Josephine Ann Maxwell-Muller (July 1944–30 October 2010) (Mrs Jo Heaton) was a British actress.
She was born in Hendon in London in 1944, the daughter of Flight Lieutenant (later Wing Commander) Leon Maxwell-Muller OBE, RAF (1913–1984)[1] and Beryl née Hobbs (1915–2008).[2]
1964 was a productive year for Maxwell-Muller. On the insistence of Christopher Plummer she was cast as Ophelia in the BBC's television production Hamlet at Elsinore (1964),[3] a co-production with the Danmarks Radio Company. In 1964 she played Bertha, the daughter, opposite Trevor Howard in Strindberg's play The Father. Also in 1964 Maxwell-Muller played Consuelo in He Who Gets Slapped at the Hampstead Theatre.[4] In 1966 Jonathan Miller cast her in the non-speaking role of Alice's sister in his BBC television play Alice in Wonderland.[5]
Other television and film roles include Wendy in The Flying Swan (1965); Miss Carter/Fiona in ITV Play of the Week (1966); Sarah Fawcett in Hadleigh (1971); Queen/Cuckoo in Jackanory Playhouse (1979); Margaret Jennings in Emmerdale (1979), and Grief-stricken Woman in Trauma (2004).
Her theatre appearances include Lucy in The Rivals (1966) for the Library Theatre Company at the Library Theatre in Manchester; Cathleen the maid opposite Laurence Olivier as James in Long Day's Journey into Night (1971) at the National Theatre in London; Sisly Milkpail in A Woman Killed with Kindness (1971) at The Old Vic in London; Lady Sybil Tenterden in What Every Woman Knows (1972) for the Farnham Repertory Company at the Castle Theatre in Farnham in Surrey; Maria in The School for Scandal (1972) for the National Theatre at The Old Vic, London; and Stella Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire (1976) at the Queen's Theatre in Hornchurch.[6] She was Kitty in Moving House (1976) with the Farnham Repertory Company at the Redgrave Theatre in Farnham in Surrey.[7]
In 1974 she married the actor Anthony Heaton (1947–1987) in Birmingham in the West Midlands.[8]
On her death in Hampstead in 2010 her funeral service was held at Golders Green Crematorium[9] following which her ashes were interred in the grave of her husband in Hampstead Cemetery.
References
edit- ^ Flt. Lt. Leon Maxwell-Muller, The London Gazette, 19 December 1939, pg. 8402
- ^ Josephine A Maxwell-Muller in England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth, Ancestry.com
- ^ Hamlet at Elsinore (1964), BFI Screenonline, British Film Institute (BFI) website
- ^ "WEEK IN THE THEATRE: He Has Rejected the World". The Stage. November 19, 1964. p. 13.
- ^ Alice in Wonderland (1966), BFI Screenonline, British Film Institute (BFI) website
- ^ Cast list for A Streetcar Named Desire, Theatricalia database
- ^ Jo Maxwell-Muller, Theatricalia website
- ^ Josephine A Maxwell-Muller in England & Wales, Civil Marriage Registration (1974), Ancestry.com
- ^ JOSEPHINE ANN HEATON Jo Maxwell-Muller Actress, Ham & High, 19 July 2022