Mary Ward (actress)
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Mary Ward | |
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Born | Mary Lorraine Ward 6 March 1915 Victoria, Australia |
Other names | Mary Ward Breheny |
Occupations |
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Years active |
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Known for | [3] |
Mary Lorraine Ward[4] (6 March 1915 – 19 July 2021), also known as Mary Ward Breheny,[5] was an Australian actress of stage, television, and film and radio announcer. Her career spanned seven decades. Ward trained in England and Australia, and worked in both countries.
Ward during the outbreak of
At ABC Television, she appeared in a number of filmed stage plays, as well as featuring in Australian films, both made-for-television and theatrical, including the film Amy.[3]
She is perhaps best known—both locally and internationally—as an actress portraying elderly characters in television soap opera roles, including Prisoner, as one of the original characters, "Mum" Jeanette Brookes in which she appeared sporadically from 1979 and 1981,[6]
Ward featured briefly in soap opera Sons and Daughters in 1983 as Dee Morrell, in which she was classified as a recurring guest role (season 2 - Episodes 305–337).
Ward also had small guest roles in The Young Doctors, Neighbours and Blue Heelers. Ward retired in 2000, and in 2020, residing in Melbourne, turned 105 years old, and was at the time was said to be the "oldest living actress in Australia".[3]
Biography
Early life and career in Britain
Ward was born in Fremantle, Western Australia on 6 March 1915, her father was a pearler, who later bacame the town publican.[7][5]
Ward attended boarding school and began acting professionally shortly after leaving high school, and later studied at the Perth drama school, where she befriended mining magnate
She returned to England in 1948, to pursue work in radio, stage, television and film, and appeared in the first televised serial production at
Ward made her first television appearance as a minor character in detective series The Vise - originally titled Saber of London - in 1954, and in the television movie The High-Flying Head the following year. She had starring roles in the television movies Marriage Lines and The Tower.[citation needed]
Career: television, stage and film
She began working in television full-time in Australia after having returned in 1956, firstly working at the ABC, whilst continuing a successful media career, and being the first woman to present fashions on the field, in the 1960s at the annual Melbourne Cup spring racing carnival.
Ward featured at commercial stations, in serials from 1970s with
Prisoner and Sons and Daughters
In 1979, Ward first appeared in one of her best known roles, "Mum" (Jeanette) Brooks, on the popular soap opera Prisoner. She portrayed an elderly institutionalised inmate, serving an eighteen-year prison sentence for the euthanisation of her terminally-ill husband Jim Brooks. When the filming schedule for the series increased from one to two hours per week in 1979, she and co-star Carol Burns decided to leave the series. However, her character remained a popular one during the show's early years, and she reprised her role occasionally until her character died off-screen in 1983.[8] She starred with a number of her fellow Prisoner co-stars in the 1981 television movie I Can Jump Puddles as a character called Mrs. Birdsworth.
She was given the prominent role as scheming Dee Morrell in Sons and Daughters during 1983.
The Hendersons
Ward starred in the 1985 television series The Henderson Kids and its 1987 follow-up series The Henderson Kids II.
Later film and TV
During the late-1980s, she had supporting roles in films
Between 1999 and 2000, she played the recurring character Betty Withers in the police drama Blue Heelers. She retired from the industry in 2000.
