Biography
Joan Henley (2 September 1904 – 10 February 1986) was an Irish actress and radio presenter. Born in Dublin, she was active on the London stage from at least 1927 and appeared in West End productions through the 1930s. Her first film role was a supporting part in Purse Strings (1933).
Henley had a career spanning more than fifty years in film and television, though her screen appearances were infrequent and mostly small as she focused on stage work. She is best known for playing the friendly spinster Miss Teresa Alan in the 1985 Merchant Ivory film A Room with a View, released shortly before her death, and as Lady Nettleship in The Thirty Nine Steps (1978).
She was married first to broadcaster Bruce Belfrage, with whom she had a son, Julian Belfrage, who became an actors' agent, and later to author Laurence Meynell from 1956 until her death in Hove, East Sussex.
