Mary Hardy

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Mary Hardy (1931 - 7 January 1985) was an Australian actor and comedian. She was best known for her caustic wit, indifference to authority and a tireless ability to adlib.

Mary was born at Warrnambool and brought up in Bacchus Marsh the youngest of eight children and sister to author Frank Hardy. Her professional acting career began in 1950 when she was noticed by J.C.Williamsons where she worked for several years in various productions. In 1957, as Peter in the J. C. Williamson production of ' Peter Pan ' that Mary first became known as a star, proving to be a huge success.

The following year after her nomination for actress of the year for her role as ' Frankie ' in ' A Member of the Wedding ', the recently formed Union Theatre Company offered Mary a permanent position joining actors such as Noel Ferrier, Frank Thring, Toni Lamond and Fred Parslow. She first appeared with UTC as the cabin boy Pip in Moby Dick Rehearsed.

The move from theatre to television came via the late night satirical revues she helped write. Initially these were at the Arlen Theatre in St. Kilda with amongst others the actor and friend Noel Tovey. Later she would perform at the Phillip Theatre in Sydney with Jill Perryman, Gordon Chater and Judi Farr. In 1964 Noel Ferrier asked Mary if she would return to Melbourne to join him on television in In Melbourne Tonight. At the same time she also began co-hosting a morning radio program on 3UZ which was to become the most popular afternoon radio program for five years.

Both these live programs allowed her to adlib. She was to prove to be very successful and was to win eight Logie awards for best female personality. Proving to be too good and successful, especially at the expense of other male comedians, she was sacked from Channel Nine. She was later to say that " Before I came on the scene, if you were a woman on television, you were barrel girl, a weather girl or a wheel spinner...".

Mary returned to the theatre and in 1969 was awarded the Rosa Ribush Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Agnes in ' Mame '.

Later in 1971 she was to sign up with Channel Seven to once again co-host with Mike Williamson a variety program called The Penthouse Club. This was to become the most successful variety program on Australian television in the 1970s. She was famously suspended from the show in late 1974 for swearing (the first time the word 'fuck' had been heard on Australian television) but was later reinstated.

The stress of her career in radio and television was considerable and May 1977 Mary collapsed on set. Taken to a private hospital she was released two weeks later and gave several interviews about what the studio called a 'virus' which had officially struck her down. But she made no attempt to hide her perilous state saying " You're just hanging by a bit of a string and sometimes they let go of the string and you fall down"

Over the next two years the 'rests' between shows, the live 'walkouts' on air and brief stays in hospital became more frequent and her last live appearance on television was in late 1979. After winning her eight and final Logie knowing that her long running command over variety television was coming to an end she said "I really have to thank Graham Kennedy for this. If he hadn't got me the sack all those years ago I would not have gone to Seven".

She committed suicide in 1985.

Her brother Frank wrote a play Mary Lives!, celebrating her life in 1987 which was staged at the Malthouse Theatre.

[edit] Quotes

With feigned innocence when presenting the female owner of winning greyhound, turned directly to the camera and said "To which bitch do I present this prize?"