Pioneering Australian entertainer Toni Lamond, whose stage and screen career spans 8 decades, has died.
Pioneering Australian entertainer Toni Lamond, whose stage and screen career spans 8 decades, has died, aged 93.
Very sad to hear of showbiz legend Toni Lamond’s death at 93. What a life and career! A list of TV.stage and movie credits as long as your arm – both here and overseas. Fun fact- she was the first woman in the world to host a Tonight Show. She won a Logie & performed on the… pic.twitter.com/9vEeZ1FGCL
— Peter Ford (@newmrpford) November 29, 2025
She performed on the opening night of GTV9 in 1956. In 1961, Lamond also became the first woman in the world to compere a variety television show, IMT when Graham Kennedy pulled back from 5 shows a week.
Lamond’s career began at the age of 10 singing on the radio and touring with her vaudevillian parents in variety shows.
Along with Nancy Hayes and Jill Perryman, she is considered one of the three grand dames of Australian theatre.
Her career encompassed musical comedy, dramatic plays, recordings, film, television and cabaret.
Her first performances as a leading lady were with English comedian Tommy Trinder in The Tommy Trinder Show in 1952. She starred in Australian productions of Oliver!, Annie Get Your Gun, The Pajama Game, Gypsy, 42nd Street, The Pirates of Penzance, My Fair Lady, Nunsense, Cabaret, Follies, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Beauty and the Beast, High Society, Shout.
The mother of Tony Sheldon and half-sister of Helen Reddy, she moved to Los Angeles in the mid 1970s, maintaining a base in both Australia and the USA and working in both countries.
Her television credits include The Graham Kennedy Show, Bandstand, The Mike Walsh Show, The Bert Newton Show, Parkinson in Australia, In Melbourne Today, Good Morning Australia, Denise, Division 4, Number 96, Spicks and Specks and US shows The Love Boat, Murder She Wrote, Highway to Heaven, Eight is Enough, The Bob Newhart Show, Starsky & Hutch, Punky Brewster, The Pirates of Penzance plus films Spotswood and Razzle Dazzle.
But there was also personal tragedy.
In 1966 her husband took his own life while she was performing Oliver! Producers made her perform the night after his funeral. Toni then raised her son and performer Tony Sheldon on her own. She never had the chance to record ‘As Long As He Needs Me’ until 2019 when The Recording Studio gave her the opportunity with a 35-piece orchestra which ABC noted was “this stage and screen legend’s curtain call.”
Her many accolades include Logie Awards, Mo Awards, Variety Club Awards, Helpmann Awards Lifetime Achievement, Equity Lifetime Achievement Award, Centenary Medal for Service to the Arts Community, Victorian Honour Roll of Women, and an Order of Australia for Service to the Entertainment Industry and service.
Once asked, “What would you do to make a difference in the world?” she replied, “I would try to convince people who are blindsided by a stream of setbacks, and feel that there is no point in going on. I’d say: Hang in there, there is always a light at the end of the tunnel. NEVER GIVE UP!”