Sheila Florance
| Sheila Florance | |
|---|---|
 as Lizzie Birdsworth in Prisoner (1980) | |
| Born |
Sheila Mary Florance 24 July 1916 St. Kilda, Victoria, Australia |
| Died |
12 October 1991 (aged 75) Melbourne, Australia |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Spouse(s) | Roger Oyston , John Balawaider |
Sheila Mary Florance (24 July 1916 – 12 October 1991) was a much awarded Australian theatre, film and television actress. She worked in both Australia and Britain.
Early life
After starting acting in around 1932, her love for the stage brought her to England, where she resided for 14 years and worked in the theatre in London before returning to Australia appearing on Australian television. Florance played small roles in several Australian films of the 1970s, including Mad Max (1979). She won two Logie Awards for her portrayal of the elderly, Lizzie Birdsworth, in the television series Prisoner. She also won The Melbourne Critics Award for stage.
She left the series in 1984, and continued to work sporadically in Australian films. Her final performance, as a woman dying of cancer in A Woman's Tale (1991), was filmed while she was suffering from cancer herself. She won the AACTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, a week before her death from cancer.
Career
Born in St Kilda, Melbourne, Australia, her passion for theatre took her to London, where she worked for 16 years,;[1] and eventually back to Melbourne. Florance was a frequent guest star in various television series during the 1960s and was a regular on the Bellbird series. In the 1970s, she began appearing in films, most notably Petersen (1974), End Play (1975), The Devil's Playground (1976), and Mad Max (1979).
In 1978, she joined the cast of the television series Prisoner (known outside of Australia as Prisoner: Cell Block H), which was produced by The Reg Grundy Organisation. As the recalcitrant, alcoholic murderer (discovered during the series to be innocent) Lizzie Birdsworth, Florance became one of the show's favourite performers. The writers initially devised the character as comic relief; however, with Florance's performance, the character was further developed and given more substantial dramatic storylines. Her popularity was such that she won two Logie Awards as Australia's most popular television actress in 1981 and 1983. Florance left the show in 1984 and worked in such films as Nirvana Street Murder (1990).
In a heated on air exchange with Grundy's senior Vice President Peter Pinne on a live British television programme Open Air in 1989, Florance was highly critical of the production company and its treatment of the cast.
Her final film role was in Paul Cox's A Woman's Tale (1991). As a genteel, elderly woman, down on her luck, who reminisced with her nurse of better days, while dying of cancer, Florance gave a performance that was widely praised both within Australia, and internationally following the film's release. Florance herself was fighting cancer during the filming. She won the AFI Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her work, and seven days after receiving the award, died from the disease, in Melbourne.
Biography
In 2005, a biography on Florance titled On The Inside, was published, written by her daughter-in-law Helen Martineau.
Personal life
Florance married Roger Oyston who died in 1944, with whom she had two daughters and two sons.[1] She spent time in London during the Second World War, where she lost a baby daughter, killed in her arms during an air raid.[1] Her first husband died in action after D-Day; and she subsequently married a pilot who had been badly wounded, John Balawaider, in 1946,[1] whom she nursed throughout her life.
Selected filmography
- End Play (1975)
References
External links
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