Mary Ward (actress)

Mary Ward (born 6 March 1915), also known as Mary Ward Breheny, is an Australian retired actress of stage, television, and film, and a radio announcer. Ward trained in England and Australia, and worked in England on the stage circuit, before appearing in film.

Mary Ward
Born	6 March 1915 Fremantle, Western Australia
Other names	Mary Ward Breheny
Occupation	Actress radio announcer
Years active	Film 1949-1997 Television 1951–2000 Radio 1939–1945 Theatre 1934–1994 [1]
Known for	Prisoner Sons and Daughters The Henderson Kids Amy

Ward returned to Australia prior to World War II, where she became one of the first female radio announcers at the ABC in Australia.

At ABC Television, she appeared in a number of filmed stage plays, as well as featuring in Australian films, both made-for-television and theatrical.

She is perhaps best known - both locally and internationally, though - as an actress portraying elderly characters in television soap opera roles, including the original character of "Mum" (Jeanette) Brooks in the cult series Prisoner, in which she appeared sporadically from 1979 and 1981,[2] and as devious Dee Morrell in the soap opera Sons and Daughters in 1983. Ward also had smaller roles in Neighbours and Blue Heelers. Her acting career spanned six decades, until retiring in 2000. In 2020, Ward, who resides in Melbourne, turned 105 years old, and is the oldest living actress in Australia.[3]

Biography

Early life and career in England

Ward was born in Fremantle, Western Australia on 6 March 1915, to a pearler-turned-publican, and was a child during the Spanish flu epidemic[4][5]

Ward attended boarding school and began acting professionally shortly after leaving high school, and later studied at the Perth drama school, where she befriended mining magnate Lang Hancock. She also studied in England, and worked as a teacher of elocution and meeting Lionel Logue who was a speech therapist who helped King George VI, overcome his stutter, Ward worked in England in repertory stage theatre and film, before returning to Australia prior to World War II, when she became one of the first female radio announcers for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (then Commission) during the war where she was billed as "The Forces Sweetheart". She returned to the English stage, while also performing parts for the British Broadcasting Corporation, and appeared in a cameo role in the 1949 film, Eureka Stockade.[6]

Ward returned to Australia again in the early 1950s, and made her first television appearance as a minor character in detective series The Vise - originally titled Saber of London - in 1954, and in the television movie The High-Flying Head the following year. She had starring roles in the television movies Marriage Lines and The Tower.

Career in Australia

Television, stage and film

She began working in television full-time in the mid-1970s, appearing in the series Rush, Homicide, and as Aunt Marian Castle in Don Chaffey's Harness Fever with Andrew McFarlane, Robert Bettles and Tom Farley (actor) in 1977. Harness Fever would later appear as a two-part episode, Born to Ride, on Wonderful World of Disney in 1979. She continued her stage work in the 1970s with the Melbourne Theatre Company, remaining with the company until 1983, performing in a David Williamson stage production.[7]

In 1979, Ward first appeared in one of her best known roles, "Mum" (Jeanette) Brooks, on the popular soap opera Prisoner. She portrayed an elderly institutionalised inmate, serving an eighteen-year prison sentence for the euthanisation of her terminally-ill husband Jim Brooks. When the filming schedule for the series increased from one to two hours per week in 1979, she and co-star Carol Burns decided to leave the series. However, her character remained a popular one during the show's early years, and she reprised her role occasionally until her character died off-screen in 1983.[6] She starred with a number of her fellow Prisoner co-stars in the 1981 television movie I Can Jump Puddles as a character called Mrs. Birdsworth.

She took guest roles with appearances on The Young Doctors in 1981 and A Country Practice in 1982, before being given the more prominent role as scheming Dee Morrell in Sons and Daughters during 1983. Ward starred in the 1985 television series The Henderson Kids and its 1987 follow-up series The Henderson Kids II. During the late-1980s, she had supporting roles in films Jenny Kissed Me and Backstage as well as appearing in more soap guest roles including G.P. and Neighbours in 1989. After starring in the 1989 television movie Darlings of the Gods,[8] she returned again to the theatre and, in 1991, appeared in the play Alive and Kicking.[7]

With the exception of an appearance in the television series The Damnation of Harvey McHugh in 1994, in the 1990s Ward remained largely absent from Australian television screens until 1997, appearing in the film Amy. Between 1999 and 2000, she played the recurring character Betty Withers in the police drama Blue Heelers. Ward turned 105 in 2020.[2]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1949	Eureka Stockade	Lady Hotham
	That Dangerous Age	Nurse	Released in the US as If This Be Sin
1976	Cry Your Purple Hear Out	Mike	Also known as How To Score With Girls
1986	Jenny Kissed Me	Grace
1988	Backstage	Geraldine Wollencraft
1997	Amy	Mrs Mullins

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1951	I Was a Stranger	Official	TV film
1954	The Vise	Mrs Diana Campbell	TV series
1955	The High-Flying Head	Mrs Taylor	TV film
1957	Roundabout		TV film
1958	Captain Carvallo
1959	The Lark	Queen Yolande	Television play
1962	Marriage Lines		TV film
	The Teeth of the Wind		TV film
1965	The Tower		TV film
	Otherwise Engaged	Dorothy	TV film
1974	Rush	Mrs Hawk	TV series
1975–1976	Homicide	(3 roles) Mrs Parsons/ Margaret Lennox/ Mrs Phillips	TV series
1977	Ride a Wild Pony	Aunt Marian Castle	Also known as Born to Run
1979-1981	Prisoner	Janette "Mum" Brooks	Also known as Prisoner: Cell Block H and Caged Women
1981	The Young Doctors	Mrs Wilson	TV series
	I Can Jump Puddles	Mrs Birdsworth	TV series
1982	A Country Practice	Thelma Thomas	Episodes: The Seeds of Discontent (Parts 1 & 2)
1983	Sons and Daughters	Dee Morrell	22 episodes
1984	Hot Pursuit		Episode: Steel Trap
1985	The Henderson Kids	Mrs Cathcart	TV series
1987	The Henderson Kids II	Mrs Cathcart	TV series
1989	Neighbours	Mrs Granger	3 episodes
	G.P.	Jessie McLean	TV series
	Darlings of the Gods	Barbara Ward	TV mini-series
1992	The Late Show	Lady Frontbottom	1 episode of The Olden Days (edited from Rush)
1994	The Damnation of Harvey McHugh	Ivy	TV series
1999–2000	Blue Heelers	Betty Withers	3 episodes

References

1. "Mary Ward".
2. http://wwwentworth.co.uk/C24.htm. Missing or empty |title= (help)
3. "At 105, Mary Ward keeps smiling".
4. "Prisoner star Mary Ward Breheny still going strong at 101". Herald Sun. 3 May 2016. Retrieved 3 May 2016.
5. "Breheny, Mary Ward". Archived from the original on 3 April 2016.
6. Bourke, Terry (8 March 1998). "Chapter 3: Looking For Franky, Bea and Vinegar Tits". Prisoner Cell Block H: behind the scenes. WWWentworth.co.uk.
7. "Articles and Interviews: Mary Ward". H-Block Herald. 1991. Archived from the original on 4 August 2009.
8. "Key Cast Biographies: Mary Ward" (PDF). Beyond Films. 1998. Archived from the original (.pdf) on 20 July 2008.

External links

• Mary Ward at IMDb