Patricia Ethell McDonald (1 August 1921 – 10 March 1990) was an Australian radio actor and actor of stage and screen, primarily in small screen roles in television soap operas.

Early life

McDonald was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1921 and was the daughter of electric radio engineer and public servant, Arthur Stephen McDonald and his wife, milliner Edith Roseina Ethell. Her grandfather, bootmaker John McDonald, was born in Victoria, and married Eliza Mary Stevenson. Prominent in theatre, radio and screen at the age of eighteen she appeared in the 1939 early Australian film Seven Little Australians based on the novel by children's literary author Ethel Turner. She then moved to theatre roles starting in 1940.

Number 96 and Sons and Daughters

McDonald was best-known for two long-running soap opera roles. She was cast by David Sale as comical malaproping gossip Dorrie Evans in the popular serial Number 96 in 1972, after she had previously appeared in a similiar production written by Sale, McDonald was only aged in her early 50's when she started in the role, and he had envisioned the character of "Dorrie" as a much older character, however stated she fitted the role perfectly, she reprised the role for the feature film version.ref name=book>Giles, Nigel "Number 96: Australia Most Infamous Address" She subsequently played Aunty Fiona Thompson in Sons and Daughters between 1981 and 1987. She was featured in both shows throughout their entire run, about five and a half years in each case.

Awards

McDonald won four Logie awards, including the 1974 Gold Logie, for her work on Number 96. McDonald's role in Number 96 won her several Logie Awards as Best Actress, including the Gold Logie for Australia's most popular female personality in 1974. After

Later appearances and roles

McDonald featured in a regular role in the short lived situation comedy "The Tea Ladies" One of McDonald's final TV appearances was at the Logie Awards on 17 March 1989, when she took part in a production number called "Golden Girls", which celebrated female Gold Logie winners of years past. She performed the song with Lorrae Desmond, Hazel Phillips, Denise Drysdale, Jeanne Little, and Rowena Wallace. Later in 1989 McDonald appeared in an episode of the hit British TV series In Sickness and in Health in which she played Raeline's mother. The episode aired in the UK in October 1989.

Personal life

McDonald was married in 1941 to Captain Peter Hendry, a son of a reverend and doctor in the Australian Army. During the 1970s she was involved in a live-in lesbian relationship with Number 96 co-star Bunney Brooke. The two actors openly appeared in magazine articles about the suburban Sydney home (eastern end of Fox Valley Road, Wahroonga) they shared, and they freely discussed their international summer holidays together in press articles, although the true nature of the relationship was not explicitly stated. McDonald died after a lengthy illness of cancer of the pancreas at Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney, on 10 March 1990, aged 68. Her partner, actor and casting agent Bunney Brooke, died ten years later.

Awards

Filmography

Movies

Television