| Liz Harris | |
|---|---|
| Born | Elizabeth Harris |
| Occupation | Stage and television actress |
| Years active | 1962-1993 |
| Spouse | Leonard Teale (1968-1994) |
| Children | 4 |
Elizabeth "Liz" Harris is a retired Australian stage and television actress who appeared on a number of popular television series and films from the mid-1960s up until her retirement in 1993. She is best known for her role as Lisa in the 1960s children's television series Adventure Island but also playing recurring characters Sally Dempster in Prisoner Cell Block H and Clover Owen-Jones in A Country Practice in her later career. She was also the wife of longtime Australian television and radio star Leonard Teale.
Elizabeth Harris made her television acting debut on Consider Your Verdict in 1962.[1] From 1962 to 1966 she co-hosted "Video Village", with Danny Webb, on Channel 7. She was then cast in the children's television series The Magic Circle Club and made several guest appearances on Homicide between 1965-66.[2] She also starred in a second children's series, Adventure Island (1967) with co-star Ernie Bourne (replacing original host Nancy Cato who had been injured during production),[3] in what became her breakout role as the series heroine Lisa,[4][5][6][7] and Hunter (1968). In July 1968, she also performed at St. Martin's Theatre with Charles Chilton, Joan Littlewood and Ted Allen in a London Theatre Workshop stage production of Oh What a Lovely War.[8] On December 18, 1968, Harris married television and radio actor Leonard Teale (who had four children).
She took an absence from television acting for several years but made brief appearances on The 40s in Swing Time (1973), Alvin Purple (1976) and King's Men (1979). In 1982, she was cast as Sally Dempster in the cult soap opera Prisoner Cell Block H.[9][10] Although she appeared on the series briefly, Harris had a memorable role as an alcoholic wife of a businessman.[11] She is eventually sent to prison for running over her husband and attempted suicide after it was revealed that she was physically abusive to her young daughter.[12]
She also appeared on Sons and Daughters[13] and A Country Practice that same year. Her recurring role as Clover Owen-Jones in the latter series would continue on and off for the next nine years.[14] Harris continued to make television appearances during the 1980s with supporting roles in television films Skin Deep (1983), Shout! The Story of Johnny O'Keefe (1985) and the television series Relative Merits in 1987. Her final television appearance was in G.P. in 1993.
In January 2004, she appeared at a special book signing and screening of Lisa Milner's Fighting Films with Michael Craig and Jack Thompson. Her attendance was in honor of her late husband Leonard Teale who worked with the film company as a voice actor during the 1950s.[15]