Mary Ward (actress)
| Mary Ward | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Mary Ward Breheny 6 March 1915 Fremantle, Western Australia |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1933–89; 1998–2000 |
Mary Ward Breheny (born 6 March 1915) credited professionally as Mary Ward, is an Australian actress, based in Melbourne, who was worked variously overseas in Britain on occasion, with a career spanning the latter half of the 20th century in radio, stage, television (including television serials and television plays) and film. Trained in Australia and England, Ward became one of the first female radio announcers at ABC in Australia. She is perhaps best known both locally and internationally for two notable roles on Australian television: "Mum" (Jeanette) Brooks in the cult series Prisoner, (known to international audiences as Prisoner: Cell Block H in The UK and USA and Caged Women in Canada), and Dee Morrell in soap opera Sons and Daughters.
Ward was born to a pearler in Fremantle, Western Australia in 1915. She began acting professionally shortly after leaving high school, and later studied at the Perth drama school. She also studied in England, performing as a stage actress for several years. Ward worked in Britain in film and repertory stage theatre, before returning to Australia prior to World War II, when she became one of the first female radio announcers for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation during the war as "The Forces' Sweetheart". She returned to the English stage, and, in 1948, performed parts for the British Broadcasting Corporation, including a cameo role in the Chips Rafferty film .
Ward returned to Australia, 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. 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.
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