Queenie Ashton

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Queenie Ashton
AM
Queenie Ashton, photographed by Noel Rubie in about 1950.
Born
Ethel Muriel Ashton

(1903-11-11)11 November 1903
Died23 October 1999(1999-10-23) (aged 95)
Other namesEthel Muriel Cover
CitizenshipAustralian
Occupations
  • Actress (television and film)
  • stage performer
  • singer
  • dancer
  • radio personality
Years active1917-1992
Known forThe Lawsons (radio serial) Blue Hills (radio serial)
Spouses
  • Lionel Lawson (married 1931–1940)
  • Frederick John Cover (married 1946–1999)
Children2
AwardsMacquarie Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role

Ethel

AM[1]
(11 November 1903 – 21 October 1999), known professionally as Queenie Ashton, was a character actress, born in England, who had a long career in Australia as a theatre performer and radio personality, best known for her radio and television soap opera roles, although she did also feature briefly in films.

Ashton alongside her contemporaries Grace Gibson, Amber Mae Cecil and Ethel Lang,[2] has been described as a pioneer for females in radio. Her best known role's was in the long-running Gwen Meredith radio serial Blue Hills, as Lee Gordon[2]and later Grannie Emily Bishop a role she would later reprise for television, with the first Australian-produced soap opera Autumn Affair.[3]

Biography

Early life and stage

Ashton was born in

Strella Wilson
.

Radio

Ashton featured in radio from the 1930s, she appeared in musical comedy opposite Dick Bentley in Oh! Quaite. Her first straight drama role was in 1939, a period piece playing Marie Antoinette.[7]

She played Budge's mother in "Budge's Gang", a segment of the ABC Children's Session (c. 1941–45, and it was so popular it was made into a comic book). Most notably, she played the wife of Dr. Gordon[2] and the long-running role of Granny Bishop (a character many years her senior) in the radio serial Blue Hills, for the entire 27 years of the serial's run (1949–1976 – hers were the very first and last spoken parts). Ashton, as Granny Bishop, spoke:

"We don't have to see people every day of the week/to imagine them in their surroundings or even to live their lives with them. We can still use our imagination ... they can still be in our minds. They can still be with us and so you see, and it is isn't really very hard to say goodbye. to say goodbye and God bless."[8]

Television and film

Ashton also played this role on Australia's first television serial Autumn Affair. In 1957 she appeared in a one-off television play called

Certain Women (as "Dolly Lucas"), She was a semi-regular cast member of A Country Practice (as "Lillian Coote") and G.P. (as "Mrs Sculthorpe").[9]

Film roles included both theatrical and telefilms

The Farrer Story in 1949, she also had cameo's in Mama's Gone A-Hunting in 1977 and The Year My Voice Broke in 1987. She also appeared in many television commercials, most notably for Sara Lee
. She was still performing in stage and cabaret plays in her nineties and was one of Australia's last great grand dames and one of the oldest entertainers still performing.

Personal life

Ashton married Lionel Lawson in 1931 (who died in 1950), a violinist, who became leader of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra; they had a daughter, nurse Janet Lawson, in 1933 and a son, Tony Lawson, in 1935.[10] They divorced in 1940.[1]

Ashton remarried in 1946 to Frederick John Cover, a theatrical agent, and founder and managing director of the actors' casting firm, Central Casting.

She died on 21 October 1999, in Carlingford, New South Wales, aged 95.[2]

Selected stage appearances

Title Year
Winter Garden, London
1926[11]
Sunny as "Sue Warren" at the Empire Theatre, Sydney 1927[11]
Rio Rita as "Carmen" at the Princess Theatre, Melbourne 1929[12]
Whoopee! at the Empire Theatre, Sydney 1929[13]
The Patsy (play by Barry Conners) as the nasty elder sister 1944[14]
Anna Christie for the John Alden Company with Leonard Thiele and Lyndall Barbour 1951[15]
A Victorian Marriage (1951 play by Warwick Fairfax) 1951[16]
The Glass Menagerie 1961
An Evening with Noël Coward 1965
The Boy Friend 1968/1969
The Old Fashioned Show 1977
Three Sisters (by Anton Chekhov Drama theatre, Sydney Opera House) 1977
Stevie 1982[17]

Filmography

Film

Year Title Role Type
1948 Always Another Dawn Molly Regan Feature film
1949 Strong Is the Seed (aka The Farrer Story) Feature film
1980 Age Before Beauty Narrator Film short
1987 The Year My Voice Broke Mrs. O'Neil Feature film

