Full Name Beryl Hunt Role Singer Name Lorrae Desmond | Parent(s) DR D.E Hunt Years active 1956–1999 Spouse Alex Gorshenin (m. 1963) | |
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Born 2 October 1932 (age 91) ( 1932-10-02 ) Mittagong, New South Wales, Australia Other names Lorrae Gorshenin (married name) Occupation actress
singer
entertainer. Awards Gold Logie Award for Best Personality on Australian Television, Logie Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Series Nominations Logie Award for Best Actress, Logie Award for Best Lead Actress in a Series TV shows A Country Practice, Number 96, Arcade, The Lorrae Desmond Show, Strictly T‑T Similar People Gordon Piper, David Sale, John Barry | ||
Lorrae Desmond & The Rebels - Ding Dong Rock A Billy Weddin' - 1957 45rpm
Lorrae Desmond, MBE (2 October 1932), born as Beryl Hunt, is an Australian retired Gold Logie-award-winning singer, entertainer, character actress and theatre lyricist, in the vein of Joy Nichols, with a career spanning over 60 years, both locally and internationally. She remains best known to early television audiences as presenter of the self-titled musical variety program The Lorrae Desmond Show from 1960 until 1964, her live singing performances as a forces sweetheart and for her long-running role as Shirley Gilroy (née Dean), an original character from 1981 in the television series A Country Practice, which she played to 1992.
Contents
- Lorrae Desmond The Rebels Ding Dong Rock A Billy Weddin 1957 45rpm
- Early life and career in Britain
- Marriage
- MBE and public service
- Television roles
- A Country Practice Shirley Gilroy
- Writing
- ACP and logie reunions
- One woman show
- Awards and honours
- References
Early life and career in Britain
Desmond was born on 2 October 1932, in Mittagong, New South Wales, to Alice and Des Hunt. She travelled to Britain in the 1950s, and at 16, as Lorrae started her career as a singing cigarette girl and became a celebrity there, she performed as a solo artist and with backing group The Rebels, she appearing in cabaret, pantomime, radio, and live recording, including several shows for the BBC, including Meet Lorrae and Swing with Lorrae. She even featured in her own comedy series Trouble for Two in 1958, was in the cast of several Terry-Thomas TV specials, and competed to represent the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1957.
In his book Bounder (2008), Graham McCann states that Desmond might have married Terry-Thomas, who had been her constant companion for seven years. Instead, the actor overcame a 26-year age gap to marry Belinda Cunningham. Desmond refuted this in an ABC interview in April 2008, saying that she dated Thomas for 10 years, but they would never have married.
In 1962, she made history by being the first woman to win the Gold Logie (which was in fact Silver, as women at the time received the Silver Statuette, and men received the Gold Statuette) for her work on her variety show The Lorrae Desmond Show. The Gold Logie award that year was a dual honour, with Tommy Hanlon Jr. also winning the coveted trophy.
Marriage
Desmond married Sydney surgeon Dr Alex Gorshenin in 1963. They travelled to the United States together, where he continued to study. They moved back to Sydney but the marriage did not last long.
MBE and public service
The Australian Government invited her to tour Vietnam from 1967 to 1971, to entertain the troops. She was widely courted as being the Australian Forces Sweetheart, amongst others including Little Pattie. Desmond was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1970 for services to entertainment and the welfare of the Australian Forces in Vietnam.
In 2000, Desmond was a supporter of the Paralympic Games.
Television roles
Desmond's television appearances include Homicide, Number 96 (1973) and Arcade (1980). She also had a guest appearance on Home and Away as Isobel Dupre, the mother of Donald Fisher played by Norman Coburn.
A Country Practice: Shirley Gilroy
Desmond appeared as Shirley Gilroy in A Country Practice, an original character, from 1981 to 1992, opposite Brian Wenzel who played her husband Frank Gilroy. In 1984 she won the Logie for Best Supporting Actress for this role. In one of the series' iconic episodes in 1992, the long-running character Shirley was killed off in an off-screen plane crash, with actress Desmond stating she did not want a prolonged death storyline arc like Molly Jones (Anne Tenney).
Writing
Desmond co-wrote the lyrics to the musical Man of Sorrows (originally titled Jesus Christ Revolution) which premiered in Melbourne in 1972.
About the industry, she said:
What I really wanted to do was write lyrics for songs. I did do a few weeks in Home And Away after ACP, but I’m a bit sick of performing—after you've been doing it for 50 years you're just going around in circles! The thing I liked most about being a performer was putting the act together, which is why I've come back to writing. It's still pleasant to be recognised as Shirley because people are always nice to me. And with those ACP repeats on Hallmark, it goes from generation to generation.
In 2001, she obtained the rights to write the lyrics for a musical play based on Bryce Courtenay's novel Smoky Joe's Cafe, about the effects of the Vietnam War on a veteran. The play, entitled Honey, premiered in 2007 at the Riverside Theatre Parramatta.
She was also a magazine columnist for That's Life; she wrote an article called "Ask Lorrae", where readers would write in, asking for advice and information.
ACP and logie reunions
Desmond took part in an A Country Practice reunion special in 2006, as part of the "Television Turns 50" celebrations, and the series' 30th-anniversary reunion in 2011. In 2017, Lorrae who was the first female to win a Gold Logie, appeared at the Logie awards, to present an award opposite her cousin's son, Chinese Australian actor and presenter Sam Pang.
One-woman show
She toured Australia performing in High Society, and her own one-woman show.