fiction.wikisort.org - Actor

Lorrae Desmond AM, MBE (2 October 1929 – 23 May 2021)[lower-alpha 1] born as Beryl Hunt,[4] was an Australian Gold Logie-award-winning singer, recording artist, radio and television presenter, character actor, and playwright, with a career that spanned over 55 years both locally and the United Kingdom.

Lorrae Desmond AM, MBE
Desmond in 2012
Born	Beryl Hunt[1] (1929-10-02)2 October 1929[1][2] Mittagong, New South Wales, Australia
Died	23 May 2021(2021-05-23) (aged 91) Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia[3]
Other names	Sheila Hunt Beryl Gorshenin Lorrae Gorshenin
Occupation	Actress singer recording artist television presenter radio presenter theatre lyricist
Years active	1945–2001 (retired)
Spouse	Alex Gorshenin ​ (m. 1963⁠–⁠1976)​
Awards	Member of the Order of the British Empire Logie 1984 – Best Supporting Actress in a Series for: A Country Practice (1981) Gold Logie (1962)

She started her career in England, in the vein of entertainer Cicely Courtneidge. She carved out a career as a variety performer, as a singer and radio/television presenter, primarily at the BBC, where she had her own shows during the years of World War II.

Returning to Australia she became a popular presenter and remains best known to early local television audiences as hostess of the musical variety program The Lorrae Desmond Show from 1960 until 1964, while as a variety entertainer and vocalist she made numerous cabaret and TV appearances including In Melbourne Tonight, The Graham Kennedy Show, The Kamahl Show, The Ted Hamilton Show and appeared on Parkinson in Australia, and The Jack Benny Show.[3]

She was subsequently asked to tour South Vietnam with the Entertainment Unit during the Vietnam War, she also toured the Middle East, Malaysia, Singapore, Kenya and Somalia,[3] where she became known for her live singing performances, billed as a forces sweetheart, she in the style of Vera Lynn and Anne Shelton, in which she was honoured with the MBE for services to entertainment.

She started taking roles in local soap operas and serials starting from the late 1960s, including a guest role in Crawford Productions staple series Homicide, and a guest role in Number 96, after which she was given a more permanent role in the ill-fated series Arcade in 1980.

However she became famous for her long-running role in the television series A Country Practice, as original character of nurse Shirley Gilroy appearing in 816 episodes from 1981 to 1992.

In 1997, she briefly guest starred in Home and Away as Isobel Dupre, the mother of Donald Fisher (Norman Coburn).

She had worked as a theatre lyricist, writing the play Honey in 2001, based on the novel Smoky Joe's Cafe by the author Bryce Courtenay.

Biography

Early life

Desmond was born on 2 October 1929, in the Southern Highlands town of Mittagong, New South Wales, to Alice and Des Hunt.[1][2][5] She left Mittagong after the fire season, and briefly lived on an island on the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland. After leaving Mittagong Primary School, she trained as a hairdresser, but inspired by Dame Gracie Fields decided she wanted to become an entertainer. By the age of 10, she had travelled to Britain with her family.

Music, performing career and radio in Britain

She started her career in England in 1945, as a teenager of a mere 15 as a singing cigarette girl and became a celebrity there. She performed as both a solo artist and with backing group "The Rebels", whilst making studio recordings and featured in everything from theatre, cabaret, pantomime, and radio. She had her own shows including several for the BBC, including Meet Lorrae and Swing with Lorrae.[6]

Television in England

In 1957, she competed in the second semi-final of the Festival of British Popular Songs, where the winner got to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest. She also featured in her own comedy series Trouble for Two in 1958, and was in the cast of several of the Terry-Thomas TV specials.[7]

In his book Bounder (2008), Graham McCann states that Desmond might have even married Terry-Thomas, who had been her constant companion for ten years. Instead, the actor married Belinda Cunningham, despite a 26-year age gap between the two. Desmond refuted this in an ABC interview in April 2008, saying that whilst she dated Thomas for 10 years, they would never have married.[8]

Career in Australia

The Lorrae Desmond Show

Returning to Australia in the early sixties, her career kicked off in 1962, as presenter of the self-titled music variety show The Lorrae Desmond Show and in 1961, she made history by being the first woman on television to win the Gold Logie (which was in fact Silver, as women at the time received the Silver Statuette, and men received the Gold Statuette)[9] The Gold Logie award that year was a dual honour, with Tommy Hanlon Jr. also winning the coveted trophy.

