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Fernande Glyn

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Fernande Glyn
Born
Fernande Glyn

3 April 1927
Sydney, Australia
Died3 August 2011 (aged 84)
Occupation
  • Actor
ChildrenDavid Unicomb,[1] Michael Unicomb[2]

Fernande Glyn (3 April 1927 – 3 August 2011) was an Australian television and stage actor. She was well-known in the 1960s for her television and theatre work, most notably for her starring role as Eve Halliday on Hunter.

Early life

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Glyn's parents were Ferdinand Glynn (1865-1930), a labour organiser and salesman, and Minnie Vos (1896-1937) a saleswoman. An orphan from the age of ten, Glyn attended the Santa Maria Convent School in Lawson, New South Wales.[3]

Glyn's unusual first name was a feminine version of her father, Ferdinand's, name.[4] She was sometimes credited with the last name 'Glynn' rather than 'Glyn', as per the original version of her father's last name.

She was the niece of the celebrated actor Neva Carr Glyn[5] (and therefore also related to another well-regarded actor, Neva Carr Glyn's son Nick Tate).[6]

Career

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Career in Britain

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Glyn worked in Britain between 1952 and 1958, appearing on both BBC and ITV television programs.[7] The first record of Glyn's stage work is in Wales: she appeared in a 1952 production of A Christmas Carol in Bridgend.[8] She also appeared in the Colwyn Bay Repertory Theatre's production of Rag Time by David Read in 1956.[9] Soon afterwards she acted (as ‘mother’) alongside John Unicomb (‘father') in Dennis Driscoll's Off the Deep End, also for the Colwyn Bay Repertory Theatre.[10] Glyn's last known work in Britain was in two television films from 1957: The Bloodless Arena[citation needed]

Career in Australia

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In August 1958 Glyn and Unicomb, who had married in the first few weeks of their tenure in the UK,[11] returned to Australia and in mid-1959 both were appearing in Melbourne as part of J. C. Williamson's Shakespeare Company in a production of The Merchant of Venice.[12] Glyn was noted by the Melbourne Age's theatre critic as a 'seductive Jessica'.[13] Glyn next played Regan in King Lear, delivering a performance the Sydney Morning Herald's critic described as 'firm and confident but unsuccessful in suggesting depths of character behind all the superficial hatefulness'.[14]

The following year, Glyn and Unicomb were appearing in a regular radio comedy, Mr. and Mrs., part of a feature known as Omnibus on Sydney radio station 2GB.[15] This series, described as 'a sophisticated domestic comedy', was written by James Carhartt.[16]

In June 1961 Glyn appeared in an Australian television drama for the first time, in the role of Bessie in The Sergeant from Burralee. She appeared in an episode of Whiplash soon afterwards. In November of the same year she appeared alongside Barry Creyton in an adaptation of the novel East Lynne at the Neutral Bay Music Hall.[17] In late 1962 both Glyn and Unicomb were reported to be appearing alongside David Hutcheson and Martine Messager in another J. C. Williamson production, a play adapted from Marcel Achard's L'Idiote, called A Shot in the Dark. [18] In late 1964 Glyn and Unicomb were again cast together in a satire produced by John Faassen, How the West Was Lost, which was written by, and starred, Glyn's former co-star Barry Creyton.[19]

1964 also saw Glyn act alongside Tony Ward, who would later be her Hunter co-star, as well as her aunt Neva Carr Glyn, in Rape of the Belt, a television play for the ABC.

