Bunney Brooke

Bunney Brooke
Bunney Brooke {left} with co-star Pat McDonald
Born	Dorothy Cronin (1920-01-09)9 January 1920 Bendigo, Victoria, Australia
Died	2 April 2000(2000-04-02) (aged 80) Manly, Sydney, Australia
Cause of death	Bowel and liver cancers
Nationality	Australian
Other names	Bunnie Brooke, Bunny Brooke
Occupation	Television actress movie actress theatre actress casting director director
Years active	1940s–1998 (acting) 1980s–1990s (casting agent) 1956–1989 (theatre acting)
Spouse(s)	Leonard Brooke (1946–1950; divorced)
Partner(s)	Pat McDonald
Children	2
Awards	Number 96: Silver Logie Award, Penguin Award: Rock Pool, ABC

Bunney Brooke (9 January 1920 – 2 April 2000) (born as Dorothy Cronin), was an Australian actress and Casting director/agent, best known for her being one of the early faces of Australian television. Known for her television, movie, theatre acting and comedy roles including the long-running role of Flo Patterson in the soap opera and movie release version of Number 96 in the 1970s (a role for which she won a Silver Logie Award), and in her later years to a new generation of viewers in her role in children's series Round the Twist (1989 and 1992) and her role as Violet "Vi" Patchett in E Street (1990).

Brooke was born as Dorothy Cronin in Bendigo, Victoria, adopted at an early age and had an unhappy early life. She was raised by foster parents, and then later joined the Australian army at the age of 18. As a young adult, she saw marriage as a means of escape, marrying Leonard Brooke in 1946. The union produced two children but ended after four years, with Brooke reporting that they were "wrong for marriage".

Brooke switched to the carefree life of a drifter with little money and few possessions. After becoming disillusioned with this existence, Brooke sought conventional employment as a clown, acting teacher, café owner and train conductor. Subsequent experiences of a broken marriage, two children and struggles with depression, illness and lack of money which gave her the depth for years later to win the Best Actress Logie for a 1974 episode of Number 96 as Flo Patterson, jilted at the altar. In the early 1950s, Brooke managed the Prompt Corner coffee lounge in Melbourne with her girlfriend. At that time, several city coffee lounges implicitly catered specifically to LGBT patrons at a time when few other commercial venues existed for them. Prompt Corner also held poetry readings and, aside from the gay and lesbian patrons, it attracted the theatrical and bohemian crowd.