Doreen June Mantle (22 June 1926 – 9 August 2023) was a South African-born British actress who played Jean Warboys in One Foot in the Grave (1990–2000).[1][2] She appeared in many British television series since the 1960s, including The Duchess of Duke Street, The Wild House, Sam Saturday, Chalk, Casualty, The Bill, Doctors, Holby City, Lovejoy, Coronation Street and Jonathan Creek. She played lollipop lady Queenie in Jam & Jerusalem (2006–2009).[3]
Doreen June Mantle was born on 22 June 1926, in Johannesburg, South Africa, to English parents Bernard and Hilda (née Greenberg), who ran a hotel.[4][5][6][7] When she was six weeks old, her parents moved back to Britain, but they returned to South Africa four years later after the birth of Mantle's brother Alan in 1930.[7]
Mantle attended the University of the Witwatersrand. She acted with the university's dramatic society and appeared on the South African amateur stage and radio, before becoming a social worker. On a visit to London in 1949, she performed at the Gateway theatre. She married Graham Smith, an engine sales manager, in 1953.[8][9] She moved to the United Kingdom at the age of 23, out of opposition to apartheid, settling in London with her husband.[4]
Mantle acted at Colchester repertory theatre before taking a break from the stage after the birth of her first son. After her return, she had a small role as a wedding guest at the Aldwych theatre in a 1967 Royal Shakespeare Company production of Jules Feiffer’s play Little Murders.[10]
After a lean spell during which she worked as a London tourist guide, Mantle’s career was given a boost by William Trevor’s play Going Home at the King’s Head theatre club, Islington, in 1972. She continued to work extensively on the stage in such productions as My Fair Lady, Keep It in the Family, The Seagull and Hamlet. She also toured Britain in Billy Liar in the role of Florence Boothroyd and performed at the National Theatre in The Voysey Inheritance. In 1979, she was awarded the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her performance in Death of a Salesman.[11] She also undertook radio work for BBC Radio 3 and BBC World Service. Mantle played the long suffering wife of the rabbi in BBC Radio 4's comedy series The Attractive Young Rabbi.[12]
Mantle played Mrs Shaemen in Barbra Streisand's film version of Yentl (1983).[13]
In television many of Mantle's parts were one-offs, but she had a short run as Mrs Catchpole in the first series of The Duchess of Duke Street (1976) and played Karl Marx’s wife in the first two parts of the Eleanor Marx trilogy (1977) and Rita Sterne, mother of the detective (Ivan Kaye) in Sam Saturday (1992).[14]
Mantle would go on to find fame in her sixties, when in 1989 she was cast as the hapless and naive Jean Warboys, friend of Margaret (Annette Crosbie) and Victor Meldrew (Richard Wilson) in David Renwick's sitcom One Foot in the Grave.[14] She appeared in 18 episodes from 1990 until 2000. She would work with Renwick again, appearing in an episode of his comedy drama Love Soup in 2005.[15]
She was a regular in the first two series (2006–2008) of the sitcom Jam & Jerusalem, written by Jennifer Saunders, appearing in 12 episodes as Queenie, the school crossing attendant.[14][16]
From 2010-11, Mantle briefly appeared in Coronation Street as Joy Fishwick, the mother of Colin Fishwick (David Crellin), who was secretly killed and his identity was stolen by John Stape (Graeme Hawley). In a similar fashion to her son, Joy was killed; albeit accidentally, by John who was trying to compromise and muffle her screaming. [17]
In early-2023, aged 96, she appeared on the clip show One Foot in the Grave - 30 Years Of Laughs, when along with other cast and crew members she took a look back at the show for which she became well known.
Mantle married Graham Smith in 1953; they had two sons together, but later divorced.[4] From the mid-1990s she was a resident of Highgate, London.[18]
Mantle died at home in London on 9 August 2023, at the age of 97.[7][19][20]
Source, unless specified:[21]
