Wendy Blacklock

Wendy Blacklock AM (born 1932, Sydney, Australia) is a retired Australia-based theatre actress and producer and television actress best known for her long-running role of comedy character dizzy Edith "Mummy" MacDonald in the 1970s television soap opera Number 96 ; a suburban housewife who had a fondness for gin and analgesics[1]

Career in theatre and television

Blacklock's acting career began on the stage and she spent two years in England acting in repertory theatre. She returned to Australia and had a solid career in the theatre which included stage tours of Australia and New Zealand; she was also a regular cast member of the satirical revues staged at Sydney's Phillip Street Theatre in the 1960s. Prior to the role in Number 96 she had played in theatrical productions of Don's Party and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, and made a few guest appearances in Australian television drama series.

The role in Number 96 began in January 1974. At that time the show was Australia's highest-rated television program and Blacklock's character, dizzy housewife Edie – otherwise known as "Mummy" – along with Edie's regimented husband Reg (Mike Dorsey) and their adopted daughter Marilyn (Frances Hargreaves), became popular and enduring comedy characters in the series. In late 1976 there were plans to spin off the characters of Mummy and Daddy into a new situation comedy series titled Mummy and Me and starring Blacklock and Dorsey, but the proposed series was not picked up by the network and the characters remained in Number 96. Blacklock played in the series continuously until it ended in August 1977 and was in fact the final person shown in the closing scene of the last episode.

During 1977, Blacklock appeared occasionally as a panellist on game show Graham Kennedy's Blankety Blanks. In the late 1970s she and her main Number 96 co-star Mike Dorsey created a stage show based on their Number 96 characters which toured clubs in New South Wales.

Honours

Blacklock was a JC Williamson Award recipient for lifetime achievement in 2003.[2] Blacklock was awarded the Order Of Australia for her services to the arts in 1992. A pioneer and facilitator of young people wanting to enter the arts, she is also an Helpmann Award recipient

References

  1. ↑ Joyce Morgan. "Grand Dame of the Stage Takes Her Bows". Sydney Morning Herald.
  2. ↑ "JC Williamson Award recipients". Helpmann Awards. Live Performance Australia. Retrieved 30 April 2012.
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