Joy Westmore

Joy Westmore (née Grisold; 1932 — 5 November 2020) was an Australian actress, of radio, theatre and television, best known to international television viewers for her long-running role in Prisoner – as friendly, but highly ineffectual, bespectacled officer Joyce Barry Pringle – who was married to prison chef Mervin Pringle (played by Ernie Bourne) in which she won a Penguin Award.

Biography

She made her debut in the television movie The Sentimental Bloke, and then played Joyce in Prisoner. Initially a recurring cast member throughout the first five years of the show, the part of Officer Barry was developed into a major character in 1984, and continued until the series' finale in 1986.

After Prisoner, she played Mrs. Blanche White in an Australian TV game show version of Cluedo, and had two brief roles in Neighbours – as Mrs. Forster in 1991; and as Dee Bliss' grandmother, Nancy Bliss, in 2003.

Joy has since played various small roles in one-off and long-running dramas – Waiting at the Royal, Fergus McPhail, and Blue Heelers – and was an Australian media personality and speaker.

She was married to Brian William Westmore, in 1960 and had 4 children.