Queenie Ashton

Ethel Muriel Ashton AM (11 November 1903 – 21 October 1999), known professionally as Queenie Ashton was a British-born soprano and English and Australian character actress and comedian. She had a long career, primarily on radio, although she was also a renowned theatre actress, a specialist in voice production and drama who added television and film performances to her impressive repertoire. She was particularly known for her role as "Granny Bishop" a character many years her senior in the long-running Gwen Meredith radio serial Blue Hills.[1]

Biography

Ethel Muriel Ashton was born in London, England on 11th November, 1903. She was an accomplished ballet dancer, who started performing when she was fourteen. She appeared in musical comedy on the London stage (even appearing with playwright Noël Coward), and performed for Dame Nellie Melba in 1927 while travelling to Australia through the Suez Canal.[2]

She played Budge's mother in "Budge's Gang", a segment of the ABC Children's Session (ca. 1941–45 and it was so popular it was made into a comic book). Most notably, she played the wife of Dr. Gordon[2] and the long-running role of Granny Bishop (a character many years her senior) in the radio serial Blue Hills, for the entire 27 years of the serial's run (1949-76 - indeed, hers were the very first and last spoken parts). She also played this role on Australia's first television serial Autumn Affair. In 1957 she appeared in a one-off television play called Tomorrow's Child. Other television roles included Division 4, Certain Women (as "Dolly Lucas"), The Restless Years (as "Jessica Metcalf"), and Mother and Son. She was a semi-regular cast member of A Country Practice (as "Lillian Coote") and G.P. (as "Mrs Sculthorpe")[3] film roles included Mama's Gone A-Hunting, opposite Judy Morris, and also appeared in many television commercials most notably for Sara Lee. She was still performing in stage and cabaret plays and films in her nineties and was one of Australia's last great grand dames and one of the oldest entertainers still performing. She died on the 23rd October, 1999, in the Sydney suburb of Carlingford, New South Wales at the age of 95, she had a successful 80-year career in the arts.

Private life

In 1931 she married Lionel Lawson (who died in 1950), violinist and later leader of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra; they had a daughter, nurse Janet Lawson, in 1933 and a son, Tony Lawson, in 1935.[4] They divorced[3] and around 1945 she married theatrical agent John Cover, managing director of Central Casting.[2]

Selected stage appearances

Movie appearances

Recognition

In 1950 she won the Macquarie Network's award for "best performance by an actress in a supporting role" (in "Edward, My Son").[11]

In 1980, she was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for her services to the performing arts.[12]

References

External links

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