Carmen Duncan

Carmen Joan Duncan (7 July 1942 – 3 February 2019) was an Australian-born stage and screen actress and activist, with a career locally and internationally in the United States that spanned over 50 years.

She was known for the films Don't Let It Get You (1966), Harlequin (1980) and Turkey Shoot (1982) and for her role as Iris Wheeler in American soap opera Another World from 1988 to 1994.

Duncan was born in Lismore in 1942, and grew up in Cooma, New South Wales,^[1][2] Her family moved to Double Bay in Sydney in the late 1950s,^[1] where she graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) in 1961.^[3]

Duncan was known to Australian audiences as a character actress in television, stage and film, as well as having appeared in television commercials.

Duncan relocated to England early in her career, spending the 1960s in London and the UK appearing in weekly repertory theatre.^[4] She went on to play the lead in Make Me a Widow in the West End.^[4] She was nominated for Best Actress at the Theatre Critics Award for her role as Meg in the National Theatre’s tour of A Man for All Seasons, before winning the award a few years later for her role in After the Fall.^[4] She went on to appear in numerous theatre roles in Australia, between 1970 and 2015.^[5]

When Duncan returned to Australia,^[4] she starred in several television series, including The Battlers, You Can't See 'Round Corners, Delta^[6] and Hunter, the latter in 1967.^[7] In 1973, she played Helen Sheridan in evening soap opera Number 96^[3] for several months. She left the series when she was pregnant with her second child and Jill Forster took over the role.^[6]

In the early 1970s, Duncan's younger sister Paula followed her into acting. However they only ever worked together once, in an episode of Cop Shop.^[6]

A role on the soap Certain Women followed. Duncan later had an ongoing role in Skyways,^[7] and guest starred in several episodes of A Country Practice as Terence Elliott's wife, Rowena.^[8][2]

Her film roles included Touch and Go (1980) and Run Chrissie Run! (1984).^[6] She was nominated for the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actress for her role as Sandra Rast in 1980 horror film Harlequin.^[9][10] She also starred in 1982 Ozploitation film Turkey Shoot (1982) and later, its 2014 reboot.^[3]

Duncan emigrated to the United States in the 1980s, where she acted on television.^[2] From October 1988 to September 1994, she portrayed Iris Carrington Wheeler on long-running American daytime soap opera Another World.^[7] She succeeded Beverlee McKinsey in the role after a long absence. Many of her critics, including TV Guide's Michael Logan, remarked that her accent sounded less American than her counterparts, making her seem out of place in the serial. As an actress, she generally used a Cultivated Australian accent, which is similar to Received Pronunciation.

After leaving the Another World role in the mid-1990s, Duncan returned to Australia, where she acted in guest roles on television series^[2] including All Saints, Water Rats, Farscape, Head Start, Something in the Air, Always Greener.^[6] She also lampooned her former soap opera image on television commercials.^[2]

In 2003, Duncan appeared as Anna Denton on CrashBurn.^[2] In 2004, she returned to the United States to fill in for Eileen Fulton as Lisa Grimaldi in three episodes of As the World Turns,^[7] while Fulton was on emergency medical leave. Back in Australia, she later appeared in Winners & Losers and Pulse.^[6]

Duncan became a member of Actors Equity in 1962 and the federal council of the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance.^[2]

Duncan retired from acting in 2006 and became a fundraising manager for the GO Fund, a New South Wales charity associated with gynaecological cancer.^[7][11] She served as an ambassador for the Breast Care Centre at the Royal Hospital for Women.^[7]

Duncan lived in Sydney.^[2] She was married to Norman Barrett (who went by the name of 'Adrian')^[12] in 1968.^[1] Together, they had two children^[12] – a son and a daughter.^[6] The couple split in 1984.^[12] Through her children, Duncan had three grandchildren, living in Sydney and Darwin.^[1]

Duncan's younger sister is fellow actress Paula Duncan.^[2][6]

In 2000, Duncan was diagnosed and treated for early stage breast cancer.^[2] She later also developed bowel and thyroid cancer and eventually succumbed to vaginal cancer, a rare gynaecological cancer.^[13] She died in hospital in Sydney, on 3 February 2019, aged 76.^[2][8][6]

Source: ^[5]

• Carmen Duncan at IMDb
• Irises: The Unofficial Beverlee McKinsey and Carmen Duncan Home Page