Anne Haddy

Patricia Anne Haddy (5 October 1930 – 6 June 1999), credited also as Anne Hardy, was an Australian actress, television presenter and voice artist, who worked in various facets of the industry including radio, stage and television. She was married to actor and scriptwriter James Condon.^[2]

She started her career in the early "Golden Days of Radio", where she spent 20 years appearing opposite such stars as Queenie Ashton and Ethel Lang in the Gwen Meredith ABC drama Blue Hills

Haddy appeared in numerous television films early in her career, but was better known for her television soap opera/serials roles, starting with numerous roles in Crawford Production serials. She had a stint in cult series Prisoner as Alice Hemmings^[2] and a permanent role in Sons and Daughters as Rosie Andrews.^[2]

She was best known however for her long-running role in the soap Neighbours as matriarch Helen Daniels for twelve years.^[2]

Haddy was also a children's entertainer, as an original presenter on Play School^[2] and also a voice artist in some films from the animated Dot series.

Haddy was born on 5 October 1930,^[3] in Quorn, South Australia, the only child of Allan Ross Haddy and Mona Lowas (nee Graham).^[4] Intent on becoming an actress from a young age, her parents gave her the complete works of Shakespeare for her fifteenth birthday.^[5] She attended Gawler Primary School, followed by Adelaide High School, where she acted in a production of George Bernard Shaw’s Androcles and the Lion.^[5]

Haddy made her professional radio debut with the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) in 1948.^[5] She acted in radio plays and school broadcasts while she was working in the University of Adelaide's book room.^[4] By 1949, she was a member of Theatres Associated, playing Ah, Wilderness! under Margery Irving at Stow Hall^[6] through to 1953 with Cocteau's The Typewriter.^[7] She also appeared in the Adelaide Repertory Theatre's production of Claudia (1950).^[5] She later attended the Sydney Theatre Company.^[4]

She relocated to the United Kingdom in 1953 to find acting opportunities, and appeared in The Pied Piper at the West End’s Adelphi Theatre with the Australian Drama Group, but predominantly worked as a secretary for Kellogg's.^[8][5]

After getting married, Haddy returned to Australia in 1955, settling in Perth. She continued in stage and radio plays, including starring in the titular role in Sophocles's Antigone at the 1957 Festival of Perth. Relocating to Sydney in 1960, she performed in productions for the Independent Theatre, the Q Lunchtime Theatre, and the Community Theatre.^[5] One of her most notable stage roles was as Sheila Larkin in a 1967 production of Hostile Witness, alongside Ray Milland, who starred in the film version.^[2] By 1971 she was contracted to work for the Old Tote Theatre Company.^[5] Other theatre credits included The Entertainer, Hay Fever, The Glass Menagerie, Twelfth Night, Richard III, Gas Light and 'Tis Pity She's a Whore.^[2] She also starred as Elizabeth Ross-Ingham in radio serial Blue Hills for over 20 years.^[9]

Haddy became one of the first presenters of Play School.^[2] She appeared in 1966 feature film They're a Weird Mob and numerous made-for-television movies throughout the 1960s. She also had numerous guest roles in serials throughout the 1960s and into the mid-1970s, including Wandjina! (1966), Dynasty (1970–1971), Punishment, Matlock Police (1972–1974), Division 4 (1973), Certain Women (1974–1975) She also had a guest role in Skippy the Bush Kangaroo. This was followed by a role in cult prison series Prisoner, playing Doreen Anderson's mother, Alice Hemmings,^[2] who having abandoned Doreen as a youngster, returns to visit her, revealing she has terminal cancer. Following this, Haddy appeared as American alcoholic worldwide singer entertainer Toni Lee, who finds romance in the VIP Lounge at Pacific International Airport in Skyways.

|-She had roles in many classic films and miniseries, including Seven Little Australians (1973), The Fourth Wish (1976), Australian New Wave classic Newsfront (1978), and A Town Like Alice (1981).^[2] She also performed as a voice artist on 1977 children's animated film Dot and the Kangaroo (1977) and its sequels.

From 1982 until 1985 Haddy played housemaid Rosie Andrews (later Palmer) in Sons and Daughters,^[2] before in 1985 taking on her longest and most famous regular role, as series matriarch Helen Daniels, in Neighbours.^[2] The role was one she would go on to appear in for 1,162 episodes over 12 years. Haddy departed the series and retired from acting in 1997.

After relocating to the United Kingdom in the 1950s, Haddy married her first husband, Maxwell 'Max' Dimmitt^[8] son of Western Australia’s agent-general in London. They married on 2 April 1955 at the Queen’s Chapel of the Savoy, Westminster, and returned to Australia a couple of months later, settling in Perth,^[5] where she gave birth to two children. In 1960, Haddy and her family moved to Sydney.^[2] Her marriage ended in divorce in 1971.^[5]

Haddy began dating actor and scriptwriter James Condon in 1974, after having met while working in radio many years prior. They were married on 2 October 1977 in Wahroonga on Sydney's Upper North Shore.^[2][10] The couple moved from Sydney to Melbourne for Anne’s part in Neighbours.^[10] They acted alongside each other on television twice, both during Haddy's tenure on Neighbours.^[4] in 1985 and again in 1995 ^[10] They also performed on stage together, in a production of Shaw’s Arms and the Man.^[11]

Haddy suffered ill health for the last two decades of her life. She suffered a heart attack in 1979, leading to four bypass operations.^[2] Shortly thereafter, she fell and broke her hip, and later learned she had stomach cancer, which was reportedly discovered early and successfully treated surgically. In 1983, she had one of her four heart bypasses unclogged. Further health problems and a broken hip led to kidney trouble, which caused her to retire from acting in 1997.^[2] Haddy had remarked that she would like to have her real-life funeral screened as part of Neighbours.^[2]

She died at her home in Melbourne from a kidney-related illness on 6 June 1999, aged 68.^[4] In the UK, the episode of Neighbours that was broadcast on BBC One the following day ended with a dedication to her memory, accompanied by an announcement of her death.

• Anne Haddy at IMDb