Australian actress
Lynette Curran
Curran in 1998
Born 1945 (age 78–79)Australia
Occupation Actress Years active 1965–present
Lynette Curran is an Australian actress known for many roles in Australian television series and films, including the soap opera Bellbird , and the films Country Town (1971) and Bliss (1985).
Career
Theatre
She started acting in the theatre in 1964. Theatre work includes The Country Wife , Rookery Nook , Richard II , Just Between Ourselves , and Ashes for the Melbourne Theatre Company . She also played in Steaming for the Seymour Centre in Sydney .[ 1]
Film and television
Curran was a cast member of soap opera Bellbird when it started in 1967. She left the series permanently in 1974; at the time she left she was the program's last remaining original cast member.[ 2]
Curran acted in the film version of the serial Country Town (1971). She made several other film appearances in the 1970s, with roles in sex comedy Alvin Purple (1973), and in dramas I'm Here, Darlings! (1975), Caddie (1976). Late 1970s television appearances include soap opera Number 96 (in 1976), and police procedurals Bluey and Cop Shop . Curran was a recurring cast member of soap opera The Restless Years (1977–1981), playing the scheming Jean Stafford. She won a Sammy Award for her role in Australian Broadcasting Corporation series Spring and Fall .[ 1]
She co-starred with Barry Otto in the acclaimed 1985 film adaptation of Peter Carey 's award-winning novel Bliss .[citation needed ]
Other roles include feature films Heatwave (1982), The Delinquents (1989), The Boys (1998), Japanese Story (2003), Somersault (2004), These Final Hours (2013), A Few Less Men (2017) and Brothers' Nest (2018).[citation needed ]
For her appearance in Somersault she won the 2004 AACTA award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role .[ 3]
On television she played Brenda Jackson in the Love My Way , and acted in Underbelly: The Golden Mile and Cleverman . She was in Wentworth as Vera Bennett's elderly, terminally-ill mother (2015).[citation needed ]
Curran appears in Season 2 of Aftertaste (2022).[ 4]
Filmography
Film
Television
Theatre
Year
Title
Role
Notes
1965
The Sweet Sad Story of Elmo and Me
Betty
ABC TV Studios
1969
The Imaginary Invalid
Toinette
Theatre Royal
1969
The Country Wife
Russell Street Theatre & Canberra Theatre with MTC
1969
A Long View
Russell Street Theatre with MTC
1969
Six Characters in Search of an Author
Russell Street Theatre with MTC
1969
Rookery Nook
Russell Street Theatre with MTC
1971
Customs and Excise
Nimrod
1972
Brumby Innes
Pram Factory with Australian Performing Group
1976
Martello Towers
Francesca Jones
Nimrod
1976
The Recruiting Officer
Melinda, an Heiress
Nimrod
1976
Rookery Nook
Rhoda Marley
UNSW with Old Tote Theatre for Sydney Festival
1977
The Mind with the Dirty Man
DivIna
Metro Theatre, Sydney
1977
Ashes
Anne
Russell Street Theatre with MTC
1978
Richard III
Lady Anne Neville
Melbourne Athenaeum with MTC
1978
The Beaux' Stratagem
Cherry
Melbourne Athenaeum with MTC
1978
Just Between Ourselves
Pam
Russell Street Theatre with MTC
1978
Under Milk Wood
Melbourne Athenaeum with MTC
1978
Arsenic and Old Lace
Elaine Harper
Melbourne Athenaeum
1979
The Day After the Fair
Anna
Comedy Theatre, Melbourne & Theatre Royal, Sydney
1980
The Sunny South
Bubs Berkley
Sydney Opera House with STC for Sydney Festival
1980
Sexual Perversity in Chicago / Reunion
Carol
Nimrod
1981
Every Burglar Has a Silver Lining
Seymour Centre
1981
La Veniexiana
Seymour Centre
1982
A Woman Alone
Nimrod
1982-83
Steaming
Sydney Opera House , Seymour Centre ,Theatre Royal , Comedy Theatre, Melbourne & Canberra Theatre
