Lorrae Desmond

Lorrae Desmond
AM, MBE
Desmond in 2012
Born
Beryl Hunt[1]

(1929-10-02)2 October 1929[1][2]
Mittagong, New South Wales, Australia
Died23 May 2021(2021-05-23) (aged 91)
Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia[3]
Other names
  • Sheila Hunt
  • Beryl Gorshenin
  • Lorrae Gorshenin
Occupations
  • Actress
  • singer
  • recording artist
  • television presenter
  • radio presenter
  • theatre lyricist
Years active1945–2001 (retired)
Spouse
Alex Gorshenin
​
(m. 1963⁠–⁠1976)​
Awards

Lorrae Desmond AM, MBE (born Beryl Hunt;[4] 2 October 1929 – 23 May 2021)[a] was an Australian Gold Logie-award-winning singer, recording artist, radio and television presenter, character actor, and playwright, with a career that spanned over 55 years both locally and in the United Kingdom.

She started her career in England, in the vein of entertainer Cicely Courtneidge. Desmond carved out a career as a variety performer, as a singer and radio/television presenter, primarily at the BBC, where she had her own shows during World War II.

Returning to Australia, she became a popular presenter and remains best known to early local television audiences as hostess of the musical variety program The Lorrae Desmond Show from 1960 until 1964. As a variety entertainer and vocalist, she made numerous cabaret and TV appearances including In Melbourne Tonight, The Graham Kennedy Show, The Kamahl Show, The Ted Hamilton Show and appeared on Parkinson in Australia, and The Jack Benny Show.[3]

She was subsequently asked to tour South Vietnam with the Entertainment Unit during the Vietnam War. She also toured the Middle East, Malaysia, Singapore, Kenya and Somalia,[3] where she became known for her live singing performances, billed as a forces sweetheart, in the style of Vera Lynn and Anne Shelton, for which she was honoured with an MBE for services to entertainment.

She started taking roles in local soap operas and serials starting from the late 1960s, including a guest role in the Crawford Productions staple series Homicide, and a guest role in Number 96, after which she was given a more permanent role in the ill-fated series Arcade in 1980.

However, she became famous for her long-running role in the television series A Country Practice, as the original character of nurse Shirley Gilroy, appearing in 816 episodes from 1981 to 1992.

In 1997, she briefly guest starred in Home and Away as Isobel Dupre, the mother of Donald Fisher (Norman Coburn).

She had worked as a theatre lyricist, writing the play Honey in 2001, based on the novel Smoky Joe's Cafe by Bryce Courtenay.

  1. ^ a b "Lorrae Desmond: (author/organisation) | AustLit: Discover Australian Stories". www.austlit.edu.au. 8 January 2020. Retrieved 9 February 2020.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference trove was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b c "Vale:Lorrae Desmond".
  4. ^ "Lorrae Desmond". AusStage.


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