Sheila Florance - on the Inside
Sheila Florance - on the Inside

Author: Helen Martineau

Publisher: Xlibris Corporation

Published: 2016-06-30

Total Pages: 397

ISBN-13: 1514497069

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SHEILA FLORANCE ON THE INSIDE an Intimate Portrait Sheila Florance said with her characteristic irony, I set out aged nineteen with every intention of becoming the worlds greatest Shakespearean actress and ended up as Lizzie Birdsworth, the shearers poisoner! This much-loved character in the cult TV soapie Prisoner brought Sheila worldwide fame after fifty years of hard work during the formative years of the Australian performing arts. It culminated just days before her death at seventy-five with an Australian Film Institute Leading Actress award for her last film A Womans Tale. Onstage and off her life was theatre on a grand scale. Everything was extravagant about Sheila in the parties she threw, her humour and tall tales, her friendships, her anger and loves. As a fighter for justice, her approach was eccentric and front-on. She wouldnt have called herself a feminist yet she always battled for and supported women. She suffered a difficult childhood, war in England, the tragic inexplicable death of her eighteen-year-old daughter, two drama-filled marriages and a constant tension between her main passions family and acting. It was quite a journey yet Sheilas courage and determination to be true to herself never faltered. In this very personal biography, her daughter-in-law and confidante, Helen Martineau, reveals the fascinating public career and behind-the-scenes upheavals of a memorable and inspiring woman, who in her final illness found the peace that long eluded her. I bought the book as a kind of duty to the memory of Sheila. But I simply couldnt put it down. You captured her in all her moods and complexity. Elspeth Ballantyne; warder Meg Morris in Prisoner and Sheilas long-time friend Second updated edition first published 2005 as On the inside an Intimate Portrait of Sheila Florance

On the Inside
On the Inside

Author: Helen Martineau

Publisher: Arcadia

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 351

ISBN-13: 9781740970785

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Before her worldwide fame in the cult TV soapie Prisonerthere had been fifty years of hard work during the formativeyears of the Australian performing arts. It culminated justdays before her death at seventy-five with the AFI BestLeading Actress award for her last film. Her story ispacked with a wealth of outrageous anecdotes from her lifein acting. Everything was extravagant about Sheila offstageas well -in the parties she threw, her humour and talltales, her fights for justice, her anger and loves. Herswas an eventful life. She suffered a difficult childhood,war in England, the tragic death of her daughters, two drama-filled marriages and the constant pull between her mainpassions -family and acting.Yet her courage never faltered.This biography is an in-depth exploration of the public andprivate life of a memorable and inspiring woman.

Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 19
Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 19

Author: Melanie Nolan

Publisher: ANU Press

Published: 2021-03-09

Total Pages: 970

ISBN-13: 1760464139

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Volume 19 of the Australian Dictionary of Biography (ADB) contains concise biographies of individuals who died between 1991 and 1995. The first of two volumes for the 1990s, it presents a colourful montage of late twentieth-century Australian life, containing the biographies of significant and representative Australians. The volume is still in the shadow of World War II with servicemen and women who enlisted young appearing, but these influences are dimming and there are now increasing numbers of non-white, non-male, non-privileged and non-straight subjects. The 680 individuals recorded in volume 19 of the ADB include Wiradjuri midwife and Ngunnawal Elder Violet Bulger; Aboriginal rights activist, poet, playwright and artist Kevin Gilbert; and Torres Strait Islander community leader and land rights campaigner Eddie Mabo. HIV/AIDS child activists Tony Lovegrove and Eve Van Grafhorst have entries, as does conductor Stuart Challender, ‘the first Australian celebrity to go public’ about his HIV/AIDS condition in 1991. The arts are, as always, well-represented, including writers Frank Hardy, Mary Durack and Nene Gare, actors Frank Thring and Leonard Teale and arts patron Ian Potter. We are beginning to see the effects of the steep rise in postwar immigration flow through to the ADB. Artist Joseph Stanislaw Ostoja-Kotkowski was born in Poland. Pilar Moreno de Otaegui, co-founded the Spanish Club of Sydney. Chinese restaurateur and community leader Ming Poon (Dick) Low migrated to Victoria in 1953. Often we have a dearth of information about the domestic lives of our subjects; politician Olive Zakharov, however, bravely disclosed at the Victorian launch of the federal government’s campaign to Stop Violence Against Women in 1993 that she was a survivor of domestic violence in her second marriage. Take a dip into the many fascinating lives of the Australian Dictionary of Biography.

The Two Frank Thrings
The Two Frank Thrings

Author: Peter Fitzpatrick

Publisher: Monash University Publishing

Published: 2012-08-01

Total Pages: 576

ISBN-13: 1921867248

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They shared a name, of course, and their physical resemblance was startling. And both Frank Thrings were huge figures in the landscape of twentieth-century Australian theatre and film. But in many ways they could hardly have been more different. Frank Thring the father (1882–1936) began his career as a sideshow conjuror, and he wheeled, dealed and occasionally married his way into becoming the legendary ‘F.T.’ — impresario, speculator and owner of Efftee Films, Australia’s first ‘talkies’ studio. He built for himself an image of grand patriarchal respectability, a sizeable fortune, and all the makings of a dynasty. Frank Thring the son (1926–1994) squandered the fortune and derailed the dynasty in the course of creating his own persona — a unique presence that could make most stages and foyers seem small. He won fame playing tyrants in togas in Hollywood blockbusters, then, suddenly, came home to Melbourne to play perhaps his finest role — that of Frank Thring, actor and personality extraordinaire. Central to this role was that Frank the son was unapologetically and outrageously gay. Peter Fitzpatrick’s compelling dual biography tells the story of two remarkable characters. It’s a kind of detective story, following the tracks of two men who did all they could to cover their tracks, and to conceal ‘the self’: Frank the father used secrecy and sleight-of-hand as strategies for self-protection; Frank the son masked a thoroughly reclusive personality with flamboyant self-parody. It’s also the tale of a lost relationship — and of the power a father may have had, even over a son who hardly knew him.

