Name Patricia Lovell | Role Film producer | |
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Spouse Nigel Lovell (m. 1955–1971) Children Jenny Lovell, Simon Lovell Books No Picnic: An Autobiography Movies and TV shows Similar People Norman Hetherington, Mark Lee, Russell Boyd, Joan Lindsay, Robert Stigwood | ||
Patricia Anna "Pat" Lovell (nee Parr), AM, MBE (circa 1930 – 26 January 2013) was an Australian film producer and actress whose work within that country's film industry led her to receive the Raymond Longford Award in 2004 from the Australian Film Institute (AFI). One of her productions, Gallipoli, received an AFI Award in 1982 as Best Film. Her work includes 1975's Picnic at Hanging Rock.
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Early life and career
Patricia Anna Parr says she was tborn in either Artarmon or Willoughby, the second child and first daughter of Luticia Evelyn nee Forsythe and Harold George Parr. Her childhood was a painful one, marked by the deaths of three of her siblings (one of whom was quite ill when she was born and died when she was 18 months old) and the divorce of her parents. She attended Presbyterian Ladies' College, Armidale, but "didn't do well in the Leaving at all" and failed to get a university pass.
She began her career in radio and television. She was Miss Pat on ABC TV's Mr. Squiggle. In 1964 she became what she characterized as "one of the minor beauties" on the panel of Beauty and the Beast. She had for a time ran a film co-production company with Mel Gibson, When The Today Show (Australia) began in 1969, she joined that show; it was there as an interviewer where she met Peter Weir, the director with whom she would produce her two best-known films, Picnic at Hanging Rock and Gallipoli.
Later career
Lovell worked as Head of Producing at the Australian Film TV and Radio School (AFTRS) between 1996 and 2003.
Personal life
Lovell met her husband, actor Nigel Lovell, through the Metropolitan Theatre in Sydney. They two had two children, Simon Lovell, a helicopter pilot, and Jenny Lovell, an actress known for her role on the soap opera Prisoner: Cell Block H. The couple eventually divorced.
Lovell died in January 2013 from liver cancer, aged 83.
Filmography
Honours
Pat Lovell was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 1978 New Year's Honours. In the 1986 Queen's Birthday Honours she was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM).