Patricia Lovell
Patricia Anna "Pat" Lovell (née Parr), AM MBE (1929 – 26 January 2013)[1] was an Australian film producer and actress, whose work within that country's film industry led her to receive the Raymond Longford Award in 2004 from the Australian Film Institute (AFI). Her productions include 1975's Picnic at Hanging Rock, and Gallipoli, which received an AFI Award in 1982 as Best Film.
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Early life and career
Patricia Anna Parr[2] says she was born in either Artarmon or Willoughby,[3] the second child and first daughter of Luticia Evelyn née Forsythe and Harold George Parr.[3] During her childhood, three of her siblings died, including one who was quite ill at birth and died at 18 months old, and her parents divorced.[3] She attended Presbyterian Ladies' College, Armidale, but "didn't do well in the Leaving at all" and failed to get a university pass.[3]
She began her career in radio at the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) in the early 1950s, becoming a junior broadcaster in children's programs. That led to her joining the cast of the Argonauts Club.[1] Despite the pressure of live television and having no formal training, she started making weekly appearances on ABC Children's TV, and in 1960 began her most fondly-remembered role as 'Miss Pat' in ABC TV's children's television program Mr. Squiggle.[1]
In 1964 Lovell became what she characterised as "one of the minor beauties"[3] on the panel of Beauty and the Beast. For a time she ran a film co-production company with Mel Gibson. When The Today Show began in 1969 (which pre-dated the current show by over a decade), she joined the team, and it was there as an interviewer that she met Peter Weir, the director with whom she would produce her two best-known films, Picnic at Hanging Rock and Gallipoli.[3]
Later career
Lovell worked as Head of Producing at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS) between 1996 and 2003.[1]
Personal life
Lovell met her husband, actor Nigel Lovell, through the Metropolitan Theatre in Sydney.[3] They two had two children, Simon Lovell, a helicopter pilot,[4] and Jenny Lovell, an actress known for her role on the soap opera Prisoner[5] (called Prisoner: Cell Block H in the UK and the USA). The couple eventually divorced.[3]
Lovell died in January 2013 from liver cancer, aged 83.[4]
Filmography
- Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)
- Break of Day (1976)
- Summerfield (1977)
- Gallipoli (1981)
- Monkey Grip (1982)
- The Perfectionist (1987)
- Tosca: A Tale of Love and Torture (a 2000 made-for-television documentary)
Honours
Pat Lovell was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 1978 New Year's Honours.[6] In the 1986 Queen's Birthday Honours she was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM).[7]
References
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- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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- ↑ It's an Honour: MBE
- ↑ It's an Honour:AM
External links
- Patricia Lovell at the Internet Movie Database
- Patricia Lovell Portrait by NFSA historian Graham Shirley
Further reading
General references:
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- Use dmy dates from October 2013
- Use Australian English from April 2012
- All Wikipedia articles written in Australian English
- Australian film producers
- Australian television actresses
- 2013 deaths
- Place of birth missing
- Deaths from liver cancer
- People from New South Wales
- Members of the Order of Australia
- Australian Members of the Order of the British Empire
- Australian film actresses
