Cornelia Frances

Template:Short description Template:For Template:Distinguish Template:Use British English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox person Cornelia Frances Zulver, (7 April 1941 – 28 May 2018), credited professionally as Cornelia Frances, was an English-Australian actress. After starting her career in small cameos in films in her native England, she became best known for her acting career in Australia after emigrating there in the 1960s, particularly her iconic television soap opera roles with portrayals of nasty characters.

Frances featured in numerous Crawford Production series, but first became notable for starring in The Young Doctors (1976–1978), as acidic Sister later Matron Grace Scott. Subsequently, she appeared in soap opera Sons and Daughters as Barbara Armstrong Hamilton on Network Seven (1982–1986). She appeared in the film version of regular series TV soap The Box. She also worked on stage and in voice-over.

She played Morag Bellingham in Home and Away from its inception in 1988. After leaving the series she made numerous guest appearances, then re-joined the series as a permanent cast member in 2001, before going back to an itinerant basis until her final appearance in 2017.

In the early 2000s, she was the host of the Australian version of British quiz show, The Weakest Link.

Early life

Frances was born on April 7, 1941<ref name="FV">Template:Cite news</ref> in Liverpool, Merseyside, England, to Louis Zulver, a marine engineer with Dutch heritage and Margaret (Peg) Zulver, the daughter of Irish immigrants.<ref name="B2B"/>

When Frances was only a few weeks old, the family home was destroyed by the Luftwaffe during the Liverpool Blitz, and they moved to Purley, Surrey.<ref name="B2B"/> Frances was educated at a Catholic convent in Surrey, from the age of 4. She became interested in music and drama, performing in Nativity plays. By the age of twelve she aspired to become an actress, much to the disapproval of the nuns at the convent.<ref name="FV"/><ref name="B2B"/>

Frances' parents divorced when she was six, and together with her mother, she went to live with her maternal uncle, and then her grandfather Cornelius. Her mother later remarried Colonel Roy Leyland, and the family moved to Yateley, Hampshire, near the Sandhurst Royal Military Academy. Through the marriage, Frances gained two step-sisters, Suzanne and Annette, and in 1957, a half-sister Francesca.<ref name="B2B"/>

At the age of 16, Frances went on to study at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London,<ref name="SMH2001">Template:Cite news</ref> moving in with her grandmother Frances in Marylebone, for the duration.<ref name="B2B"/> Following the completion of her diploma, Frances' uncle, film director Michael Powell helped her secure an agent, and a few weeks later, she landed her first film role as an extra in the 1960 comedy Dentist in the Chair.<ref name="B2B"/>

In her early twenties, Frances reconnected with her father, who had remarried and was running a pub near Stratford-upon-Avon. There she met her step-mother Molly and half-siblings, Philippa and Andrew.<ref name="B2B"/>

Career

Frances' career began in British-made feature films as an extra and bit-part player, including uncredited parts in two films directed by her uncle, Michael Powell – the 1960 horror/thriller Peeping Tom and 1961 military drama The Queen's Guards.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> She also appeared in various theatre productions all while working off jobs at department stores and as a receptionist, in order to maintain a steady income.<ref name="B2B">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Frances worked as a house model for Vendome Prêt à Porter for a couple of years, but after struggling to secure further roles in the UK, she relocated to Australia in 1965, following future husband, Michael Eastland. She continued to model in Perth before making her television debut on Roundabout, presenting a shopping and fashion segment.<ref name="B2B"/> She also secured a role as presenter of the six o’clock news bulletin, but was let go after committing a gaff, when she forgot to mute her microphone and was caught swearing about her nerves, which was transmitting live.<ref name="B2B"/> When Roundabout ended, Frances toured Western Australia with the Perth Playhouse, in four different plays.<ref name="B2B"/>

Frances and Eastland returned to England to get married, and stayed for a further three years,<ref name="FV"/><ref name="SMH2001"/><ref name="Points North">Template:Cite news Template:Free access</ref> where she appeared in further theatre productions, before landing a small role in a 1969 adaptation of Goodbye Mr Chips, opposite Peter O'Toole and Petula Clark.<ref name="B2B"/>