To Be Frank
To Be Frank

Author: M J Cornwall

Publisher: BookPOD

Published: 2022-05-13

Total Pages: 390

ISBN-13: 0645492310

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Known to so many, and yet unknowable, was Frank Thring. Actor, bon vivant, professional flamboyant, withering critic. No one else could tell his story, so here it is, as if by his own hand. His boyhood as the son of a doomed movie mogul and a society charity matriarch, both former showies. His times in radio, theatre, Hollywood, TV and print. As immortal Australian iconoclast. At the end of his life, beset by the maladies he knows will soon claim him, Frank tells all. Of moviemaking, branded ‘hatcheries of disasters.’ Of Dennis Hopper, Mick Jagger, Charlton Heston, Sophia Loren, Kirk Douglas, Janet Leigh, Julie London, Tony Curtis, Jack Hawkins, James Mason, and Australia’s best. Of sharing the stage with Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh. Of this times with Noel Coward, John Geilgud, Orson Wells, Gore Vidal, Fellini, Edward Woodward, Chips Rafferty, Frankie Howerd. Of his three decades on Australian television, as critic, sidekick, guest and star. Of longer still at the Melbourne Theatre Company. And of the Frank deep beneath the loud, large one he confected. This tale the most intriguing of all.

Marriages of the Magdalene
Marriages of the Magdalene

Author: Helen Martineau

Publisher: Xlibris Corporation

Published: 2016-03-09

Total Pages: 455

ISBN-13: 1514445344

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This novel breaks through centuries of dogma and legend to uncover the lost beginnings of Christianity, re-imagining the untold stories of Mary Magdalene and John the Beloved. Long-time friend Naphtali wants to set the record straight about their inspirational lives. He shares their story. First century Palestine seethes under Roman rule and suffocating religious conventions. The young man who will be called John tries to live by strict patriarchal rules. His rebellious new wife Mary secretly follows heretical goddess traditions. They pull in opposing directions. Then Jesus the prophet challenges them to walk mystical paths of inner development. From their brave decision to discover who they are, two remarkable destinies will unfold, as they come to know the deepest wellspring of love.

The Gloves Are Off
The Gloves Are Off

Author: Maggie Kirkpatrick

Publisher: New Holland Publishers

Published: 2022-07-04

Total Pages: 208

ISBN-13: 9781760794385

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'I can actually tell my story without the benefit of a playwright or hidden beneath the cloak of a character.' Maggie Kirkpatrick, famous for her role as The Freak in Prisoner, presents a no-holds-barred account of her life both on and off screen. In The Gloves Are Off, Maggie takes us on her journey from humble beginnings in a Newcastle dress shop to becoming one of Australia's most well-known television and theatre stars. She gives us a peek behind the scenes of the television industry and the world of the theatre with insight and wit - the business, the challenges and the names. Maggie also shares publicly, for the first time, the full story of her very public legal battle - and the consequences of that battle that she's still living with today. The Gloves Are Off is an engaging, amusing and sometimes harrowing tale from one of the grand old dames of the Australian acting scene.

Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 Through 2007: M-Si
Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 Through 2007: M-Si

Author: Vincent Terrace

Publisher:

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 492

ISBN-13:

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"This work represents decades of research and television's entire history. While documentation regarding cast and personnel is now often found online, descriptions of the shows from authoritative sources are still not widely available. Terrace fills that gap with this work, which covers more than 9,350 shows and constitutes the most comprehensive documentation of TV series ever published"--Provided by publisher.

Behind the Bars
Behind the Bars

Author: Scott Anderson

Publisher:

Published: 2013-08-12

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780956683441

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Prisoner Cell Block H took the world by storm. Running from 1979 to 1986, 'Prisoner', as it was known in its home country, remains one of the most iconic and talked-about television serials to come from Australia, spanning a wonderful 692 episodes: each of them action packed, filled with gritty, intense storylines, some of the most wonderful characters ever created for TV soap, brought to life by a unique mainly female dominated cast whose portrayal of the 'old lags' are now nothing short of legendary. In this brand new book, Prisoner Cell Block H is remembered and celebrated by three people well known to the show's fans -- uniting fan club founders Scott Anderson and Barry Campbell with Rob Cope, this book features new and exclusive contributions from the show's cast, writers and crew. This Companion also takes a look at the theatre productions, hit theme song and world-wide fan following that have continued to make Prisoner one of the most celebrated television serials of all time. Packed with never before published photographs, this is one book that will be a must for any fan of the show! And if you are not a fan of the show, this book will tell you why Prisoner Cell Block H has become THE cult TV series! This is the ultimate guide to this incredible TV series.