Legendary actress Lorraine Bayly, best known for The Sullivans, Carson’s Law and Play School, has died.
Legendary actress Lorraine Bayly, best known for The Sullivans, Carson’s Law and Play School, has died aged 89.
She passed away in a care home in Sydney earlier this morning.
Bayly enjoyed a six decade career on Australian stage and screen. As matriarch Grace Sullivan, she was adored across the country, regarded as one of Australia’s quintessential TV mums.
Bayly was raised in Batlow, in southern NSW as the daughter of a policeman who dabbled in ventriloquism and magic. At the age of 9 she has a ventriloquist doll with which she would perform in the local jail. By 11 she was playing classical piano on 2UE.
“I got my first paying gig through that. A woman rang up and asked if I could play at her daughter’s wedding in Alexandria. I played Jerusalem and Pedro the Fisherman,” she once told TV Tonight.
She trained at the Ensemble Theatre and regards 1958 as the start of her professional career, tallying over 50 theatre productions.
Her first TV acting role came via two ABC series in 1966. Be Our Guest featured Jackie Weaver, Gordon Glenwright, Jack Allen and Sean Scully.
Concurrently she appeared in ABC sci-fi series The Interpretaris.
“I played Vera Balovna, an astronaut in a slinky black outfit and a cape, for 6 weeks. We were one of the first (sci-fi shows) and it was before computers. But on the spaceship we had 2 computers: Alice and Henry and they fell in love!” she said.
There were numerous guest roles before The Sullivans came along, including for Homicide, Division 4, Hunter, The Rovers, Spyforce, Ride a Wild Pony, and an ongoing presenter role on the legendary Play School.
“I had to leave Play School to do Sullivans because it was based in Sydney. They kept ringing me to ask ‘Could I come up on weekends and do something?’ But I was working 7 days a week,” she said.
“I was thrilled when I got the role because the scripts I had to learn for the screen test I knew it looked good. It looked like it was going to be a good show.”
The wartime soap ran from 1976-1983 on Nine topping the ratings, winning Logies and a devoted fan base both here and internationally. Bayly’s warmth and strength in Grace rippled throughout the Sullivans family, headed by actor Paul Cronin as Dave and her on-screen children played by Andrew McFarlane, Steven Tandy, Richard Morgan and Susan Hannaford.
“It really was a good show, when you look at it now. Particularly when you realise we were shooting the equivalent of a full-length movie every week.”
But when she quit the show after just 3 years it sent pioneering producer Hector Crawford into a spin.
“Hector was not very happy! I was taken to lunch and virtually told that I could ask for whatever I wanted. But I didn’t realise what he was saying at the time!” she recalled.
“But I still wouldn’t have changed my mind. The 3 years on air explored so many things in family life with the kids and Dave & Grace, I was fearful –as happens sometimes- it would wander away. It didn’t but I thought it was time for me to leave.”
Grace was shockingly written out as the victim of a German V-1 flying bomb in London, but in reality Bayly had departed the show 6 months earlier.
Period legal drama Carson’s Law which ran on 10 from 1982 – 1984 was another big hit with Bayly starring as progressive solicitor Jennifer Carson.
“It was written for me. Ian Crawford told me. I was very flattered,” she admitted.
“I really enjoyed doing it. A lot of the courtcases were paralleled in society…. drugs, rape… and I remember being shocked that homosexuality was a crime, and I defended a character who was gay and I remember being dumbfounded he was found guilty and got 10 years hard labour. And it was based on truth.
“It was hellishly difficult to do, because I had long closing and opening speeches.
“I loved working with Kevin Miles (as short-tempered father-in-law Godfrey Carson), working off each other. They were such strong characters.
She won Silver Logies for Most Popular Actress for both Carson’s Law and The Sullivans.
Other TV credits over a six-decade career include Number 96, 1915, The Challenge (as Eileen Bond), A Country Practice, G.P., Pizza and Through My Eyes. In 1991 she agreed to step into Neighbours as Faye Hudson, sister of Doug (Terence Donovan).
Films included The Man From Snowy River, Fatty Finn, and Ride a Wild Pony.
Her stage career included The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, The Season at Sarsaparilla, Gaslight, Death of a Salesman, Brighton Beach Memoirs, Travelling North, and The Sound of Music, her final credit in 2016, as Frau Schmidt.
In 2018 she told TV Tonight, she had just updated her photo in Showcast at the age of 81.
“I’m not saying I’m retiring because I did retire when I was 60-something, because I was having dreadful trouble with my blood pressure,” she said.
“But after a year another doctor changed my medications and so I went back. I’ve only retired once, lots of people have retired more than that.
“From now on I will be thinking about it. I’ve worked so hard. I live about 3 minutes from Mike Walsh’s beautiful Orpheum Cinema and I’ve seen 2 movies in the last 4 years. I want to see more and meet people for lunches!”