Background
Blair was born in London, as the daughter of Myer Ogus and Deborah (Della) Greenbaum. Her father was a Russian barber. He changed the family name to Blair in her youth, and died when Joyce was 12 years old.
Blair was born in London, as the daughter of Myer Ogus and Deborah (Della) Greenbaum. Her father was a Russian barber. He changed the family name to Blair in her youth, and died when Joyce was 12 years old.
Blair was educated at Cone"s School in London, and started her show-business career by singing and tap-dancing in front of captive audiences in London air raid shelters during the Second World War.
She was the younger sister of Lionel Blair, with whom she often performed. She was the mother of actress Deborah Sheridan-Taylor, who played Saskia Duncan in EastEnders, and of a son, Adam, who is a photographer. Her family was Jewish.
She made her first professional stage appearance in the J.M. Barrie play Quality Street at the Embassy Theatre in 1945, aged 13.
She appeared in minor roles in the original London productions of South Pacific in 1951 and Guys and Dolls in 1953, and also appeared in off-Broadway musicals and pantomimes. She appeared in several films, but she became well known for her appearances on television in the 1950s and 1960s, in shows such as Morecambe and Wise Show, The Benny Hill Show, The Adventures of Robin Hood, New Look, The Saint and Z-Cars.
In 1963, credited as Mission X, she recorded "Christine", a tune written by John Barry (under an assumed name) and Leslie Bricusse, which was banned by the British Broadcasting Corporation at the height of the Profumo scandal but reached no.37 on the United Kingdom singles chart. In 1978, she returned to the West End stage in Bar Mitzvah Boy and in 1984 she appeared in.
She died from cancer in Santa Monica, California aged 73.