Much-Loved Australian The Sullivans actress Lorraine Bayly has died at the age of 89.
Journalist Craig Bennett confirmed to 2GB she passed away in a Sydney care home this morning.
For generations of viewers, Bayly was a familiar face on Aussie television.
The actress was best known for her role as Grace Sullivan in The Sullivans, the long-running wartime drama that aired from 1976 to 1983.
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Entertainment reporter Peter Ford paid tribute to Bayly, saying he was “so sad,” to hear of her death.
As matriarch of the Sullivan family, Bayly’s role earned widespread acclaim and two Silver Logies for Most Popular Actress.
Born in Booligal in western NSW, Bayly began performing as a child. She landed her first paid job after playing piano on the radio station 2UE at age 11.
“A woman rang up and asked if I could play at her daughter’s wedding in Alexandria. I played Jerusalem and Pedro the Fisherman,” she told TV Tonight.
Her passion for the arts emerged at a young age, when she had her own ventriloquist act at nine, which she later performed on The Parkinson Show, using host Michael Parkinson as her dummy.
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After training at the Ensemble Theatre in Sydney, she considered 1958 the beginning of her professional career. Over the next six decades, she built an extensive resume across stage, television and film, appearing in more than 50 theatre productions.
1960 saw Bayly’s debut on television, performing comedy sketches as Leonard Teale’s daughter on The Bobby Limb Show.
Her early television roles included Be Our Guest in the mid-1960s, followed by guest appearances in popular dramas such as Homicide, Division 4 and Spyforce.
She also became a familiar face to younger viewers as a presenter on Play School, a role she had to relinquish.
While the actress was appearing on another show, Case for the Defence, she was asked to audition for Grace in The Sullivans. After landing the role, she had to depart from Play School to move to Melbourne.
Bayly later took on the lead role of Jennifer Carson in the legal drama Carson’s Law, which aired from 1982 to 1984.
She said the role had been written for her but described the demanding courtroom speeches as “hellishly difficult to do”.
She was also in iconic Aussie film The Man from Snowy River, as well as Fatty Finn and Ride a Wild Pony.
On stage, she performed in productions ranging from Death of a Salesman to The Sound of Music, which marked her final theatre appearance in 2016.
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In later interviews, Bayly spoke openly about health challenges that led to periods away from the spotlight, including pneumonia and breast cancer. After treatment, she was given the all clear but said she had been forced into an early retirement.
She is survived by her nephew, Brad Connelly and his wife, Janelle.
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