Sheila Florance
Acting
Biography
Sheila Florance (1916-1991) was an Australian actress, known for her role of Lizzie Birdsworth in TV series' Prisoner (1979-1984), Mad Max (1979) and A Woman's Tale (1991). Died of cancer in Melbourne, Australia at age 75, 9 days after winning Australian Film Institute's Best Actress award for A Woman's Tale (1991), a film where she played a woman dying of cancer.
Born: July 24, 1916
Place of Birth: St. Kilda East, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Known For
Round the Twist
Round the Twist is a Logie Award-winning Australian children's television series about three children and their father who live in a lighthouse and become involved in many bizarre magical adventures.
Mad Max
In the ravaged near-future, a savage motorcycle gang rules the road. Terrorizing innocent civilians while tearing up the streets, the ruthless gang laughs in the face of a police force hell-bent on stopping them.
The Devil's Playground
A powerful drama relating the intimate aspect of teenage boys and their priest/educators behind the walls of a religious institution where rigid discipline backfires natural feelings are deemed unnatural acts and human lives are controlled in the names of good intentions.
Summerfield
When teacher Simon arrives in a small, secluded village to take over the local school, he is surprised to discover that his predecessor has disappeared without a trace - and that nobody seems too concerned about it. As Simon probes deeper into the disappearance, the inhabitants of a forbidding estate called "Summerfield" take on more and more significance.
End Play
And just when you believe there is nothing more to fear, you will begin to experience the ultimate terror of the END PLAY.
A Woman's Tale
Uplifting and intimate look at the last days of an elderly cancer victim. The film is even more relevant as it was written specifically for the lead actress, Sheila Florance, who was in fact dying of cancer as she created what is essentially a self-portrait.
Nirvana Street Murder
Two brothers become conflicted after one goes on the run and the other has an affair with a Greek woman and takes care of an old rich lady who could be their way out.
Rafferty's Rules
Rafferty's Rules was an Australian television drama series which ran from 1987 to 1990 on the Seven Network. Rafferty's Rules was one of the first programs undertaken by the Seven Network's then new in-house drama unit, going into production in May 1985 as "a 15-part courtroom drama". The program had started out as a pilot episode, recorded in early 1984 with the actor Chris Haywood in the lead role. When the pilot episode was remounted later in 1984, Chris Haywood wasn't available and the lead role was re-cast to John Wood. This second recording was eventually broadcast as the program's first episode.
Clay
A killer on the run is found lying flat on his face in a wet clay bank. He is rescued by potters who shelter him within their community. There he falls in love with a woman. Unfortunately, another man who has been calling upon the woman gets jealous and turns the fugitive in to the cops. The woman gets revenge.
The Tale of Ruby Rose
The year is 1933. Ruby Rose (Melita Jurisic) is an Australian woman living with her Welsh immigrant husband Henry (Chris Haywood) in the Tasmanian highlands. Cut off from her superjudgmental family, for whom Henry had once worked as a humble farm hand, Ruby remains isolated in her tiny house. Superstitiously terrified of the dark, she begins developing her own folklore about the inky blackness that surrounds her each night; this folklore eventually develops into Ruby's own personal religion, created to ward off the evils that she imagines lurk in every corner. Only by venturing out of her house and rekindling her relationship with her embittered father is Ruby able to exorcise her fears. Almost hypnotic in its stark beauty, Tale of Ruby Rose is proof enough that writer/director Roger Scholes deserves to be far better known.
Filmography
as Martha
as Molly
as Madame Fortune
as Großmutter
as Mrs. Patterson
as May Swaisey
as Mrs.Sullivan
as Miss Gleeson
as Mavis Lipton
as Deaf-mute