She appeared in the TV play Red Peppers.

Service with the Vietnam Entertainment Unit

The Australian Government invited her to tour Vietnam from 1967 to 1971, to entertain the troops. She was widely courted as being the Australian Forces Sweetheart, amongst others including Dinah Lee, Little Pattie, Cathy Wayne, Sylvia Raye, Lynne Fletcher and Jacqui De Paul.[10] Australia didn't have its own honours system at the time, however Desmond was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1970 for services to "entertainment and the welfare of the Australian Forces in Vietnam".[11][12]

Television roles

Desmond's television appearances include Homicide and Number 96 (1973) and Arcade (1980), both series written by David Sale, however the latter series was unsuccessful and cancelled after 16 episodes. Later, in 1997, she also had a guest appearance on Home and Away as Isobel Dupre, the mother of regular character Donald Fisher played by Norman Coburn.[9]

A Country Practice - Shirley Gilroy

Desmond, after having appeared in the ill-fated series Arcade, was touted by the Seven Network to appear in their new series A Country Practice which became her best-known role as Shirley Dean Gilroy, and appeared from the series' inception in November 1981 until 1992. In 1984 she won the Logie for Best Supporting Actress for this role. In one of the series' iconic episodes in 1992, Lorrae decided to leave the series and the long-running character Shirley was killed off in an off-screen plane crash, with the actress stating she did not want a prolonged death storyline arc like that of Molly Jones (Anne Tenney).

Writing

Desmond co-wrote the lyrics to the musical Man of Sorrows (originally titled Jesus Christ Revolution) which premiered in Melbourne in 1972.[13]

About the industry, she said:

What I really wanted to do was write lyrics for songs. I did do a few weeks in Home And Away after ACP, but I’m a bit sick of performing—after you've been doing it for 50 years you're just going around in circles! The thing I liked most about being a performer was putting the act together, which is why I've come back to writing. It's still pleasant to be recognized as Shirley because people are always nice to me. And with those ACP repeats on Hallmark, it goes from generation to generation.^{[citation needed]}

In 2001, she obtained the rights to write the lyrics for a musical play based on Bryce Courtenay's novel Smoky Joe's Cafe, about the effects of the Vietnam War on a veteran. The play, entitled Honey, premiered in 2007 at the Riverside Theatre Parramatta.[14]

She was also a magazine columnist for That's Life; she wrote an article called "Ask Lorrae", where readers would write in, asking for advice and information.

Desmond took part in an A Country Practice reunion special in 2006, as part of the "Television Turns 50" celebrations, and the series' 30th-anniversary reunion in 2011.[15] In 2017, Lorrae who was the first female to win a Gold Logie, appeared at the Logie awards, to present an award opposite her cousin's son, Chinese Australian actor and presenter Sam Pang.

