Buxom flirtatious blonde whose wit and comely assets made her a permanent fixture in the Carry On films
The actress Joan Sims was one of the last remaining stars of the Carry On films, those saucy, corny, low-budget comedies that entertained cinemagoers from the 1950s to the 1970s — and have provided television viewers ever since with light relief on dreary Sunday afternoons. Although the films were typified by thin plots and painful double entendres, the quality of the acting more than made amends.
One thinks of Kenneth Williams imperiously flaring his nostrils, Sid James emitting a gutteral cackle, or of Joan Sims herself, as the officious matron with the high-pitched, clipped voice or as a no-nonsense, buxom barmaid.
Sims started off as the dizzy, flirtatious blonde, an object of desire for the lecherous James, but as time passed she was increasingly cast as his long-suffering, hard-nagging wife. Like Kenneth Williams, one of her tradmarks was to affect an upper-class voice and manner, only to break down unexpectedly into cockney vulgarity and guffaw at high volume.
The Carry On films were the backbone of her career, but she appeared in nearly forty other films, and stage and radio were very much part of her repertoire too. Early appearances in regular revue gave her a reputation for comedy rather than straight parts — for which, as the director Anthony Asquith remarked, she had “far too happy a face”.
Other work beyond the Carry On routines included parts in drama and sitcoms including That Old Black Magic (with George Cole), Til Death Do Us Part, Only Fools and Horses and The Goodies.
But though she enjoyed comedy, she spent much of her later career looking for more serious roles, showing herself capable, for instance, of a harrowing performance as the Victorian child murderer Amelia Dyer, in the 1980s television series The Lady Killers.
She played the part of Betsy Prig in the television production of Martin Chuzzlewit, and then in 1994 was offered a role in Joanna Trollope’s A Village Affair, only to fracture a rib early on in the filming. Losing that part resulted in a traumatic lengthy legal case, and her professional fortunes reached a nadir in 1997 when she was put forward to play Miss Cawley in the costume drama Vanity Fair, only to be turned down.
As with Kenneth Williams and several other members of the Carry On company, considerable real-life sadness lay behind her on-screen jollity. For many years she suffered from depression and struggled with alcoholism. She confessed to loneliness, which was made worse by the loss, within a couple of years, of her mentor and agent Peter Eade, her closest friend, Hattie Jacques, and her mother. She never married, despite a proposal from Kenneth Williams.
Born in Laindon, Essex, Irene Joan Marion Sims was the only child of a stationmaster, from whom she inherited a great sense of humour. Because her father’s station was situated in remote countryside, the young Joan had few companions, and spent her early childhood dressing up to entertain the train passengers.
With a wish to have more of a social life rather than out of any ambition to become an actress, she joined her local drama and operatic societies in her teens. In 1946 she entered the South East and Essex Drama Festival at Walthamstow, where her piece in Lonesome Like won her the award for best individual performance.
Disliking academic studies Sims failed her School Certificate twice, and it was her elocution teacher, convinced of her talent for acting, who persuaded her to audition for the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.
Although she failed, she was given a place at the preliminary academy, only to fail again, receiving a letter stating she was “unsuitable for the profession”.
Her father appealed to the principal of RADA, and Sims finally graduated on her fourth attempt in April 1950, just before her 20th birthday. In an end-of-term showcase production at Her Majestey’s Theatre, she won a prize for grace and charm of movement.Her disposition for comedy showed itself when, after collecting her prize she decided to “trip” off the stage to create an amusing incident. Throughout her career, as a fan once observed, she continued to have many “falling over parts”. She had stumbled on her forte. Prior to her first leading roles on stage — in Sarah Simple with Harry H. Corbett, and in Happy Ha’penny with Stanley Baxter — much of her work was in cameo roles. But the early 1950s gave her her first taste of the silver screen, with a very small part in Colonel March Investigates, a 1952 B-movie which starred Boris Karloff.
She failed an audition with casting director John Redway of Associated British Pictures, but he happened to see her a few weeks later in Just Lately at the Irving near Leicester Square, and could not believe it was the same actress. He changed his mind immediately, and so in 1953 she had her first role in a feature comedy, Will Any Gentleman? with George Cole, Jon Pertwee and Sid James.
At the time she was playing in the stage play Intimacy at 8.30 with Lesley Crowther, Ron Moody and Ian Carmichael. Later it transferred to the West End as High Spirits, which became the title for her autobiography in 2000.
In 1954 Sims played in her first Doctor in the House series while also giving a cameo performance as the seductive biology teacher Miss Dawn in The Belles of St Trinians with Alastair Sim and Beryl Reid.
During this time she even did a little cabaret, appearing at a hotel in Jersey where Gracie Fields was topping the bill, and with Noël Coward in the Royal Variety Show at the London Palladium with Norman Wisdom, Bob Hope and Frankie Howerd.
The Carry On films dominated her career from 1958 to 1978; she appeared in 24 of the original 30. Although Carry On up the Khyber (1968) is con- sidered the best of the series, Carry On Cowboy (1965) was Sims’s personal favourite.
Sims made her first radio broadcast in 1956 with Ronnie Barker and Ron Moody in Floggit’s, and even contributed to the pop world making a record, Oh Not Again Ken, in 1963 with music producer George Martin. She also appeared on the radio in Tribute to Greatness, and in 1967 she was due to join Round the Horne when Kenneth Horne died suddenly and the programme was dropped.
Her contribution to comedy on television was almost as extensive as her Carry On roles, since she was a natural foil for Kenneth Williams, Dick Emery, Stanley Baxter and the Two Ronnies on their respective shows. Last year she starred in a television film The Last of the Blond Bombshells and took part in a series on Radio 4 called Dogged Persistence.
Sims said she never married, not out of principle, but because the right man never came along.
Joan Sims, actress, was born on May 9, 1930. She died on June 28, 2001, aged 71.
This obituary appeared in the London Times on June 28, 2001.