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The Australian actress Anne Phelan, famous for playing Top Dog Myra Desmond in Prisoner: Cell Block H has died - Wikipedia doesn't know whether she was born in either 1944 or 1948, and so therefore she was either 71 or 75 - we do know that he birthday was on 2nd August, and so therefore she would have celebrated her birthday this year.
Phelan was most famous for playing Myra Desmond (and I have to admit that I often used to confuse her character's name with a real-life British prisoner with the same first name, but enough said about that the better). Desmond was one of Prisoner's regular characters, appearing sporadically during its earlier years, and became an official regular a few months after Bea Smith (Val Lehman) left, filling her shoes eventually as Top Dog. And then came Ruth Ballenger (Lindy Davies) and the infamous siege where admittedly, it wasn't the only time that the actress die, for Desmond was shot dead by gunmen in episode 552 after there were rumours that the writers and producers wanted to turn her into a lesbian character, presumably to replace Judy Bryant (Betty Bobbitt) who left the series a couple of months before. She didn't want to do that and decided to leave the series as a result.
I also saw Phelan (or a similar actress) in an It'll Be Alright on the Night outtake first seen in the early 1990s where she was visiting someone in bed (probably in hospital), and as she was leaving, Phelan's character tried to feel around the wall for the light switch but couldn't find it - the light went out anyway as a result of the lighting operator - I am almost certain it was her. This Phelan had no connection with Connor Macintyre's Coronation Street namesake from a couple of years ago.
A week or so ago, we incidentally lost Reg Watson who was one of the first producers on the show, and I obviously used to confuse him with Reg Grundy because of their associations with the series and the fact that they both had the same first name.
So many actresses from PCBH have left us in recent years such as Judy McBurney (Pixie Mason) and Judith McGrath (Collen Powell), Anne Phelan is another one to add to the list.
Phelan was most famous for playing Myra Desmond (and I have to admit that I often used to confuse her character's name with a real-life British prisoner with the same first name, but enough said about that the better). Desmond was one of Prisoner's regular characters, appearing sporadically during its earlier years, and became an official regular a few months after Bea Smith (Val Lehman) left, filling her shoes eventually as Top Dog. And then came Ruth Ballenger (Lindy Davies) and the infamous siege where admittedly, it wasn't the only time that the actress die, for Desmond was shot dead by gunmen in episode 552 after there were rumours that the writers and producers wanted to turn her into a lesbian character, presumably to replace Judy Bryant (Betty Bobbitt) who left the series a couple of months before. She didn't want to do that and decided to leave the series as a result.
I also saw Phelan (or a similar actress) in an It'll Be Alright on the Night outtake first seen in the early 1990s where she was visiting someone in bed (probably in hospital), and as she was leaving, Phelan's character tried to feel around the wall for the light switch but couldn't find it - the light went out anyway as a result of the lighting operator - I am almost certain it was her. This Phelan had no connection with Connor Macintyre's Coronation Street namesake from a couple of years ago.
A week or so ago, we incidentally lost Reg Watson who was one of the first producers on the show, and I obviously used to confuse him with Reg Grundy because of their associations with the series and the fact that they both had the same first name.
So many actresses from PCBH have left us in recent years such as Judy McBurney (Pixie Mason) and Judith McGrath (Collen Powell), Anne Phelan is another one to add to the list.
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