Philippa Baker obit

Vale: Philippa Baker

Pioneering Australian actor Philippa Baker, best known for Number 96 and Blue Hills, has died.

 

She was not on the list.

Pioneering Australian actor Philippa Baker, best known for Number 96 and Blue Hills, has died aged 93.

After training at the Independent Theatre under Doris Fitton, her career began in 1953 in radio drama playing Scottish nurse Heather for 5 years in long running ABC radio drama Blue Hills and 18 months in Dr. Paul.

At the time she was employed as a librarian. Fortunately, the library was tolerant of her dashing out to radio studios but there came the day when the head librarian told her quite firmly to choose careers. The offer of an Arts Council tour with Twelfth Night Theatre saw her leave libraries forever.

She moved to the new medium of television appearing in live televised plays for Crawford Productions then roles in Homicide, Division Four, Matlock Police.

Her most popular role came in 1972 – 75 as Russian deli worker Roma Lubinski (later Roma Godolfus) in Number 96, alongside Johnny Lockwood as Aldo Godolfus.

Baker was aged up for the role which she performed from 1972 – 1975.

She once said, “You wouldn’t think it to look at me now, months ago I had never been much over seven stone (50kg) in my life. I don’t know whether it’s middle-age spread or whether I’m more of a method actress than I’d ever imagined.”

Both Roma and Aldo were killed off in the great bomb explosion of Number 96 in 1975 to boost ratings and refresh the show (it lasted another 2 years).

In 1976 Baker joined The Norman Gunston Show in a recurring sketch The Checkout Chicks followed by roles in The Young Doctors, Five Mile Creek, The Dirtwater Dynasty, True Believers, Annie’s Coming Out and Young Einstein.

Baker also worked in theatre between 1953 and 1989, including productions of The Glass Menagerie, The Cherry Orchard, Hedda Gabler and A Streetcar Named Desire.

“Looking back on the early days, I think perhaps it was the happiest time of my life, being young and having everyone around you sharing the same enthusiasm for the same thing. I think it’s necessary for everyone to have a mad enthusiasm when they’re young,” she once said.

 

Filmography

Film

Year     Title     Role

1958    A Rose Without a Thorn         Tiley    TV movie

1962    Funnel Web     Marion Westlake         TV movie

1962    Family Album Harriet Winter TV movie

1964    A Sound of Trumpets              TV Movie

1970    "Eden House" (an episode of series Australian Plays)           Helen   TV movie

1974    Number 96      Roma Godolfus           Feature film

1976    Murcheson Creek                    TV movie

1977    Say You Want Me                   TV movie

1981    A Hard God    Monica            TV movie

1984    Annie's Coming Out (aka A Test of Love)     Sister Waterman          Feature film

1988    Young Einstein            Freud's mother Feature film

Television

Year     Title     Role     Type

1963    The Hungry Ones                   TV mini-series

1968    Contrabandits  Prudence         TV series

1971    The Godfathers           Molly   TV series

1970–71          Division 4       2 roles:

- Mrs Couter

- Helen McGuire         TV series

1970–72          Homicide         3 roles:

- Mrs Allen

- Mrs Campbell

- Mrs Johnson TV series

1972–75          Number 96      Mrs. Roma Lubinski/Godolfus           TV series

1975    The Norman Gunston Show   Member of "Check-out Chicks" (soap opera parody) TV series

1976    Number 96 ...And They Said It Wouldn't Last           Herself TV special celebrating 1000th episode of Number 96

1977    Pig in a Poke               TV miniseries, episode: Christine's Story

1977    The Young Doctors     Mrs. Jamison   TV series, 5 episodes

1981    Australian Theatre Festival     Monica            TV series

1981    The Weekly's War       Mrs. Cruickshank        TV miniseries

1984    Five Mile Creek          Mrs. Curtis      TV series

1988    The Dirtwater Dynasty           Landlady         TV miniseries

1988    True Believers Dame Enid Lyons       TV miniseries

Theatre

Year     Title     Role     Playwright

1953    Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme                Jean Baptiste Moliere

1954    Cockpit                        Bridget Boland

1954    Before the Carnivale               Peter Kenna

1955/1956       Medea             Euripides

1956    The Glass Menagerie              Tennessee Wuilliams

1956    The Beautiful People              William Saroyan

1959    The Slaughter of St. Teresea's Day     Sister Mary Mark        Peter Kenna

1963    The Cherry Orchard                Anton Chekhov

1966    Three Sisters                Anton Chekhov

1976    The Wolf         Countess          Ferenc Molnar

1976    Saturday, Suunday, Monday               Eduardo de Filippo

1977    Wild Oats (play)                      John O'Keeffe

1980    The Bread-Winner (play)        Dorothy           William Somerset Maugham

1981    The Shifting Heart      Momma Bianchi         Richard Beynon

1983    Mornings at Seven                  Peter Osborn

1983    In Duty Bound                        Ron Elisha

1984    A Hard God                Peter Kenna

1986    Hedda Gabler              Henrik Ibsen

1988    A Streetcar Named Desire                  Tennessee Williams

1989    A Family Affair (play)                        Alexander Ostrovsky

1989    The Barretts of Wimpole Street                      Rudolf Besier

Radio

Year     Title     Role     Type

1950s   Blue Hills        Scottish nurse  Radio serial