1982
Medea
Nimrod
1982
Female Parts
Nimrod
1982
The Importance of Being Earnest
Hon. Gwendolen Fairfax
Marian Street Theatre
1984
Two
Marian Street Theatre
1985-86
The Real Thing
SGIO Theatre, Brisbane for QTC & Playhouse Adelaide
1985
The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui
Seymour Centre with Nimrod
1986
Dreams in an Empty City
Playhouse Adelaide with STCSA
1988
Citizen of the Year
Playhouse, Perth with WATC
1989
The Real Matilda
Bay Street Theatre
1989
Lipstick Dreams
Playhouse, Newcastle with New England Theatre Company, Hunter Valley Theatre Company & Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust
1990
Hot Fudge and Icecream
Wharf Theatre with STC
1990
Words of One Syllable
Belvoir Street Theatre
1991
The Boys
Sandra Sprague
Stables Theatre with Griffin Theatre Company
1991
Racing Demon
Wharf Theatre with STC
1991
The Killing of Sister George
Q Theatre
1991
Three Stories High - Julia's Song / Painted Woman / Koori Love
Belvoir Street Theatre
1992
Diving for Pearls
Canberra Theatre , Bridge Theatre, Coniston, Riverina Playhouse
1992
Steaming
Adelaide
1992
Wet and Dry
Stables Theatre with Griffin Theatre Company
1993
A Prayer for Wings
Lookout Theatre, Woollahra
1993
Mesmerized
Stables Theatre with Griffin Theatre Company
1993
Aftershocks
Belvoir Street Theatre
1993
In Relation to Inadmissable Evidence
Belvoir Street Theatre
1995
The Last Yankee
Ensemble Theatre
1995
The Real Thing
Marian Street Theatre
1996
Bold Girls
Belvoir Street Theatre
1998
The Boys
Sydney
1998
Tilly's Turn
Stables Theatre
1999
Pride and Prejudice
Sydney Opera House with STC & MTC
2000
Suddenly Last Summer
Mrs Holly
Belvoir Street Theatre
2001
Fireface
Wharf Theatre with STC for Sydney Festival
2001
The Laramie Project
Belvoir Street Theatre
2001
The School for Scandal
Sydney Opera House with STC
2002
All My Sons
Kate
Sydney Opera House with Ensemble Theatre
2002
Presence
Stables Theatre with Griffin Theatre Company
2003
Broken Glass
Sylvia Gellburg
Ensemble Theatre
2005
The Chairs
Petty Pie
Belvoir Street Theatre
2005
Colder Than Here
Belvoir Street Theatre
2007
The Gates of Egypt
Clarice
Belvoir Street Theatre
2007
Derrida In Love
Jacqueline
Ensemble Theatre
2009
The Crucible
Tituba / Mary Lewis / Rebecca Nurse
Wharf Theatre with STC
2011
Gross und Klein (Big and Small)
STC
2012
Gross und Klein (Big and Small)
European tour - Théâtre de la Ville , Barbican Theatre, London , Vienna Festival & Ruhrfestspiele with STC
2013
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Big Mama
Theatre Royal with Belvoir Street Theatre
2014
Hedda Gabler
Aunt Julie
Belvoir Street Theatre
2016
The Great Fire
Mary
Belvoir Street Theatre [ 5]
2019
I'm With Her
Dr Marion Blackwell
Darlinghurst Theatre Company [ 6]
2020
Cursed!
Belvoir Street Theatre
[ 7]
Awards and nominations
Personal life
Curran was married when she was 19, but the marriage was short-lived. She has had two substantial relationships since then, but bore no children. She lives alone in Sydney. A sexual assault and incest survivor, Curran is estranged from her family.
Curran has Indigenous Australian heritage, as she discovered two of her great-grandmothers were Aboriginal .
She dabbles as a medium, which she got into after foreseeing the death of a friend in a car accident. She first had premonitions as a child. She offers readings at Sydney markets, using tarot cards, numerology and astrology.[ 9]
Curran is often mistaken for good friend and fellow Australian actress Jacki Weaver , whom she has previously worked with, most notably in the 2008 Ensemble Theatre production of Derrida In Love .[ 10]
References
External links