Fiona Spence
Fiona Spence | |
---|---|
Born | c.1948 UK |
Occupation | Actress (Retired) |
Years active | 1977–2019 |
Known for | Prisoner (TV series) as Vera Bennett (1979-1981) Home and Away as Celia Stewart (1988–1990, 2000, 2002, 2005, 2012–2013) |
Notable work | Glenview High (TV series) Packed to the Rafters (TV series) as Eleanor McCormick (recurring) Wentworth (TV series, cameo) (deleted)[2] |
Partner(s) | Unnamed fiance (1970)[1] Unnamed fiance (1978)[1] Denise Morgan (1979–2011)[3] |
Fiona Spence (born c.1948)[1] is an Australian stage and television actress and drama teacher. She is known for her television roles including Prisoner (1979–81) as Gestapo-like prison officer Vera "Vinegar Tits" Bennett and Home and Away as the unlucky-in-love spinster Celia Stewart (1988–90).
She has made numerous returns to Home and Away reprising her role of Celia. Her other television roles include Packed to the Rafters as Eleanor McCormick (2013). Fiona alongside her former Prisoner co-stars Val Lehman and Colette Mann (who played inmates Bea Smith and Doreen Anderson respectively), was one of three actresses who filmed cameos for the Prisoner re-imaging series Wentworth in 2019, however the scenes were deleted and never went to air.[2]
Early life
Spence was born in
After living in Canada for a year, she left for England and lived in London for a time working as a saleswoman for the Fortnum & Mason department store. It was while seeing several plays in London's West End, she became interested in acting. She was engaged aged 22, but broke it off.[1] After returning to Australia, wanting to become an actress, she trained with The Independent Theatre.
Early career
Spence began acting professionally during the late 1970s. She became engaged a second time, but again the relationship ended around 1978.[6] While living in Sydney, she appeared in her first television role in the teen drama Glenview High in 1977.[7]
Television roles
Prisoner
In 1979 she first found fame playing the sad and sadistic, authoritarian prison officer
When producer John McRae took over day-to-day running of the series in 1981, plans were made to write Spence out of the series. Her character had become immensely popular during her two-years on the show and, when news of her departure was announced, the
Home and Away and others
During her last year with Prisoner, Spence appeared in supporting roles in both the television mini-series Women of the Sun and the television movie I Can Jump Puddles, which also featured a number of other former Prisoner co-stars including Sigrid Thornton, Sandy Gore, Lesley Baker and Anne Phelan.
From 1988 until 1990, Spence became well known for playing spinster Celia Stewart in
In 2018, Spence joined former Prisoner co-stars Colette Mann and Val Lehman in a cameo for series seven of Wentworth in the episode ten series finale as it was at the time set to be the final season of the series, but last minute funding saved the show from ending. Spence, Mann and Lehman's scene was cut out when the series was renewed for the shows final season, Mann revealed in 2022 during an interview with podcast series Talking Prisoner the cameo that they were set to do was the three of them standing in the yard and waving goodbye to one of the characters.[11][12]
Theatre and pantomime
In March 1984, Spence starred alongside Geraldine Cook in the 60-minute "softcore feminist" black comedy Mums, at Melbourne's La Mama Theatre. The play was about the "manic lives" of two trapped women in a high-rise flat, in which Spence played the tough, aggressive Jo, while Cook played the more light-hearted Toots.[13] She played Bonnie in the 1986 Melbourne Theatre Company production of the play Hurlyburly at the Russel Street Theatre.[14]
She returned to the theatre in the early 1990s recreating the role of Vera Bennett in a British stage play version of Prisoner. She also starred in a theatrical
Filmography
Film
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1979 | The Franky Doyle Story | Vera Bennett / Vera | TV movie |
1984 | Lysistrata | TV movie | |
2013 | Mirrors | Lola | Short film |
Television
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1978 | Glenview High | Guest role: Maxine | TV series, season 1, episode 29 "After the Loving" |