The couple permanently emigrated to Australia in 1970, where Frances worked at the Playhouse Theatre in Perth.<ref name="FV"/><ref name="SMH2001"/><ref name="Points North"/> She appeared nightly on television as the host of Channel 9's Tom's TV Bingo (Tom's was a supermarket in Perth). In 1970, she secured a role as fashion model Georgina Clausen in two episodes of Australian series Dynasty, reprising the character in the spin-off series Catwalk (albeit renamed Cornelia Heyson).<ref name="B2B"/> She subsequently landed further guest roles in Boney, Ryan, Silent Number,<ref name="FV"/> Division 4 and Matlock Police.<ref name="B2B"/>

Frances then scored a lead role in The Box, the 1975 film adaptation of the sex-comedy soap opera of the same name, and in 1976 she played Mrs Quinn in The Lost Islands. She became known across Australia for her long-running role as the strict and acidic Sister Grace Scott in the daily soap opera, The Young Doctors,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> a part written specially for her.<ref name="B2B"/>

After leaving the series to move to Melbourne, she worked as a television reporter on 'light' stories for Peter Couchman's Melbourne, a current affairs program hosted by Peter Couchman.<ref>Template:Cite news Template:Free access</ref>

In April 1980, Frances made a guest appearance as lawyer Carmel Saunders on Prisoner.<ref>Template:Cite news Template:Free access</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> She then guest-starred in several more television shows, before taking another well-remembered role, as Barbara Armstrong (later Hamilton) in Sons and Daughters, which she played from 1982 until 1986,<ref name="FV"/> before her character was written out. The role saw her nominated for two Logie Awards.<ref name="B2B"/>

In 1988, Frances played an Irish landlady in feature film The Man from Snowy River II, although several of her scenes with Brian Dennehy were edited out.<ref name="B2B"/>

On 7 June 1988, Frances made her first appearance on Home and Away as long-running character Morag Bellingham, a judge, and the sister of long-running character Alf Stewart (Ray Meagher), as well as the sister of character Celia Stewart (Fiona Spence) and half-sister of character Colleen Smart (Lyn Collingwood). Frances played the recurring role of Morag for twenty-nine years.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> She expressed a desire to play Morag full-time on the show, and admitted that she did not like the coming-and-going as it was "very unsettling."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In 1990, Frances appeared in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, her first pantomime, playing the Wicked Queen, alongside fellow Home and Away cast members in the UK. Later that year, she returned to the UK, to appear in a stage production of Caravan, opposite Noel Hodda and Alan Dale, followed by another pantomime, Dick Whittington, playing Queen Rat.<ref name="B2B"/>

From 1997 to 1998, Frances provided the voice of Tortoise on the Australian/Chinese children's series, Magic Mountain.<ref>Template:Cite news Template:Free access</ref> She also hosted the Australian version of the quiz show, The Weakest Link (2001–2002).<ref name=NTL>Template:Cite news</ref> In the early 2000s, she worked for a winery in the Hunter Valley when she could not get acting work.<ref name="SMH2001"/>

Frances' autobiography And What Have You Done Lately? was published in 2003.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> She had plans to release two new novels, however these never eventuated. In the mid-2000s, a thief broke into her home whilst she was on holiday in the UK, stealing valuables, including her laptop, which held the only copy of her work. She contemplated a rewrite, but eventually abandoned the idea.<ref name="B2B"/>

Frances' later career involved voice acting in New Zealand animated children's series Milly, Molly (2008–2009) and a main role in the 2010 Australian stage production of Calendar Girls,<ref name="Calendar Girls">Template:Cite news</ref> as well as ongoing guest-spots on Home and Away, where she made her final acting appearance in 2017.<ref name="B2B"/>

On 26 January 2019, seven months after her death, Frances was posthumously awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for her services to the Performing Arts, in the Australia Day honours.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Who"/>

Charity work

In 2011, Frances joined the Australian Orangutan Project (AOP) as its first Ambassador in an effort to raise awareness about critically endangered orangutans. Frances travelled to the island of Borneo, Indonesia, on 16 October 2011 to see first-hand the effect of the widespread deforestation of orangutan habitat, and how orangutans were being rehabilitated.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Personal life and death

While working on The Trials of Oscar Wilde, Frances met her first love, writer and director Ken Hughes (of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang fame), with whom she had an 18-month relationship.<ref name="B2B"/>

In 1964, Corney began dating Michael Eastland after meeting at a wedding in Luton. In March 1965, Eastland emigrated to Australia under the 'Ten Pound Poms’ scheme, and Frances joined him in September of the same year. They spent a few months in Sydney, before settling in Perth in 1966. After the required minimum of a two-year stay under the scheme, the couple returned to England in 1967. Two days before their ship arrived, Frances' father Louis died.<ref name="B2B"/>

