Noeline Brown

Noeline Mabel Brown (sometimes credited as Noelene Brown) (born 3 October 1938) is an Australian actress and comedian. She has appeared in numerous films, television shows,^[1] theatrical productions^[2] and radio programs^[3] dating back to 1959.^[4]

Brown grew up in Stanmore, a working-class suburb of Sydney, Australia.^[3] She was raised alongside her two brothers, by a mother suffering from tuberculosis.^[5] Her father, Leo,^[6] rarely home, worked with the travelling post office and was a unionist, influencing her own politics.^[3] As a young child, Brown was hospitalised for several months with Scarlet fever.^[6]

Brown was school captain in her last year at Stanmore Homescience School,^[6] but left school at age 15,^[5] as she struggled to conform with the subservient behaviour expected of her.^[3] Her first job at 15^[7] was as a library assistant^[6] at the Marrickville Library where, through colleagues, she was introduced to a theatre group and began to learn her craft in revues and theatre restaurants.^[7][5]

By 19, Brown was appearing in small theatre productions, first performing in a Petersham Musical Society revue, before working for the New Theatre at the Waterside Workers’ Federation. She then auditioned for Sydenham’s Pocket Playhouse, where she was discovered in 1962, playing a showgirl in The Sleeping Prince.^[5] She gained local notoriety in Sydney as a cast member of the Phillip Street Revues and the popular melodrama productions at The Music Hall, a Sydney theatre-restaurant, in the early 1960s.^[6]

Brown frequently appeared alongside Barry Creyton, in productions including What's New? (1962), The Face at the Window (1963), Beauty and the Beast (1963), How The West Was Lost (1964) and Double Act (1987), the latter of which, Creyton wrote in order to collaborate once again with Brown.^[8] The pair specialised in comedy improvisation, with some of their sketches being aired on radio station 2SM. From there, they were offered a contract with Festival Records, making two comedy albums. Their first album, "The Front and Backside of Barry Creyton and Noeline Brown" outsold The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Elvis Presley, in its first week of release, but was banned on every radio station in Australia.^[8]

From 2004 to 2006, Brown was in an extended Australian touring production of Wallflowering with HIT Productions playing the part of Peg.^[9] In 2007, she appeared in Bruce Venables' and Richard Fidler's play Flying Solo,^[10] directed by Judy Nunn, starring alongside Barry Quin, Paula Duncan, Enda Markey and Jacinta John.^[11] The same year, she played Florence Foster Jenkins in Glorious!.^[12] In 2009, she co-starred once again with Barry Creyton in Peter Quilter's play Duets at the Ensemble Theatre in Sydney.^[13][14]

From 2014 to 2015, Brown played the role of Maggie (originated by Ruth Cracknell) in a stage reimagining of the classic Australian television sitcom Mother and Son.^[5] In 2022, Brown appeared in a production of Mono opposite Max Gillies and John Wood.^[15]

Brown, however came to national prominence after joining the cast of the pioneering Australian satirical TV sketch comedy series The Mavis Bramston Show (1964–1968).^[16] After a stint in the UK she secured a regular role in the hit TV sitcom My Name's McGooley, What's Yours?, starring alongside Gordon Chater, John Meillon and Judi Farr.^[17]

Throughout the 1970s, Brown enjoyed great popularity in Australia as a co-star of the satirical television and radio series The Naked Vicar Show^[16] and with regular appearances as a panelist on the quiz show Blankety Blanks.^[6]

She was a regular panelist in the ABC game show Would You Believe? (1970–1974). In 1978 she won a Logie Award for the most popular NSW female personality.^[18]

In 2006, she was a competitor in the fourth season of Dancing with the Stars, hoping to win money for her chosen charity 'Starting Points', which provides early intervention for children with special needs. She had previously won a sizeable amount of money on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? for the same charity. Together with professional dance partner Carmello,^[19] she placed fourth.

Brown has also appeared in feature films and TV movies. Her earlier career included roles in 1971 adventure survival film Walkabout alongside Jenny Agutter and David Gulpilil, and 1987 drama film Emma's War opposite Miranda Otto and Lee Remick.^[6] She played the role of Leonara Biviano in the Australian film Razzle Dazzle: A Journey into Dance in 2007.^[20]

Brown was portrayed by Jane Allsop in the 2007 television movie The King,^[21] about the life of Graham Kennedy.

Brown was appointed Australia's first Ambassador for Ageing by the Rudd government.^[22]

She won the 2007 Norman Kessell Award^[23][24] for best performance for her portrayal of Florence Foster Jenkins in Peter Quilter's play Glorious!^[12]

In April 2020, Brown was honoured with a stamp in the Australia Post Legends of Comedy issue.^[25]

At the age of 18, Brown was engaged to "Ron", a "much older gorgeous boyfriend", with whom she is still friends with. However, when she began acting at 19, she gave the ring back, as she felt she was not yet ready to settle down.^[26] Brown attracted the interest of many other admirers, including filmmaker Bruce Beresford and broadcaster Clive James, the latter admitting to envying her romance with art critic and author Robert Hughes.^[26]

Brown met writer Tony Sattler on a radio show called Chuck Chunder of the Space Patrol. They married in 1976, before working together on mid-1970s comedy sketch hit The Naked Vicar Show on which he was a writer and producer. ^[5][27] The couple were close friends of Graham Kennedy – Brown was present when Kennedy died in 2005.^[28] She and Sattler have lived in Bowral for many years, and Kennedy moved there to be closer to them. When Kennedy's health began to fail, Sattler and Brown reportedly contacted former Nine network boss Kerry Packer to appeal for financial support to care for the ailing star (Kennedy having earned many millions of dollars for Packer and the Nine network in his heyday). Packer declined to assist Kennedy financially but, after the story became public, an anonymous benefactor (later revealed as former Nine Network chief Sam Chisholm) came forward and donated a substantial sum (reportedly AU$150,000) for Kennedy's ongoing support and care.^[29]

Brown is a longtime member of the Australian Labor Party and appeared in the "It's Time" advertisements for the party before the 1972 election.^[30] She has twice (1999 and 2003) run for New South Wales Parliament as an endorsed Labor Party candidate.^[31]

In 2008, she was appointed as the Commonwealth’s first Ambassador for Ageing, then reappointed for a second three-year term in 2011.^[32]

Brown was a member of the Arts and Culture Board and a Patron of the Southern Highlands Regional Gallery. She worked with alcoholics and drug addicts at the Langton Clinic. She also spent two years with the NSW Premier’s Council for Women.^[32]

Brown wrote an autobiography in 2005, called Noeline – Longterm Memoir. In 2017 she published a second memoir, Living the 1960s, about her life during that decade when living in Marrickville in Sydney.^[33]

Brown and Sattler run their own production company, Wintergreen Productions, in Bowral. They also built the Mary Mackillop Museum in North Sydney and the Slim Dusty Museum in Kempsey.^[32]

Source: ^[2]

• Noeline Brown at IMDb
• Noeline Brown at AusStage