Death
Ward died on 19 July 2021, aged 106, in Melbourne, Victoria.[11]
Filmography
Film
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
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1949 | Eureka Stockade | Lady Hotham | Feature film |
That Dangerous Age | Nurse | Feature film, UK. Released in the US as If This Be Sin | |
1975 | Born To Run aka 'Harness Fever'
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Aunt Marian Castle | Feature film |
1976 | Cry Your Purple Heart Out | Mike | Feature film, US. Also known as How To Score With Girls |
1985 | Jenny Kissed Me | Grace | Feature film |
1986 | Backstage | Geraldine Wollencraft | Feature film |
1997 | Amy | Mrs. Mullins | Feature film |
Television
Year | Title | Role | Type |
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1951 | I Was a Stranger | Official | TV film, UK |
1954 | The Vise
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Guest role: Mrs Diana Campbell | TV series UK, 1 episode |
1955 | The High-Flying Head | Mrs Taylor | TV film, UK |
1957 | Roundabout | The Wife | Teleplay |
1957 | The Twelve Pound Look
|
Role unknown | ABC Teleplay |
1958 | Captain Carvallo | Role unknown | Teleplay |
1959 | The Lark
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Queen Yolande | Teleplay |
1962 | Marriage Lines | Lysette Eggerton | TV film |
The Teeth of the Wind | Mary Vender | Teleplay | |
1963 | The Hot Potato Boys | Millicent Mayne | ABC Teleplay |
1965 | The Tower
|
Hester Fortescue | ABC Teleplay |
Otherwise Engaged
|
Dorothy | TV film | |
1974 | This Love Affair | Guest role: Hannah Galbraith | ABC TV series, 1 episode 9: "This Year, Next Time |
1974 | Rush
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Guest role: Mrs Hawk | ABC TV series, 1 episode |
1975–1976 | Homicide | Guest roles: Mrs Parsons / Margaret Lennox / Mrs Phillips | TV series, 3 episodes |
1976 | The Judging Ring | Role unknown | ABC TV film |
1976 | Power Without Glory | Guest role: Edith | ABC TV miniseries, 1 episode |
1978 | Cop Shop | Recurring Guest role: Emma Hudson | TV series, 2 episodes |
1979;1981 | Prisoner | Regular role: Janette 'Mum' Brooks | TV series, 33 episodes aka 'Prisoner: Cell Block H' and 'Caged Women' |
1979 | The Franky Doyle Story | Mum Brooks | TV film |
1979 | The Wonderful World of Disney
|
Aunt Marian Castle | TV series US, 2 episodes 'Born To Run' aka 'Harness Fever' |
1981 | The Young Doctors | Recurring Guest role: Mrs Wilson | TV series |
I Can Jump Puddles | Mrs Birdsworth | ABC TV series, 1 episode | |
1982 | A Country Practice | Thelma Thomas | TV series, 2 episodes: The Seeds of Discontent (Parts 1 & 2) |
1983 | Sons and Daughters | Recurring role: Dee Morrell | TV series, 22 episodes |
1984 | Hot Pursuit | Role unknown | TV series, 1 episode: Steel Trap |
1985 | The Henderson Kids | Recurring Guest role: Mrs Cathcart | TV series, 2 episodes |
1987 | The Henderson Kids II
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Recurring Guest role: Mrs Cathcart | TV series, 2 episodes |
1989 | Neighbours
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Recurring Guest role: Mrs Granger | TV series, 3 episodes |
G.P. | Guest role: Jessie McLean | ABC TV series, 1 episode | |
Darlings of the Gods | Barbara Ward | ABC TV mini-series | |
1992 | The Late Show
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Lady Frontbottom | ABC TV series, 1 episode of The Olden Days (edited from Rush) |
1994 | The Damnation of Harvey McHugh | Guest role: Ivy | ABC TV series, 1 episode |
1999–2000 | Blue Heelers | Recurring Guest role: Betty Withers | TV series, 3 episodes |
References
- ^ a b c d "Vale Mary Ward, veteran stage and screen actor".
- ^ "Mary Ward".
- ^ a b c "At 105, Mary Ward keeps smiling".
- ^ The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Australian Showbiz
- ^ a b "Breheny, Mary Ward". Archived from the original on 3 April 2016.
- ^ "PCBH Characters Section 24". Retrieved 28 February 2021.
- ^ "Prisoner star Mary Ward Breheny still going strong at 101". Herald Sun. 3 May 2016. Retrieved 3 May 2016.
- ^ a b Bourke, Terry (8 March 1998). "Chapter 3: Looking For Franky, Bea and Vinegar Tits". Prisoner Cell Block H: behind the scenes. WWWentworth.co.uk.
- ^ a b "Articles and Interviews: Mary Ward". H-Block Herald. 1991. Archived from the original on 4 August 2009.
- .pdf) on 20 July 2008.
- ^ Maloon, Natacha (19 July 2021). "Veteran Aussie actress Mary Ward dies at 106". Celebrity. Nine Network. Retrieved 19 July 2021.
External links
- Mary Ward at IMDb