Queenie Ashton

Edith Muriel Cover (nee Ashton) AM (11 November 1903 – 21 October 1999), known professionally as Queenie Ashton, was an English-born character actress. She had a long career, beginning in her native England as a soprano, theatre performer and radio personality before immigrating to Australia where she became best known for her radio and television soap opera roles, although she did also feature briefly in film's. Ashton's best known role played was of "Granny Bishop" a character many years her senior in the long-running Gwen Meredith radio serial Blue Hills, a role she would later reprise for television, with the first locally produced soap opera Autumn Affair.[1]

Biography

Edith Muriel Ashton was born in London, England on 11 November 1903. She was an accomplished ballet dancer, and specialist in voice production and drama, 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]

In the 1930's she appeared in radio musical comedy opposite Dick Bentley. 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 in 1977 and The Year My Voice Broke in 1987. She 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 23 October 1999, in the Sydney suburb of Carlingford, New South Wales at the age of 95, having had a successful 80-year career in the arts.

Personal 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 in 1946 she married theatrical agent Frederick 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 by her stage name Queenie Ashton a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for her services to the performing arts.[12]

References

  • O'Meara, Maeve (27 November 1983). "Queenie's high kick at 80". Sydney Morning Herald. p. 63. Retrieved 28 December 2009.
  • Atkinson, Ann; Linsay Knight; Margaret McPhee (1996). The Dictionary of Performing Arts in Australia: Opera, dance, music. Allen & Unwin. p. 12. ISBN 978-1-86373-898-9. Retrieved 28 December 2009.
  • Webber, Graeme (26 October 1999). "NSW:Radio serial star Queenie Ashton's final farewell". AAP General News (Australia). Retrieved 28 December 2009. (Registration required.)
  1. ↑ "Women in Early Radio, Queenie Ashton, National Film and Sound Archive of Australia". Archived from the original on 28 March 2012. Retrieved 2012-03-30.
  2. 1 2 3 Crocker, Patti Radio Days (with foreword by Queenie Ashton), Simon and Schuster 1989 ISBN 0-7318-0098-2
  3. 1 2 Lane, Richard The Golden Age of Australian Radio Drama Melbourne University Press 1994 ISBN 0-522-84556-8
  4. ↑ Sydney Morning Herald 1 October 1953
  5. 1 2 Sydney Morning Herald 28 January 1927
  6. ↑ The Argus 26 January 1929
  7. ↑ Sydney Morning Herald 17 June 1929
  8. ↑ Sydney Morning Herald 2 February 1944
  9. ↑ Sydney Morning Herald 22 April 1951
  10. ↑ Sydney Morning Herald 30 June 1951
  11. ↑ The Argus 12 February 1951
  12. ↑ It's an Honour
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