Above: Screen grab of Marcia Ralston as an Air Stewardess in Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941) with W.C. Fields. Author’s Collection.
The following are links to online accounts of other Australian actors that the author has found useful. (Click here for a list of published texts and digital resources)
- Annette Andre.
This is a link to Andre’s own website, which provides a very good precis of her professional life, spanning more than 30 years acting in Australia and the UK. Her autobiography Where Have I Been All My Life was published in 2018. She is a living actor and hardly forgotten, but her very witty commentary is very useful for understanding the experiences of Australian actors moving overseas to work in the post war world.
Stephen Vagg‘s 2020 interview with her is definitely worth a read – find it at Film Ink, here.
Born Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 24 June, 1939. - Judith Anderson. [Desley Deacon] This is a brand new book on Anderson – thoroughly researched and the ultimate resource on her work and life.
Born Adelaide, South Australia, Australia, 10 Feb 1897
Died California, USA , 3 Jan 1992 - Yvonne Fifi Banvard. [Camille Scaysbrook – Brooksie at the Movies] A masterful account of Fifi’s life. There is also an ADB account by Anne-Marie Gaudry here.
Born Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 25 December 1901
Died Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 24 June 1962. - George Beranger or André Beranger (George Augustus Beringer) [Bryony Cosgrove]
Born Sydney, New South Wales, Australia 27 March 1893
Died Los Angeles, California, USA, 8 March 1973 - Coral Browne (Coral Edith Browne) [Anne Rees, ADB]
Coral Browne has also been well documented by Rose Collis, in Coral Browne, This Effing Lady, published by Oberon Books in 2007.
Born Melbourne, Victoria, Australia 23 July 1913
Died Los Angeles, California, USA, 29 May, 1991 - Zoe Caldwell (Zoe Ada Caldwell) [Desley Deacon]
Born Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 14 September 1933
Died New York, USA, 16 February 2020 - Mae Dahlberg (May Charlotte Dahlberg) [Steve Rattle and Graeme Haigh]
Born Melbourne, Victoria, Australia 24 May 1888
Died New York 1969 ? - Madge Elliot and Cyril Ritchard The story of my life – by Madge Elliott
[Theatre Heritage Australia has republished Elliot’s account of her life with Cyril Ritchard.]
Born UK, 12 May 1896
Died New York, 8 August 1955 - Dorothy Gordon (Dorothy Gordon Jenner, aka “Andrea”) [Deb Verhoeven. Women Film Pioneers Project]
Born Narrabri, New South Wales, Australia, 1 March 1891
Died Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 24 March 1985 - Maud Jeffries (Maud Evelyn Craven Jeffries) [Clarissa Thorpe, ABC.net]
Born Lula Mississippi, USA, 14 December 1869
Died Gundaroo, New South Wales, Australia, 26 September 1946. - Annette Kellerman (Annette Marie Kellerman) [G.P.Walsh, ADB]
Born Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 6 July 1886
Died Southport, Queensland, Australia, 6 November 1975 - Lottie Lyell (Lottie Edith Lyell) [Mervyn J. Wasson, ADB]
Born Sydney, New South Wales, Australia 23 February 1890
Died Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 21 December 1925 - Louise Lovely (Louise Nellie Lovely) [Ina Bertrand, ADB]
Born Sydney, New South Wales, Australia 28 February 1895
Died Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, 17 March 1980 - The McDonagh Sisters [Graham Shirley NFSA website] and also
the joint article at the ADB [Andrée Wright]
Paulette de Vere McDonagh(1901-1978)
Isabella Mercia McDonagh (1899-1982)
Phyllis Glory McDonagh (1900-1978) - Claire Adams Mckinnon [Virginia Maxwell ADB]
Born Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, 24 September 1896
Died Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 25 September 1978 - Betty Stockfeld (Elizabeth Baddeley Stockfeld) [Robbie Stockfeld]
Born Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 15 January 1904
Died Tadworth, England, 27 January 1966
The Women Film Pioneers Project, edited by Jane Gaines, Radha Vatsal, and Monica Dall’Asta, New York, NY: Columbia University Libraries, has scholarly articles on a number of pioneer filmmakers, amongst them several Australians – including Lottie Lyell and the McDonagh sisters