Joan Heal (17 October 1922 – 12 April 1998) was an English actress and singer, known for her appearances in

revue A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance, and sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own duri ...

in the 1940s and 1950s.

Life and career

Heal was born in

Vobster Mells is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England, near the town of Frome. Vobster The parish includes the village of Vobster, which had a coal mine of the same name on the Somerset coalfield and a quarry, both of which are now disused. ...

, Somerset, and educated at

Bath High School Royal High School Bath is an independent day and boarding school for girls and in the city of Bath, Somerset, Bath, Somerset, England, catering for up to 650 pupils. The school is on Lansdown Road, just outside Bath city centre, and has boardin ...

and later the Old Vic School.Gaye, p. 720 She made her first professional appearance as Mrs Terence in

Emlyn Williams George Emlyn Williams, CBE (26 November 1905 – 25 September 1987) was a Welsh writer, dramatist and actor. Early life Williams was born into a Welsh-speaking, working class family at 1 Jones Terrace, Pen-y-ffordd, Ffynnongroyw, Flintsh ...

' psycho-thriller ''

Night Must Fall ''Night Must Fall'' is a play, a psychological thriller, by Emlyn Williams, first performed in 1935. There have been three film adaptations, '' Night Must Fall'' (1937); a 1954 adaptation on the television anthology series ''Ponds Theater'' sta ...

'' in 1940 at the Garden Theatre, Bideford, after which she was in the chorus of a

at the

Saville Theatre ODEON Covent Garden is a four-screen cinema in the heart of London's West End. Formerly known as The Saville Theatre, a former West End theatre at 135 Shaftesbury Avenue in the London Borough of Camden. The theatre opened in 1931, and became a ...

, London."Joan Heal", ''The Times'', 23 April 1998, p. 25 Her first prominent role in revue was at the

Cambridge Theatre The Cambridge Theatre is a West End theatre, on a corner site in Earlham Street facing Seven Dials, in the London Borough of Camden, built in 1929–30 for Bertie Meyer on an "irregular triangular site". Design and construction It was des ...

in ''Sauce Tartare'' in 1949. This was followed by ''Sauce Piquante'' at the same theatre in 1950. In 1951, she was in the ''Lyric Revue'' with

Ian Carmichael Ian Gillett Carmichael, OBE (18 June 1920 – 5 February 2010) was an English actor who worked prolifically on stage, screen and radio in a career spanning 70 years. He found prominence in the films of the Boulting brothers, including ' ...

Dora Bryan Dora May Broadbent, (7 February 1923 – 23 July 2014), known as Dora Bryan, was a British actress of stage, film and television.Graham Payn Graham Payn (25 April 1918 – 4 November 2005) was a South African-born English actor and singer, also known for being the life partner of the playwright Noël Coward. Beginning as a boy soprano, Payn later made a career as a singer and ac ...

at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith. The show transferred to the

Globe Theatre The Globe Theatre was a theatre in London associated with William Shakespeare. It was built in 1599 by Shakespeare's playing company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, on land owned by Thomas Brend and inherited by his son, Nicholas Brend, and gra ...

in the West End, and was followed by a sequel in 1952. After further revue work, Heal was cast in the leading role of Virginia Jones in a new British musical '' Grab Me a Gondola'', which became, in the words of ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' "a huge and completely unexpected success". After pre-West-End performances in

Windsor Windsor may refer to: Places Australia * Windsor, New South Wales ** Municipality of Windsor, a former local government area * Windsor, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland **Shire of Windsor, a former local government authority around Wi ...

and Hammersmith it transferred to the West End, and ran for a total of 673 performances, until mid-1958.Gaye, p. 1532; and Cookman, Anthony. "Premium blondes in a love lottery", ''The Tatler'', 12 December 1956, p. 646 Heal played at the

Bristol Old Vic Bristol Old Vic is a British theatre company based at the Theatre Royal, Bristol. The present company was established in 1946 as an offshoot of the Old Vic in London. It is associated with the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, which became a fin ...

in 1959 as Katherina in ''

The Taming of the Shrew ''The Taming of the Shrew'' is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1590 and 1592. The play begins with a framing device, often referred to as the induction, in which a mischievous nobleman tricks a drunken ...

''. In the 1960s she joined the repertory company of the

Nottingham Playhouse Nottingham Playhouse is a theatre in Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England. It was first established as a repertory theatre in 1948 when it operated from a former cinema in Goldsmith Street. Directors during this period included Val May and Fr ...

for two seasons. She returned to West End musicals as Madam K in

Sandy Wilson Alexander Galbraith "Sandy" Wilson (19 May 1924 – 27 August 2014) was an English composer and lyricist, best known for his musical '' The Boy Friend'' (1953). Biography Wilson was born in Sale, Cheshire, England, and was educated at Harrow ...

's ''

Divorce Me, Darling! ''Divorce Me, Darling'' is a musical written by Sandy Wilson. Set 10 years after the events depicted in Wilson's much better-known '' The Boy Friend'', it is a pastiche of 1930s musicals (in particular those of Cole Porter) rather than the "Roa ...

''. In 1966 she appeared in her last revue, ''The Decline and Fall of the Entire World as Seen through the Eyes of Cole Porter'' at the

Criterion Theatre The Criterion Theatre is a West End theatre at Piccadilly Circus in the City of Westminster, and is a Grade II* listed building. It has a seating capacity of 588. Building the theatre In 1870, the caterers Spiers and Pond began development ...

. The last stage of her career was at the

Young Vic The Young Vic Theatre is a performing arts venue located on The Cut, near the South Bank, in the London Borough of Lambeth. The Young Vic was established by Frank Dunlop in 1970. Kwame Kwei-Armah has been Artistic Director since February 201 ...

, where she became a mother-figure to the predominantly youthful company. In her later years, Heal suffered from

multiple sclerosis Multiple (cerebral) sclerosis (MS), also known as encephalomyelitis disseminata or disseminated sclerosis, is the most common demyelinating disease, in which the insulating covers of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord are damaged. This d ...

. She died on 12 April 1998 at the age of 75. She was twice married, both times to actors: first

Jeremy Hawk Jeremy Hawk (20 May 1918 – 15 January 2002) was a character actor with a long career in music halls and on London's West End stage. Early life Hawk was born Cedric Joseph Lange in Johannesburg, South Africa; his father was a matinee idol wh ...

and secondly David Conyers. Both marriages ended in divorce. She was survived by the daughter of her first marriage (the actress

Belinda Lang Belinda Lucy Lange (born 23 December 1953), known professionally as Belinda Lang, is an English actress. She is known for playing Liza in the ITV sitcom '' Second Thoughts'' (1991–94), and Bill Porter in the BBC sitcom '' 2point4 Children'' ...

) and the son of her second.Hayward, Anthony
"Jeremy Hawk"
''The Independent'', 5 February 2002

References

Sources

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Heal, Joan 1922 births 1998 deaths English stage actresses 20th-century English actresses