In early 1965, Glyn became a 'weather girl' for ATN7, working two nights a week in the role.[20] During this time she and Unicomb were guest stars together on The Mavis Bramston Show.[21] In June she also appeared in a play written and directed by Bob Herbert, Campari Rocks.[22] Her next play, The Deadly Game, was an adaptation by James Yaffe of Friedrich Dürrenmatt's novel and subsequent play A Dangerous Game. It ran at the Independent Theatre, North Sydney in January and February 1966.[23] A television play followed, Marcel Pagnol's Topaze, in which Glyn played Suzy.[24] Critic Harry Robinson praised Glyn, writing that 'her quirky lips and eyes' reflected 'the dry humour of the play most accurately'.[25] In 1966 she also appeared in an Adelaide production of Noël Coward's Private Lives.[26]

Hunter

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Glyn's relationship with Crawford Productions began with a role in one episode of Consider Your Verdict in 1963. She followed this with one episode of Homicide. She was then contracted to play the character of Eve Halliday in Hunter.

The pilot for Hunter was made in secret in 1966 as Tony Ward was under contract to another channel; it was announced in the Melbourne Age's 'TV-Radio Guide' in early 1967 that Ward would star with Glyn as 'a pretty secretary'.[27] This characterisation was revised the following week when she was instead described in the same paper as 'an experienced agent' who 'takes no-one at face value'.[28] The character of Eve Halliday was far from a passive assistant but instead involved extensively in the espionage storylines. Glyn told the Australian Women's Weekly's Leonie Newberry that Halliday was 'sophisticated, warm yet strong, dedicated to what she does and capable of doing all sorts of things.'[29] There was, however, very limited backstory for the character - aside from that she was a widow and that her husband, Gary, had been in the CIA and killed at the age of 34. Ward's character says in episode 7 of the series ('The Prometheus File Part 3') 'She doesn't talk much about it.' Glyn did not appear in the second series of Hunter.[30]

Life after acting

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By the end of the 1960s, Glyn and Unicomb had divorced.[31]

By 1980, Glyn was described in an article on the NSW National Youth Film Festival as 'the current Warringah Council arts officer and former actress'.[32]

Her son, David Unicomb, told journalist Stephen Nicholls that 'With a walking frame in tow in the later years, she would frequently invite strangers who looked in need back to the apartment for a cup of tea or a meal, never concerned for her safety or her possessions.' Late in life, she suffered from dementia and 'a debilitating muscular disease.'[33] When she died in 2012 she was survived by a second husband, entrepreneur Willy Stader. Stader lived at their Cremorne apartment another ten years after Glyn's death, dying at the age of 102.[34]

Television

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Year Title Role Type
1957 The Bloodless Arena Stewardess TV film
1957 The Kentish Robin Actor TV film
1961 The Sergeant from Burralee Bessie Constantine TV film
1961 Whiplash Margaret TV series (one episode)
1962 Consider your Verdict Miss Broderick TV series (one episode)
1964 Rape of the Belt Antiope, the Amazonian Queen TV film
1965 Homicide Gwen Davis TV series (one episode)
1966 Topaze Suzy TV film
1967-69 Hunter Eve Halliday TV series
1968 Skippy the Bush Kangaroo Miss Dempster TV series (one episode)
1969 Riptide Barmaid TV series (one episode)

