Ray Lawler

Ray Lawler

AO OBE
BornRaymond Evenor Lawler
(1921-05-23)23 May 1921
Footscray, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Died24 July 2024(2024-07-24) (aged 103)
Melbourne, Australia
Occupation
  • Playwright
  • dramatist
  • actor
  • director
  • producer
Notable works
(1953)
Spouse
Jacklyn Kelleher
​
(m. 1956)​
Children3
A metal plaque set in the sidewalk at Circular Quay in Sydney commemorating author Ray Lawler as part of the Sydney Writers Walk series

Raymond Evenor Lawler AO OBE (23 May 1921 – 24 July 2024) was an Australian playwright and dramatist, actor, theatre producer and director.

Lawler's most notable play was his tenth, Summer of the Seventeenth Doll (1953), which had its premiere in Melbourne in 1955. The play was notable for changing the direction of Australian drama, considered one of the greatest of the 20th century, it was adapted to a film in 1959, starring Angela Lansbury and Ernest Borgnine.[1] The story of The Doll is preceded by Kid's Stakes, set in 1937, when the characters of The Doll are young adults, and then Other Times, which is set in 1945 and includes most of the same characters.

  1. ^ "Ray Lawler." Encyclopædia Britannica. retrieved 8 December 2006