1979–1981 | Prisoner | Regular role: Vera Bennett / Vera | TV series, Seasons 1–3, 222 episodes |
1981 | Women of the Sun | Guest role: Joy Cutler | TV miniseries, episode 4. "Lo-Arna" |
1981 | I Can Jump Puddles | Guest role: Mrs. Wilson | TV miniseries, episode 4: "Crutches Are Nothing" |
1983; 1984 | Cop Shop | Guest role: Nora Fitzgerald | TV series, episode 456 |
1983 | Home | Recurring role: Carol Davidson | TV series, episodes 29–32 |
1984 | Cop Shop | Guest role: Heather Ramsay | TV series, episode 537 |
1985 | The Fast Lane | Guest role: Peg | TV series, season 2, episode 6: "Holding the Mirror up to Itself" |
1988–1990, 2000, 2002, 2005, 2012–2013 | Home and Away | Regular role: Celia Stewart | TV series, seasons 1–3 (regular) Seasons 13, 15, 18, 25–26, 37, 290 episodes (guest) |
1989 | TV AM
|
Guest (with Carol Burns & Val Lehman) | TV series UK, 1 episode |
1990 | Richard & Judy | Guest | TV series UK, 1 episode |
1990 | The Nightshift | Guest | TV series UK, 1 episode |
1992 | Acropolis Now | Recurring role: Joan | TV series, season 5, episode 2 & 13 |
1992 | Cluedo | TV series, 1 episode | |
1993 | Law of the Land | Regular role: Magistrate Maggie Mulcahy | TV series, season 2, episodes 1-14 |
1995 | Sale of the Century: Battle of the TV Classics | Contestant (with Val Lehman, Colette Mann & Maggie Kirkpatrick) | TV series, 1 episode |
1995 | The Feds: Vengeance | Recurring role: Lisa | TV miniseries |
2011 | A Current Affair | Guest (with Prisoner cast: Val Lehman, Carol Burns, Elspeth Ballantyne, Patsy King, Jane Clifton, Judith McGrath & Margaret Laurence) | TV series, 1 episode |
2013 | Packed to the Rafters | Recurring role: Eleanor McCormack | TV series, season 6, episode 1-6 & 11-12 |
2013 | The Morning Show | Guest (with Prisoner cast: Val Lehman, Carol Burns, Colette Mann, Elspeth Ballantyne & Patsy King) | TV series, 1 episode |
2016 | All Star Family Feud | Contestant (with Ian Smith, Val Lehman & Colette Mann) | TV series, 1 episode |
2019 | Wentworth | Cameo: New Prisoner | TV series, season 7, episode 10 (scene deleted) |
Theatre
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1984 | Mums | Jo | La Mama Theatre |
1986 | Hurlyburly | Bonnie | Russell Street Theatre with Melbourne Theatre Company |
1990s | Prisoner | Vera Bennett | United Kingdom |
1991–92 | Aladdin | Theatre Royal, Hanley | |
Lipstick Dreams | United Kingdom | ||
1993 | St James Infirmary | Russell Street Theatre |
References
- ^ a b c d e f "Hate Couture: Warder Sight! It's Vera Dressed Up!". Daily Mirror. March 1990. Archived from the original on 10 June 2001.
- ^ a b David Knox (6 August 2019). "Wentworth filmed Prisoner cast cameos". TV Tonight.com.
- ^ "A wondrous way with words for TV". The Sydney Morning Herald. 23 July 2011.
- ^ a b "Fiona Spence". Lee Leslie Management. Retrieved 16 August 2017.
- ^ "Exhibitions: Australia at Expo '67 Montreal". National Museum of Australia. Archived from the original on 7 August 2018. Retrieved 30 March 2008.
- ^ "Characters: Celia Stewart – Fiona Spence". HomeAndAway.com. 1 November 2000. Archived from the original on 9 September 2001.
- ^ Kingsley, Hillary (January 2000). "Press Clippings". Wentworth Web: an Unofficial Prisoner Cell Block H website. Archived from the original on 1 October 2005.
- ^ "A wondrous way with words for TV". The Sydney Morning Herald. 23 July 2011.
- ISBN 1-86403-191-3
- ^ Bourke, Terry (8 March 1998). "Chapter 9: The First Keepers". Prisoner Cell Block H: behind the scenes. WWWentworth.co.uk.
- ^ Knox, David (6 August 2019). "Wentworth filmed Prisoner cast cameos | TV Tonight". tvtonight.com.au. Retrieved 6 May 2024.
- ^ Colette Mann on Wentworth's Season 7 Deleted Yard Scene| @TalkingPrisoner. Retrieved 6 May 2024 – via www.youtube.com.
- ^ "New Theatre: And now a brief rundown of the newest stage productions in "Melbourne". The Age. 16 March 1984.
- ^ "Hurlburly". AusStage. Retrieved 16 August 2017.
- ^ Rowe, Michelle. "The Set Is Still Wobblier Than Oliver Reed On A Bad Day, But Prisoner: Cell Block H Still Has Its Fans". The Mirror. 28 June 1998
- ^ https://ausstage.edu.au/pages/contributor/238561
External links
- Fiona Spence at IMDb