{"id":508775,"date":"2026-02-28T02:18:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T02:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/508775\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T02:18:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T02:18:11","slug":"vale-lorraine-bayly-tv-tonight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/508775\/","title":{"rendered":"Vale: Lorraine Bayly | TV Tonight"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\t\t\t\tLegendary actress Lorraine Bayly, best known for The Sullivans, Carson’s Law and Play School, has died.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Legendary actress Lorraine Bayly, best known for The Sullivans, Carson\u2019s Law and Play School, has died aged 89.<\/p>\n

She passed away in a care home in Sydney earlier this morning.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s quintessential TV mums.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got my first paying gig through that. A woman rang up and asked if I could play at her daughter\u2019s wedding in Alexandria. I played\u00a0Jerusalem\u00a0and\u00a0Pedro the Fisherman,\u201d she once told TV Tonight.<\/p>\n

She trained at the Ensemble Theatre and regards 1958 as the start of her professional career, tallying over 50 theatre productions.<\/p>\n

Her first TV acting role came via two ABC series in 1966. Be Our Guest\u00a0featured Jackie Weaver, Gordon Glenwright, Jack Allen and Sean Scully.<\/p>\n

Concurrently she appeared in ABC sci-fi series\u00a0The Interpretaris.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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!\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

There were numerous guest roles before\u00a0The Sullivans\u00a0came along, including for\u00a0Homicide, Division 4, Hunter, The Rovers, Spyforce, Ride a Wild Pony, and an ongoing presenter role on the legendary\u00a0Play School.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had to leave\u00a0Play School\u00a0to do\u00a0Sullivans\u00a0because it was based in Sydney. They kept ringing me to ask \u2018Could I come up on weekends and do something?\u2019 But I was working 7 days a week,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The wartime soap ran from 1976-1983 on Nine topping the ratings, winning\u00a0Logies and a devoted fan base both here and internationally. Bayly\u2019s warmth and strength in Grace rippled throughout the\u00a0Sullivans\u00a0family, headed by actor Paul Cronin as Dave and her on-screen children played by Andrew McFarlane, Steven Tandy, Richard Morgan and Susan Hannaford.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

But when she quit the show after just 3 years it sent pioneering producer Hector Crawford into a spin.<\/p>\n

\u201cHector was not very happy! I was taken to lunch and virtually told that I could ask for whatever I wanted. But I didn\u2019t realise what he was saying at the time!\u201d she recalled.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I still wouldn\u2019t 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 \u2013as happens sometimes- it would wander away. It didn\u2019t but I thought it was time for me to leave.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Period legal drama\u00a0Carson\u2019s Law which ran on 10 from 1982 \u2013 1984 was another big hit with Bayly starring as progressive solicitor Jennifer Carson.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was written for me. Ian Crawford told me. I was very flattered,\u201d she admitted.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really enjoyed doing it. A lot of the courtcases were paralleled in society\u2026. drugs, rape\u2026 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was hellishly difficult to do, because I had long closing and opening speeches.<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved working with Kevin Miles (as short-tempered father-in-law Godfrey Carson), working off each other. They were such strong characters.<\/p>\n

She won Silver Logies for Most Popular Actress for both Carson\u2019s Law and The Sullivans.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Other TV credits over a six-decade career include Number 96, 1915, The Challenge\u00a0(as Eileen Bond),\u00a0A Country Practice, G.P., Pizza\u00a0and\u00a0Through My Eyes. In 1991 she agreed to step into Neighbours as Faye Hudson, sister of Doug (Terence Donovan).<\/p>\n

Films included The Man From Snowy River, Fatty Finn, and Ride a Wild Pony.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In 2018 she told TV Tonight,<\/a> she had just updated her photo in Showcast at the age of 81.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not saying I\u2019m retiring because I did retire when I was 60-something, because I was having dreadful trouble with my blood pressure,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut after a year another doctor changed my medications and so I went back. I\u2019ve only retired once, lots of people have retired more than that.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom now on I will be thinking about it. I\u2019ve worked so hard. I live about 3 minutes from Mike Walsh\u2019s beautiful Orpheum Cinema and I\u2019ve seen 2 movies in the last 4 years. I want to see more and meet people for lunches!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Legendary actress Lorraine Bayly, best known for The Sullivans, Carson’s Law and Play School, has died. Legendary actress…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":508776,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[64,63,134,427],"class_list":["post-508775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=508775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/508776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=508775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=508775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=508775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}