{"id":535467,"date":"2026-03-12T11:56:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T11:56:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/535467\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T11:56:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T11:56:16","slug":"vale-wendy-playfair-tv-tonight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/535467\/","title":{"rendered":"Vale: Wendy Playfair | TV Tonight"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\t\t\t\tAustralian actress Wendy Playfair, best known for Prisoner, has died, just 5 months short of a 100th birthday.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Australian actress Wendy Playfair, best known for Prisoner, has died aged 99.<\/p>\n

She passed away peacefully just 5 months short of a 100th birthday, after a career that spanned several decades across Australian theatre, television and radio.<\/p>\n

On Prisoner she played Minnie Donovan, briefly a \u201cTop Dog\u201d of Wentworth Detention Centre, from 1983 \u2013 1984 between Bea Smith\u2019s exit and Myra Desmond\u2019s entrance. As Top Dog Minnie started to \u201cmother\u201d everyone, teaching one prisoner some manners by confiscating her Walkman, and giving everyone pickpocketing lessons.<\/p>\n

Wendy Playfair, was born in August 1926. While still at school, she joined Bryant\u2019s Playhouse, and went on to study with other Little Theatres after she finished school, attending drama classes at night, while working an office job during the day. As radio work picked up, she gave up her office job and worked for the ABC in morning serials, and received radio\u2019s Macquarie Award.<\/p>\n

Her first screen credit was in 1960\u2019s The Slaughter of St. Theresa\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n

She worked consistently in shows such as Homicide, Hunter, Matlock Police, The Evil Touch, Number 96, Father Dear Father in Australia, Glenview High, The Young Doctors, Bellamy, Carson\u2019s Law plus Fortress, Return to Eden, A Country Practice, Big Sky, All Saints, Home & Away, Spirited, Laid, Rake and Packed to the Rafters.<\/p>\n

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She also has had parts in telemovies and films including Ride a Wild Pony (aka Harness Racing), the only Walt Disney film ever produced in Australia and a pivotal role in the film Accidents Happen, opposite Geena Davis in 2009.<\/p>\n

Talking Prisoner\u2018s Matt Batten said of a recent podcast, \u201cIt was an absolute honour to spend time with such a gracious, intelligent and elegant woman who shared wonderful stories about her life and career in the industry. Wendy was deeply respected by her peers and loved by audiences. Her contribution to Australian entertainment will never be forgotten.\u201d<\/p>\n

Source: IMDb<\/a>, Wikipedia<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian actress Wendy Playfair, best known for Prisoner, has died, just 5 months short of a 100th birthday.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":535468,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[64,63,134,427],"class_list":["post-535467","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\/535467","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=535467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/535468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=535467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=535467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=535467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}