--- name: "Joyce Carey" canonical: "https://film.one/person/joyce-carey" fi1m_id: "joyce-carey" imdb_id: "nm0136983" tmdb_id: 12728 wikidata_id: "Q3951975" roles: ["Actor"] born: "30 March 1898" died: "28 February 1993" reviewed_on_fi1m: 2 average_fi1m_score: 82 average_as: "actor" average_over: 2 updated: "2026-09-20T00:56:39.451602+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Joyce Carey ## Identity Joyce Carey - **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/joyce-carey - **Type:** Person - **Fi1m ID:** joyce-carey - **IMDb ID:** nm0136983 - **TMDB ID:** 12728 - **Wikidata ID:** Q3951975 - **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joyce_Carey, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3951975, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0136983/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/12728 Actor. Born 30 March 1898 in London, England, UK. Died 28 February 1993. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 30 March 1898, London, England, UK - **Died:** 28 February 1993 - **Active:** 1942–1945 - **Also known as:** Joyce Lilian Lawrence - **Frequently works with:** [Celia Johnson](https://film.one/person/celia-johnson.md), [David Lean](https://film.one/person/david-lean.md), [Noël Coward](https://film.one/person/noel-coward.md) - **Average Fi1m score:** 82, as actor, over 2 titles - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joyce_Carey, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3951975, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0136983/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/12728 ## Streaming the US now - **HBO Max:** [*Brief Encounter*](https://film.one/film/brief-encounter.md) (90), [*In Which We Serve*](https://film.one/film/in-which-we-serve.md) (74) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Joyce Carey > Joyce Carey spent a long career playing women who believe themselves a cut above everyone else present, and she played them without contempt. The station buffet in *Brief Encounter* is the proof: a small part, exactly judged, and remembered for good reason. Listen to what Joyce Carey does with a vowel. Her women of the 1940s hold their consonants carefully and lift their vowels a notch when they think someone worth impressing has come in, and it is the lifting, not the refinement itself, that tells you who they are. Myrtle Bagot, the manageress of the station buffet in *Brief Encounter* (1945), is the one everyone remembers: she runs her counter as if it were a drawing room and is faintly disappointed in everyone who comes to it. David Lean's film is about two people falling in love on the platform outside, and Carey is there to remind us that the world goes on being petty and orderly while it happens. She had been at it a long time before the camera noticed. Her stage debut was in 1916, and from 1926, when she first appeared in one of his plays in New York, she belonged to Noël Coward. She was in *Tonight at 8.30*, toured with him for ENSA during the war, and made five films with him. Coward knew exactly what she could do and kept writing rooms for her to disapprove of. She had worked in silent pictures, but it was *In Which We Serve* (1942) that made her a screen face, and Coward's name is on that too. Kath Hardy in *In Which We Serve* is the part we would send a sceptic to first. Bernard Miles's chief petty officer talks, and Carey listens, and we found we were watching her rather than him in the scenes at the Hardy semi, because she had decided what Kath thought about every remark before it was finished. We said in our review that she gets a great deal from almost nothing, and that is the whole of her method. She does not ask for the scene. She waits to be given it, and is usually given it. The limitation is the obvious one. The parts were small, and as she grew older they grew alike: aristocratic dowagers, aunts and spinsters, all ladylike, all quietly certain, most of them a little sour. Miss Winterton in *The Way to the Stars* (1945) and Violet Bradman in Coward's *Blithe Spirit* (1945) sit close to Myrtle Bagot on the shelf. *Cry, the Beloved Country* (1951) gave her a straighter dramatic part in a larger production, but it did not change the pattern. She