Gwendoline Jean Plumb AM BEM (2 August 1912 – 5 June 2002), was an Australian performer of international appeal, actress and comedian active in literally every form of the art genre, (except circus) including revue, pantomime, vaudeville, interviewing, game shows, live appearances, compering, radio production, scriptwriting and acting, television soap opera and mini-series and made-for-TV film. She was considered the "Grand Dame of Australian entertainment", with a career spanning 65 years, best known to local and international audiences in serial The Young Doctors as gossip Ada Simmonds, the ill-fated Richmond Hill as Mum Foote and the pilot of Home and Away as Doris Peters.

Career

Early career in radio

Gwen worked various jobs in her early career including as a typist, shop server and briefly in a chocolate factory, but having a flair for writing, starting to produce radio copy work for an advertising agency, after which she became interested in acting and started her performance career in 1930, with the Gwen Meredith Chelsea drama club, she had her first well-known role as Emmie in the longest-running Australian radio serial Blue Hills, She was very active in the radio industry early in her career and would work in this sector as a producer, scriptwriter and performer and hosted a long-running radio program on Australia's Macquarie Radio Network from 1945 to 1974. She also had a radio show in Sydney opposite Gordon Chater. She was well known for conducting celebrity interviews, for her own radio show including travelling to Europe to conduct recordings.

Theatre

Plumb had a long career in the theatre, starting from 1930 and was a cast member of the debut season of the Old Tote Theatre Company, and once quipped that she "played in just about every form of public entertainment except the circus".

Television actress

Plumb appeared in some early Australian drama such as Adventure Unlimited. She is probably best remembered for the Australian soap opera The Young Doctors as Ada Simmonds for its entire November 1976 – March 1983 run. She released a cook book, What's Cooking with Ada, under her character’s name in 1980. Other notable roles were in the mini-series The Harp in the South and Poor Man's Orange in the mid-1980s. She acted in Neighbours as Mrs. Forbes in 1985, appearing in scenes opposite Alan Dale, with whom she had starred in The Young Doctors. She later played the key role of in the serial Richmond Hill as Mum Foote in 1988. Having agreed to act in the planned new series, Plumb was offered, and played in the pilot of another proposed series Home and Away as Doris Peters. When Home and Away also went into production, Plumb opted to honour her earlier agreement to do Richmond Hill. The role of Mum Foote had been specially written with her in mind by show creator, Reg Watson. Richmond Hill had a run of just 12 months, and Plumb stayed with the series for all of that time; Home and Away on the other hand is still running today. In 1995 Plumb returned to Home and Away for a number of episodes, playing a different character. Plumb also appeared in the mini-series Stark, based on Ben Elton's novel of the same name.

Personal life

Plumb's lifelong partner was Australian radio, stage and screen actress Thelma Scott, best known for playing pompous socialite Clair Houghton in the TV series Number 96. Plumb's autobiography, Plumb Crazy was published by Pan Macmillan in 1994. In 1990, Plumb had a large growth removed from her colon and lower bowel. She began rehearsing for a production of Arsenic and Old Lace two months later, which left her exhausted. She felt that she had never fully recovered from the surgery. Plumb died on 5 June 2002, aged 89, at her home in Kirribilli.

British and Australian honours

Plumb was awarded a British Empire Medal in 1973, and was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 1993. Both awards recognised her community and charity work.

Selected radio

Filmography

Film

Television