Television

Year Title Role Type
1957 Tomorrow's Child Teleplay
1958-1959 Autumn Affair Granny Bishop TV series, 156 episodes
1959 Lady in Danger Mrs Lamprey Teleplay
1959 Pardon Miss Westcott Lydia Patterson Teleplay musical
1960 Whiplash Miss Culbert TV series, 1 episode
1962; 1964 Consider Your Verdict Adelaide Upton TV series, 2 episodes
1965-1970 Homicide Emily Simpson / Mrs. Miriam Pinkerton / Mrs. Hamilton / Dulcie Reynolds TV series, 4 episodes
1965 TV Spells Magic Guest (with Max Meldrum, Ron Shand, Ruth Cracknell, Evie Hayes, Wendy Blacklock, David Copping, Kevin Miles, Gwen Plumb, Chips Rafferty & Keith Petersen) TV special
1967 My Name's McGooley, What's Yours? Miss Fitchett TV series, 1 episode
1968 Hunter Mrs. Pankhurst TV series, 1 episode
1969-1973 Division 4 Emily Harrison / Elizabeth King / Mary Larkins / Mother O'Connell / Mrs. Wilde TV series, 6 episodes
1969 Pastures of the Blue Crane TV series
1971 Matlock Police Mrs. McIntyre TV series, 4 episodes
1971-1972 The Godfathers Mrs. Frenchman TV series, 4 episodes
1972 Crisis TV pilot
1973 Elephant Boy Doreen Graham TV series, 1 episode
1973-1976 Certain Women Dolly Lucas TV series, 257 episodes
1974 The Evil Touch Elspeth Pfeiffer TV series, 2 episodes
1976 Solo One Annie Robinson TV series, 1 episode
1977 Image of Death Mrs. Brooks TV film
1977 Mama's Gone A-Hunting Old Woman in Restaurant TV film
1977 Say You Want Me TV film
1977 The Restless Years Jessica Metcalf TV series, 1 episode
1978-1981 Cop Shop Agnes Hinch / Mrs. Roberts / Evelyn Armstrong / Betty Walton TV series, 6 episodes
1978 This Is Your Life Herself TV series, 1 episode
1978 The Mike Walsh Show Guest TV series, 1 episode
1979 Skyways Mrs. Fow TV series, 1 episode
1980 Young Ramsay Dolly Farrell TV series, 1 episode
1981 The Love Boat in Australia Mrs. Selkirk TV film, 2 episodes
1981 The Love Boat Mrs. Selkirk TV series, 2 episodes
1982, 1990 A Country Practice Mrs. 'Coote' Duggan TV series, 2 episodes
1983 Warming Up Mrs. Marsh TV film
1985 Double Sculls Pianist TV film
1986
Mother And Son
Elsie TV series, 1 episode
1987 Poor Man's Orange Mrs. Casement TV miniseries, 2 episodes
1987 Dearest Enemy TV pilot
1988 Rafferty's Rules Mrs. Capra TV series, 1 episode
1988 The Dirtwater Dynasty Old Patient TV miniseries, 1 episode
1989 In Melbourne Today Guest - Herself TV series, 1 episode
1990 A Country Practice Mrs. Lillian Coote TV series, 19 episodes
1991 The Miraculous Mellops Customer TV miniseries, 1 episode
1991-1992 G.P. Mrs. Jessica Sculthorpe ABC TV series, 6 episodes

Radio

Year Title Role
1939 East Lynne Lady Isabel
1949–1976 Blue Hills (radio serial) Granny Bishop

Recognition

In 1950 she won the Macquarie Network's award for "best performance by an actress in a supporting role" (in "Edward, My Son").[18]

In 1980, she was appointed by her stage name Queenie Ashton a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for her services to the performing arts.[19]

Notes

  1. ^ Some sources have stated her birth name as Edith

References

Citations

  1. ^ a b "Rift in Violinist's Lute". Truth. No. 2638. New South Wales, Australia. 28 July 1940. p. 21. Retrieved 1 November 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  2. ^
  3. ^ "Women in Early Radio, Queenie Ashton, National Film and Sound Archive of Australia". Archived from the original on 28 March 2012. Retrieved 30 March 2012.
  4. ^ "Music and Drama". The Argus (Melbourne). No. 25, 240. Victoria, Australia. 4 July 1927. p. 18. Retrieved 21 August 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  5. ^ ""Rio Rita"". The Sunday Times (Sydney). No. 2202. New South Wales, Australia. 15 April 1928. p. 34. Retrieved 22 August 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  6. Sunday Times (Sydney)
    . No. 2221. New South Wales, Australia. 12 August 1928. p. 23. Retrieved 22 August 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  7. The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate
    . No. 4465. New South Wales, Australia. 8 March 1939. p. 9. Retrieved 22 August 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  8. ^ "The Sun sets over 'Blue Hills'". Canberra Times. October 1976.
  9. ^ Sydney Morning Herald 1 October 1953
  10. ^ a b Sydney Morning Herald 28 January 1927
  11. ^ The Argus 26 January 1929
  12. ^ Sydney Morning Herald 17 June 1929
  13. ^ Sydney Morning Herald 2 February 1944
  14. ^ Sydney Morning Herald 22 April 1951
  15. ^ Sydney Morning Herald 30 June 1951
  16. ^ "Queenie Ashton". AusStage.
  17. ^ The Argus 12 February 1951
  18. ^ It's an Honour

Sources

External links