageress in Brief Encounter (1945), a sucked-lemon spinster in The Way to the Stars (1945), The Chiltern Hundreds (1949) and Libel (1959), a loving wife in Cry, the Beloved Country (1952) and a warm-hearted upper-class aunt in A Nice Girl Like Me (1969).

Her role in Brief Encounter is still the one for which she is best remembered.

This is a very fine black and white photograph (5.5" x 3.5"), signed across the lower image in blue ink and with a lovely signed letter in blue ink ("Dear Mr Street, Thank you for your very kind letter which gave me much pleasure. I'm afraid this is the only picture I have at the moment. All good wishes to you in and out of the theatre. I hope it will bring you happiness. Yours very sincerely, Joyce Carey") to the reverse. The signature to the front runs in part across a busy backgound that reduces readability. The letter to the reverse is wonderfully clear. overall condition ic excellent.