References

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  1. ^ Stephen Nicholls, 'Cremorne penthouse owned by the late TV and stage actress Fernande Glynn up for auction' https://www.realestate.com.au/news/cremorne-penthouse-owned-by-the-late-tv-and-stage-actress-fernande-glynn-up-for-auction/
  2. ^ 'Worth Reporting' Australian Women's Weekly 16 December 1959 p. 29
  3. ^ 'Santa Maria Convent School, Lawson', Catholic Press 9 January 1941 p. 10
  4. ^ Agnes Harrison, 'Counter-spying Aussie Style' Melbourne Age 'TV-Radio Guide' 12 January 1967 p. 2
  5. ^ Mollie Maginnis, 'Women in the Theatre' Melbourne Age 25 July 1959 p. 7
  6. ^ Martha Rutledge, 'Carr-Glyn, Neva Josephine (1908–1975)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/carr-glyn-neva-josephine-9693/text17109, published first in hardcopy 1993, accessed online 21 September 2024.
  7. ^ Mollie Maginnis, 'Women in the Theatre' Melbourne Age 25 July 1959 p. 7
  8. ^ 'A Christmas Carol' (advertisement) Glamorgan Gazette 19 December 1952 p. 4
  9. ^ 'Stage and Screen', North Wales Weekly News 17 May 1956 p. 4
  10. ^ Jean Ainslie, 'Stage and Screen' North Wales Weekly News 9 August 1956 p. 4
  11. ^ Mollie Maginnis, 'Women in the Theatre' Melbourne Age 25 July 1959 p. 7; Anon, 'Husband and Wife to Meet Mavis', Sydney Morning Herald 30 March 1965, 'TV Guide' p. 1; Kerry Yates, 'The Unicombs are "Sitting Pretty", Australian Women's Weekly 14 August 1963 p. 9
  12. ^ 'Amusements' Melbourne Age 6 June 1959 p. 64
  13. ^ '"The Age"" Theatre Critic' [sic] 'Shakespeare - by New Local Group', Melbourne Age 15 June 1959 p. 5
  14. ^ 'L. B.', 'John Alden stages "King Lear"', Sydney Morning Herald 13 November 1959 p. 7
  15. ^ 'Yes... there's something for everyone in Omnibus' (advertisement) Sunday Sun-Herald 4 September 1960 p. 79
  16. ^ 'Yes... there's something for everyone in Omnibus' (advertisement) Sydney Morning Herald 10 September 1960 p. 14
  17. ^ 'Neutral Bay Music Hall' Sydney Morning Herald 9 November 1961 p. 6
  18. ^ Josephine O'Neill, 'Curtain Call' Sunday Sun-Herald, 30 December 1962p. 43
  19. ^ Josephine O'Neill, 'Curtain Call' Sunday Sun-Herald, 4 October 1964 p. 79
  20. ^ Valda Marshall, 'TV Merry-Go-Round', Sunday Sun-Herald 10 January 1965 p. 83
  21. ^ 'Husband and Wife to Meet Mavis', Sydney Morning Herald 30 March 1965, 'TV Guide' p. 1
  22. ^ Josephine O'Neill, 'Curtain Call' Sunday Sun-Herald, 6 June 1965 p. 89
  23. ^ 'Entertainment and the Arts' Sydney Morning Herald 13 January 1966 p. 8
  24. ^ 'Drama', Melbourne Age 'TV-Radio Guide' 24 March 1966 p. 5
  25. ^ Harry Robinson 'Gleason's formula for success' Sydney Morning Herald 8 April 1966 p. 8
  26. ^ Agnes Harrison, 'Counter-spying Aussie Style' Melbourne Age 'TV-Radio Guide' 12 January 1967 p. 2
  27. ^ 'Hunter gets green light' Melbourne Age 5 January 1967 'TV-Radio Guide' p. 1
  28. ^ Agnes Harrison, 'Counter-spying Aussie Style' Melbourne Age 'TV-Radio Guide' 12 January 1967 p. 2
  29. ^ Leonie Newberry, 'Television', Australian Women's Weekly 8 February 1967 p. 17
  30. ^ Kirsten Blanch, 'Television', Australian Women's Weekly 20 March 1968 p. 15
  31. ^ Anne Latreille, 'Curtain Calls' Melbourne Age 3 September 1969 p. 16
  32. ^ Julianne Dowling 'Kids behind cameras', Sydney Morning Herald 21 February 1980 p. 16
  33. ^ http://employment.princess.com/cruise-tips-vacation-ideas/cruise-blog/inspired-to-cruise/the-world-cruise-that-brought-my-wifes-smile-back.html
  34. ^ Stephen Nicholls, 'Cremorne penthouse owned by the late TV and stage actress Fernande Glynn up for auction' https://www.realestate.com.au/news/cremorne-penthouse-owned-by-the-late-tv-and-stage-actress-fernande-glynn-up-for-auction/
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