Frances married Eastland in April 1969 at Sandhurst Military College before relocating to Australia permanently in 1970, settling in Sydney.<ref name="B2B"/> They had one son together, named Lawrence, born on 11 June 1971.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> After an incident involving an intruder at their home in Bondi Junction, the family moved to Neutral Bay.<ref name="B2B"/>

After growing apart, Frances and Eastland separated in 1981, shortly after her 40th birthday. They remained good friends and continued to live together for some time afterwards.<ref name="B2B"/>

During Frances' time on Sons and Daughters, her mother and stepfather Roy visited her in Australia, for the final time. Roy died in January 1984, a week after they returned to the UK.<ref name="B2B"/>

In 1990, due to appear in the pantomime, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Frances flew over to the UK several weeks early upon news that her mother was gravely ill. She was able to spend two days with her before she died.<ref name="B2B"/>

In February 2001, Frances became a grandmother, through Lawrence, to a girl named Tipani.<ref name="NI">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="B2B"/>

In January 2018, Frances revealed that she was battling bladder cancer that had spread to her hip, but stated that she was hopeful of reprising her role of Morag Bellingham in Home and Away for the show's 30th anniversary.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The following month, she appeared in an interview from her bed, for A Current Affair and on 7 April 2018, she celebrated her 77th birthday, with fellow actors and friends, Judy Nunn, Bruce Venables, Axle Whitehead, Paula Duncan, Andrew McFarlane and Dan Bennett, around her hospital bed.<ref name=NTL/>

Frances' cancer metastasised to her spine, despite having undergone chemotherapy and radiation treatment. She died on 28 May 2018, aged 77, at the Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney, where the show The Young Doctors was coincidentally filmed,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> with her son Lawrence by her side.<ref name=NTL/>

Paying tribute to Frances, the Seven Network, which airs Home and Away in Australia, said: "Cornelia Frances was a unique person. Her on-screen presence inspired a generation of actors. This gift was coupled with an ability to bring a sense of dignity and presence into each room she entered. Her energy and character will be missed." She was also given tributes from her numerous co-stars including Ray Meagher and Judy Nunn.<ref name="Death">Template:Cite news</ref> A private funeral was held on Thursday 31 May with her family and closest friends in attendance.<ref name=NTL/>

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Type
1960	Peeping Tom	Girl in sports car leaving studio	Feature film
1961	The Queen's Guards	Officer's girlfriend (uncredited)	Feature film
1969	Goodbye, Mr. Chips	The 'Dyke'	Feature film
1975	The Box	Dr. Sheila M. Winter	Feature film
1976	I Can't Seem to Talk About It	Woman	Film short
1981	Post Synchronisation		Film short
1988	The Man from Snowy River II	Mrs. Darcy	Feature film
1989	Minnamurra (aka Outback or Wrangler)	Caroline Richards	Feature film
2002	Cash Out		Film short
2003	Ned	Tina	Feature film