never became a star and she does not appear to have minded. She was still on stage in 1984, in *Pygmalion*, and on television into the late 1980s. Start with the two Lean films, which are the ones we have written about and the ones that hold up. Then watch *Brief Encounter* again and, this time, keep an eye on the counter. ## Biography Joyce Carey (born Joyce Lilian Lawrence) was an English actress. Born in London on 30 March 1898 and died there on 28 February 1993, she was the daughter of actor Gerald Lawrence and actress Lilian Braithwaite. Her stage career began in 1916 and continued until the late 1980s. She had a long professional and personal association with Noël Coward, appearing in several of his plays and films. On screen she played Myrtle Bagot in *Brief Encounter* (1945), Violet Bradman in *Blithe Spirit* (1945) and Mrs Hardy in *In Which We Serve* (1942). Other film roles include appearances in *The Way to the Stars* (1945), *London Belongs to Me* (1948) and *The Black Windmill* (1974). She also worked extensively in television. Carey was awarded the OBE in 1982. She wrote two plays under the pseudonym Jay Mallory. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, screenonline.org.uk.* ## On Fi1m (2) - *Brief Encounter* (1945), Fi1m 90, as Myrtle Bagot — [page](https://film.one/film/brief-encounter.md) - *In Which We Serve* (1942), Fi1m 74, as Mrs. Hardy / Kath — [page](https://film.one/film/in-which-we-serve.md) ## Complete filmography (51) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Number 27* (1988), as Miss Barwick - *Cribb* (1980), series, as Mrs Pennycook - *Father, Dear Father* (1978), series, as Patrick's Mother - *The Upchat Line* (1977), series, as Mrs. Cookson, Mrs Cookson - *1990* (1977), series, Actor - *The Sunday Drama* (1977), series, as Mrs Desmond - *The New Avengers* (1976), series, as Lady with Dog - *The Secret Agent* (1975), as Lady Dorothy - *Two's Company* (1975), series, as Mrs. Hiller - *The Black Windmill* (1974), as Miss Monley - *Only a Scream Away* (1974), as Liza Meredith - *Father Dear Father* (1973), as Mother - *Thriller* (1973), series, as Liza Meredith - *Late Night Theatre* (1972), series, as Ellen - *The Last Witness* (1971), as Mrs. Fane - *A Nice Girl Like Me* (1969), as Aunt Celia - *ITV Saturday Night Theatre* (1969), series, as Miss Atkins, Lily - *Father, Dear Father* (1968), series, as Patrick's Mother - *BBC Play of the Month* (1965), series, as Countess Mortimer - *Thirty-Minute Theatre* (1965), series, as Mrs. Donald - *Out of the Unknown* (1965), series, as Mrs. Fane - *Gideon's Way* (1965), series, as Mrs. Coles - *The Eyes of Annie Jones* (1964), as Aunt Helen Demarest - *Sergeant Cork* (1963), series, as Mrs. Maud Marriott - *Greyfriars Bobby* (1961), as First Lady - *The Naked Edge* (1961), as Victoria Hicks - *Nearly a Nasty Accident* (1961), as Lady Trowborough - *The Avengers* (1961), series, as Harriet — Fi1m 83, [page](https://film.one/tv/the-avengers-1961.md) - *Maigret* (1960), series, Actor - *International Detective* (1959), series, as Grand Duchess Marowska, Mrs. Livingstone - *Libel* (1959), as Miss Sykes - *The Rough and the Smooth* (1959), as Mrs. Thompson - *No Hiding Place* (1959), series, Actor - *Alive and Kicking* (1959), as Matron - *Loser Takes All* (1956), as Bird's Nest - *Armchair Theatre* (1956), series, as Mrs. Drummond - *Stolen Assignment* (1955), as Ida Garnett - *The End of the Affair* (1955), as Miss Palmer - *The Millionaire* (1955), series, as Mrs. Vinton - *Street Corner* (1953), as Miss Hopkins - *Cry, the Beloved Country* (1951), as Margaret Jarvis - *Happy Go Lovely* (1951), as Bruno's Secretary - *The Astonished Heart* (1950), as Susan Birch - *The Chiltern Hundreds* (1949), as Lady Caroline - *London Belongs to Me* (1948), as Mrs Vizzard - *The October Man* (1947), as Mrs. Vinton - *Brief Encounter* (1945), as Myrtle Bagot — Fi1m 90, [page](https://film.one/film/brief-encounter.md) - *The Way to the Stars* (1945), as Miss Winterton - *Blithe Spirit* (1945), as Violet Bradman - *In Which We Serve* (1942), as Mrs. Hardy / Kath — Fi1m 74, [page](https://film.one/film/in-which-we-serve.md) - *We Serve* (1942), Actor --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/joyce-carey