Cornelia Frances

Cornelia Frances Zulver (7 April 1941 – 28 May 2018), credited professionally as Cornelia Frances, was an English-born stage, television and film actress.

After starting her career in British films, she became best known for her acting career in Australia after emigrating there in 1970, particularly her iconic television soap opera roles with portrayals of nasty characters such as Sister Grace Scott on Nine Network series The Young Doctors, and Barbara Hamilton on Sons and Daughters on Network Seven. She is also well-known for her long-running role of Morag Bellingham on Home and Away from 1988 until 1993, appearing as a permanent character and then on a recurring semi-regular basis from 2001, as well as the film version of The Box. She was hostess of the Australian version of game show The Weakest Link.

Early life

Born in Liverpool, Lancashire, England, Frances was educated at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. Her early work was in British-made feature films as an extra and bit-part player. This included bit parts in two films directed by her uncle Michael Powell: Peeping Tom (1960), and The Queen's Guards (1961).

Emigration and career in Australia

Frances' acting career flourished after she had emigrated to Australia in 1960s. She worked at the Playhouse Theatre in Perth appearing in Henry IVParts I and 2, (1967) directed by Edgar Metcalfe; and Mary Mary. She appeared nightly on television as the host of Channel 9's Tom's TV Bingo. Tom's was a supermarket in Perth.  After taking a lead role in the film version of sex-comedy soap opera The Box in 1975 she became known across Australia for her long-running role of the strict and acidic Sister Grace Scott in daily soap opera The Young Doctors. After leaving that series to move to Melbourne with her husband who had been transferred there, she worked as a television reporter on "light" stories for Peter Couchman's Melbourne, a current affairs program hosted by Peter Couchman.

In April 1980, Frances made a guest appearance as lawyer Carmel Saunders on Prisoner, which was taped in the same studio as the Couchman show. Later she acted in guest-starring television roles, before taking another well-remembered role, that of Barbara Armstrong (later Hamilton) in Sons and Daughters, a role she played from 1982 until 1986. In 1997, Frances provided the voice of Tortoise on the Australian/Chinese children's series Magic Mountain. She also hosted the Australian version of quiz show The Weakest Link (2001–2002). In the early 2000s, Frances worked for a winery in the Hunter Valley when she could not get acting work. Her autobiography And what have you done lately? was published in 2003.

In 1988, Frances made her first appearance on Home and Away as Morag Bellingham, a judge and sister of Alf Stewart(Ray Meagher). Frances played the recurring role of Morag for twenty-nine years. She expressed a desire to play Morag full-time on the show, and admitted that she did not like the coming-and-going as it was "very unsettling."

Charity and personal life

Frances had one son, named Lawrence.

In 2011, Frances joined the Australian Orangutan Project (AOP) as its first Ambassador in an effort to raise awareness about critically endangered orangutans. Frances travelled to the island of Borneo, Indonesia, on 16 October 2011 to see first-hand the effect of the widespread deforestation of orangutan habitat, and how orangutans are being rehabilitated. In June 2016, Frances made a sizable donation to the National Health Organisation in order to bring awareness to female reproductive health.

In January 2018, she revealed that she was battling bladder cancer that had spread to her hip, but stated that she was hopeful of reprising her role of Morag in Home and Away for the show's 30th anniversary. However, she succumbed to the cancer and passed away on 28 May 2018 at the age of 77.