{"id":892905,"date":"2026-09-15T13:22:33","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T13:22:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/892905\/"},"modified":"2026-09-15T13:22:33","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T13:22:33","slug":"sheila-kennelly-british-home-and-away-star-dies-aged-88-known-best-for-floss-mcphee-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/892905\/","title":{"rendered":"Sheila Kennelly: British Home and Away star dies aged 88, known best for Floss McPhee role"},"content":{"rendered":"

Beloved Home and Away actress Sheila Kennelly has died aged 88.<\/p>\n

The British-born star was best known for playing retired pensioner and former carnival worker Floss McPhee in the long-running Australian soap.<\/p>\n

Kennelly appeared in 188 episodes of Home and Away and was part of the show\u2019s original cast.<\/p>\n

Her death was confirmed by television historian Andrew Mercado, who said the actress died on her farm in the Hunter Valley.<\/p>\n

Mercado said Kennelly died surrounded by her animals and family, in the way she had always wanted.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was surrounded by her dogs and dear family who looked after her so lovingly in her final days,\u201d he wrote on social media.<\/p>\n

Kennelly enjoyed a long career across Australian television, taking on a string of memorable roles.<\/p>\n

\"ProductionCamera IconProduction Still of Kate Ritchie, Peter Vroom & Sheila Kennelly (Season 01). Credit: Channel Seven\/Instagram<\/p>\n

She played the wig-wearing barmaid Norma Whittaker in Number 96, who famously called everyone \u201cducky,\u201d as well as the jolly Italian mother-in-law Rosa in Kingswood Country.<\/p>\n

But it was her role as Floss, the carnival worker who lived in a caravan, that made her a familiar face to generations of Home and Away viewers.<\/p>\n

Mercado described Kennelly as the \u201clast one standing\u201d of a special group of friends that included Number 96 stars Carol Raye, Elaine Lee and Elizabeth Kirkby.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no doubt they are all now having a lovely reunion with each other,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

\"BelovedCamera IconBeloved Home and Away actress Sheila Kennelly has died aged 88. Credit: Facebook<\/p>\n

Born in England in 1936, she emigrated to Australia with her family as a child and took up acting in her teens. One of her first roles as a 17-year-old was a 55-year-old German landlady in I Am A Camera.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was only a small role, but I thought it was marvellous,\u201d she told TV Week in 1973.<\/p>\n

She was touring in View From A Bridge when she met her husband, Chris Christensen. After they married they relocated from Sydney to live on a farm on the New South Wales Central coast. Tragically, Christensen died from a heart attack just two-and-a-half years after they married.<\/p>\n

Kennelly never remarried and despite playing the colourful mother-in-law in KingsWood Country and warm-hearted Floss McPhee in Home and Away, she never had any children.<\/p>\n

Her last on-screen appearance was in 2008 when she briefly reprised her iconic role as McPhee on Home and Away. She then stepped away from the spotlight to enjoy a quiet retirement on her farm in New South Wales.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Beloved Home and Away actress Sheila Kennelly has died aged 88. The British-born star was best known for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":892906,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,134,427],"class_list":["post-892905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892905","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=892905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/892906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=892905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=892905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=892905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}