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Noel Ferrier AM (20 December 1930 in Melbourne – 16 October 1997 in Sydney) was an Australian television personality, stage and film actor, raconteur and theatrical producer. Ferrier had an extensive Australian theatre career which spanned over fifty years. A member of the first Australian professional repertory company, the Union Theatre Repertory Company, he created the role of 'Roo' in the original production of Summer of the Seventeenth Doll at the Union Theatre of the University of Melbourne. He appeared in numerous films and television productions. A contemporary of Barry Humphries, in 1956 he was the "interviewer" of the first onstage appearance of a certain Mrs. Norm Everidge, later known universally as Dame Edna.
To ease the workload on Graham Kennedy, he was invited by GTV9 to host a Friday night version of In Melbourne Tonight from 1963 to 1965. This was stylistically different to that of Kennedy's IMT, – "dyed in the wool IMT viewers switched off in their droves" – Noel Ferrier's In Melbourne Tonight (as it was known) garnered a separate and loyal audience, resulting in a Logie for Most Popular Program in Victoria in 1964. . Following this success, the network decided to relay the show in Sydney on TCN9, but in the early hours of the following morning after live telecasts of World Championship Wrestling .
After his period on IMT finished in 1965, he started a morning radio show in Melbourne on 3UZ with Mary Hardy called "The Noel and Mary Show", which contained a riotously funny serial known as "The House on the Hill" featuring Sir & Lady Ernest Snatchbull, "set in a mythical Government House and loosely based on the vice-regal column in The Age... the real Governor of Victoria of the time was a (reputedly) devoted fan... whereas his wife was said to have abhorred it."
He developed a reputation as a reliable television character actor; appearances occurred in Riptide (1969), Skippy (1970), as well as a numerous characters in the Crawfords stable of productions, including Homicide (1969), Division 4 (1970, 1971 & 1975), and Matlock Police (1973,1974 & 1975). In 1971 he won the award for Best Australian Comedy with Noel Ferrier's 'Australia A-Z. He was a regular panelist in Graham Kennedy's popular game show Blankety Blanks. His movie credits include Alvin Purple, Eliza Fraser, Turkey Shoot and The Year of Living Dangerously. His final movie role was in Paradise Road. Description above from the Wikipedia article Noel Ferrier, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Briony Behets (born 21 July 1951) is an English-Australian former actress who found fame acting in Australian television soap operas of the 1970s and 1980s.
At age 17 she was accepted into the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, studying there for two years. After completing the course she travelled to the United States as part of a student exchange project, working there as a nightclub dancer.
Behets subsequently enjoyed several high-profile television roles in Australia. She was an original cast member of soap opera Number 96 playing Helen Eastwood in 1972 but her character was written out of the serial after only a few months. She was subsequently a member of the original cast of another adult soap The Box starting in 1974 and her role in that series lasted 14 months. After leaving The Box she appeared for a short stint in Bellbird before taking an ongoing role in the school-based teen soap Class of '75.
Film roles included the joint lead with Judy Morris in The Trespassers (1976) for which she was nominated for a Best Actress Award, Raw Deal (1977), Inside Looking Out (1977), Long Weekend (1978).
In the 2000s she also guest starred in some US drama series such as JAG. She returned to Neighbours in July 2008, in another role as Kate Newton a romantic interest for Harold Bishop. She had also starred alongside Ian Smith in Neighbours 21 years earlier in 1987 when she played a different character. Her latest role saw her as a regular on The Saddle Club series three as the second actor to portray Mrs. Reg.
Penne Hackforth-Jones (August 5, 1949 – May 17, 2013) was an American-born Australian actress and biographer.
Hackforth-Jones lived with her family in England before relocating to Australia in 1964. She gratuated National Institute of Dramatic Art in 1968. In 1969, Hackforth-Jones made her first credited on-screen appearance in the Australian television series Riptide, and later appeared in such Australian television series. Penne Hackforth-Jones died at the age of 64 after battling lung cancer. She never married, and was survived by her three sisters.