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1970	Dynasty	Georgina Clausen	Season 1, episodes 2 & 10
1971–1972	Catwalk	Cornelia Heyson	Season 1, 13 episodes
1973	Boney	Stella Borredale	Season 2, episode 3
	Serpent in the Rainbow		Miniseries
	Ryan	Amelia	Season 1, episode 16
1974	Matlock Police	Catherine Upton	Season 4, episode 4
	Homicide	Veronica Coates	Season 11, episode 5
	Division 4	Angela Ward	Season 6, episode 12
	Essington		TV film
	Silent Number	Ivy	Season 1, episode 15
	Behind the Legend		Season 2, episode 10
	Division 4	Sandra Fleming	Season 7, episode 1
	This Love Affair		Anthology series, 1 episode
1975	Matlock Police	Barbara Anderson	Season 5, episode 15
	Homicide	Julie Kurnow	Season 12, episode 27
	Last Rites		TV film
	The Box	Dr. Sheila M. Winter
	Two-Way Mirror	Liz Hardy	TV pilot
1976	Homicide	Nancy Lofthouse	Season 13, episode 5
	King's Men		Season 1, episode 3
	Murcheson Creek		TV film
	The Lost Islands	Elizabeth Quinn	Season 1, 17 episodes
1976–1979	The Young Doctors	Grace Scott	Seasons 1–4, 589 episodes
1977	The Outsiders	Mrs. Foster	Season 1, episode 11
	All at Sea	Miss Swallow	TV film
1978	Tickled Pink	Joan Jefferson	Season 1, episode 1
1979	Cop Shop	Anne Carter	Season 2, episodes 13–14
		Ruth Coleman	Season 2, episodes 81–82
	Skyways	Susan Winters	1 episode
Template:N/a		Wendy Kirk	1 episode
1980	Prisoner	Carmel Saunders	Season 2, 4 episodes
	A Wild Ass of a Man	Sibella Wolfenden	TV film
	Secret Valley		Season 1, episode 23
1980–1982	Kingswood Country	Dr. Hemingway	Seasons 2–4, 3 episodes
1981	Outbreak of Love		Miniseries, 1 episode
	Punishment	Cathy Wells	1 episode
	Bellamy	Aretha	Season 1, episode 18
	Cop Shop	Louise Doyle	Season 4, episodes 85–86
1982–1986	Sons and Daughters	Barbara Armstrong/Hamilton	Seasons 1–5, 523 episodes
1983	Outbreak of Hostilities	Miriam	TV film
1983–1984	Runaway Island	Agatha McLeod	TV film
1987	Jackal and Hide	Madame Zentha	TV pilot
1988–1989, 1993, 2001–2009, 2011–2013, 2016–2017	Home and Away	Morag Bellingham	Seasons 1–2 (recurring), Season 2 (main), Seasons 6, 14–22, 24–26, 29–30 (recurring), 490 episodes
1989	Future Past	Mother	TV film
1991	Pirates Island	Captain Blackheart	TV film<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
1995	The Ferals	Teacher	Season 2, episode 7
	G.P.	Lindy	Season 7, episode 35
1997–1998	Magic Mountain	Tortoise Template:Small
2003	Always Greener	Janet Frewley	Season 2, episodes 21 & 22
	Pizza	Welfare	Season 3, episode 1
2008	Milly, Molly	Aunt Maude Template:Small	Seasons 1–2

Stage

Year	Title	Role	Location
	Boeing-Boeing		Theatre Royal, Bath<ref name=PG>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
	Jane Steps Out		Theatre Royal, Bath<ref name=PG/>
1967	Julius Caesar		Western Australian tour
	Henry IV		Playhouse Theatre, Perth
	Mary, Mary		Western Australia regional tour <ref name="FV"/>
1975	The Political Bordello; or, How Waiters Got the Vote		Bondi Pavilion, Sydney
	No Man's Land		Nimrod Theatre Company, Sydney
1977	The Visit		Bondi Pavilion, Sydney
1986	Agnes of God	Mother Miriam	New Moon Theatre Company<ref>Template:Cite news Template:Free access</ref>
1987	A Lie of the Mind	Lorraine	Belvoir St Theatre, Sydney<ref>Template:Cite news Template:Free access</ref>
1990	How the Other Half Loves		Footbridge Theatre, Sydney<ref>Template:Cite news Template:Free access</ref>
	Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs	The Wicked Queen	Southend-on-Sea<ref name="B2B"/>
1991	Dick Whittington	Queen Rat	Rhyll, North Wales<ref name="B2B"/>
	Caravan	Monica Rice	Churchill Theatre, London, Theatre Royal, Lincoln, Adam Smith Centre, Kirkcaldy<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
1992	The Heiress	Lavinia Penniman	Marian St Theatre, Sydney<ref>Template:Cite news Template:Free access</ref>
1994	Steaming		Theatre Royal, Sydney, Australian & NZ tour<ref name="B2B"/>
1998	Diving for Pearls	Marj	Ensemble Theatre, Sydney<ref>Template:Cite news Template:Free access</ref>
2005	Love Letters	Melissa Gardner	NIDA Parade Theatre, Sydney
2010	Calendar Girls	Chair of Yorkshire Women's Institute	Lyric Theatre, Brisbane, Theatre Royal, Sydney, Comedy Theatre, Melbourne<ref name="Calendar Girls"/>

Source:<ref name="AS">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Awards

Year	Work	Award	Category	Result
1984	Sons and Daughters	Logie Awards	Best Supporting Actress in a Series	Template:Nom<ref name="B2B"/>
	Sons and Daughters	Logie Awards		Template:Nom<ref name="B2B"/>
2019	Cornelia Frances	Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM)	Recognition for services in the Performing Arts	Template:Honoured<ref name="Who">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>

External links

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• Cornelia Frances Au soaps profile
• Digital Spy interviews Cornelia Frances