Wendy Blacklock

Wendy Blacklock AM (born 1932) is a retired Australia-based theatre, radio and television actress, producer, writer and choreographer and theatre entrepreneur, who is best known for her long-running role of comedy character dizzy Edith "Edie" MacDonald, often referred to as Mother or Mummy in the 1970s television soap opera Number 96: a suburban housewife with a fondness for gin, daytime soap operas and analgesics.[1] She is a theatrical entrepreneur, who founded her own company "Performing Lines" to help nurture, produce and showcase new productions and Australian talent for stage in 1990, which she ran for 21 years, her small theatre museum features the alumni of Australian entertainment including Graham Kennedy, Jill Perryman, Gordon Chater and her Number 96 co-star Carol Raye.

Wendy Blacklock

AM
Born1932 (age 87–88)
Sydney, Australia
NationalityAustralian
Occupation
  • Actress
  • producer
  • writer
  • choreographer
  • theatre entrepreneur
Years activelate 1940s-2011
Known forNumber 96
Notable work
JC Williamson theatre

Career in radio and theatre

Blacklock's acting career began on the stage and from 1953 she spent two years in England acting in repertory theatre. She returned to Australia and had a solid career in the theatre which included stage tours of Australia and New Zealand; she was also a regular cast member of the satirical revues staged at Sydney's Phillip Street Theatre in the 1960s. Prior to the role in Number 96 she had played in theatrical productions of Don's Party and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, and made a few guest appearances in Australian television drama series[2]

Television

The role in Number 96 began in January 1974. At that time the show was Australia's highest-rated television program and Blacklock's character, dizzy housewife Edith "Edie" McDonald – otherwise known as "Mummy" – along with Edie's regimented husband Reg, known as "Daddy" (Mike Dorsey) and their adopted daughter Marilyn (Frances Hargreaves), became popular and enduring comedy characters in the series. In late 1976 there were plans to spin off the characters of "Mummy and Daddy" into a new situation comedy series titled Mummy and Me and starring Blacklock and Dorsey, but the proposed series was not picked up by the network and the characters remained in Number 96. Blacklock played in the series continuously until it ended in August 1977 and was in fact the final person shown in the closing scene of the last episode.

During 1977, Blacklock appeared occasionally as a panellist on game show Graham Kennedy's Blankety Blanks. In the late 1970s she and her main Number 96 co-star Mike Dorsey created a stage show based on their Number 96 characters which toured clubs in New South Wales.

Honours

Blacklock was a JC Williamson Award recipient for lifetime achievement in 2003.[3] Blacklock was awarded the Order Of Australia for her services to the arts in 1992. A pioneer and facilitator of young people wanting to enter the arts, she is also a Helpmann Award recipient

References
  1. Joyce Morgan. "Grand Dame of the Stage Takes Her Bows". Sydney Morning Herald.
  2. "Wendy Blacklock AM".
  3. "JC Williamson Award recipients". Helpmann Awards. Live Performance Australia. Archived from the original on 21 March 2012. Retrieved 30 April 2012.
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