One-woman show

Desmond toured Australia, performing in High Society and her own one-woman show.[14]

Personal life

Desmond was married to Sydney surgeon Dr. Alex Gorshenin from 1963 to 1976.[16] They travelled to the United States together, where he continued to study. Prior to her marriage, Desmond was involved in a long-running affair of several years with the English comic actor Terry-Thomas. She died on 23 May 2021, Gold Coast, Queensland, aged 91.[17]

Awards

Year	Association	Category	Work
1962	Logie Awards	Gold Logie Award for Most Popular Personality on Australian Television	The Lorrae Desmond Show
1984	Logie Awards	Silver Logie Award – Best Supporting Actress In A Series	A Country Practice

Mo Awards

The Australian Entertainment Mo Awards (commonly known informally as the Mo Awards), were annual Australian entertainment industry awards. They recognise achievements in live entertainment in Australia from 1975 to 2016. Lorrae Desmond won one award in that time.[18]

Year	Nominee / work	Award	Result (wins only)
2009	Lorrae Desmond	John Campbell Fellowship Award	Won

Honours

Year	Honour	Awarded for
1970:	Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE)	For services to entertainment and the welfare of the Australian Forces in Vietnam[11][12]
2021	Member of the Order of Australia	For significant service to the performing arts as an actor, entertainer and singer.[19]

Filmography

Actress

Year of broadcast	Title	Role
1955	Stock Car	Singer		1956	Strictly T-T (TV series)
1956	Hancock's Half Hour	Secretary
1957	Mostly Maynard
1957	Sheep's Clothing	Lorrae Desmond
1958	Trouble for Two
1968	Homicide	Harriet Murphy
1969	Riptide	Madge Scobie
1973	Number 96	Marion Carlton
1975	Shannon's Mob	Cassandra
1976	The Outsiders	Rose
1980	Arcade	Molly Sparks
1981–1992	A Country Practice	Shirley Dean Gilroy (816 episodes)
1997	Home and Away	Isobel DuPre

Celebrity appearances

Year	Title	Role
1955	Variety Parade	Herself, episode 1.24
1956	Strictly T-T	Herself, 6 episodes
1957	Festival of British Popular Songs	Herself, episode #2.2
1957	Monday Melody	Herself #episode 1.2
1957	The Grand Order of Water Rats presents	Herself, episode "Salute to Song"
1957	Off the Record	episode #3.3, #2.12
1958	The Jack Jackson Show	Herself, performer
1957–1958	Six-Five Special	4 episodes
1960	Jukebox Jury (TY series)	Panelist
1960	The Lorrae Desmond Show	Host
1964	Muloorina (documentary Short)	Herself
1964	Jack Benny in Australia	Herself
1966	Jimmy	Episode 21 August
1966	Meet Matt Munro	Singer
1969	In Melbourne Tonight	2 episodes
1972	Kamahl	Herself, episode "Looking Back on Love"'
1972–1973	The Graham Kennedy Show	3 episodes
1974	Ted Hamilton's Musical World
1975	The ABC Melbourne Showband on tour in Perth
1975	Celebrity Squares	Celebrity Contestant
1980	Celebrity Tattle Tales	Episode #1.18
1983	Parkinson in Australia	Guest
1989	The 31st Annual TV Week Logie Awards	Herself, performer
1992	In Sydney Today	Herself - Guest
1992	Legends In Concert	Herself, ABC TV special
1994	Ernie And Denise	Herself - Guest
1995;1999	Good Morning Australia	Herself - Guest
1997	Where Are They Now?	Herself & Shane Porteous
1998	FCTV	Herself
1999	Good Morning Australia	Herself
2000	The Morning Show	Herself - Guest
2000	Good Morning Australia	Herself - Guest
2001	Denise	Herself - Guest
2002	The Best of Aussie Drama	Herself - commentary
2006	Where Are They Now	Herself with 'A Country Practice' cast
2006	TV Turns 50: The Events That Stopped A Nation	Herself - Guest
2008	Talking Heads	Herself - Guest
2011	Today Tonight	Herself with 'A Country Practice' cast
2017	The 59th Annual TV Week Logie Awards	Presenter (with Sam Pang)

Notes

References

External links

• "Celebrity Artist Biography". School of Arts Cafe website. Archived from the original on 30 March 2008.
• Lorrae Desmond at IMDb
• Lorrae Desmond at the National Film and Sound Archive

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