# Queenie Ashton

Ethel Muriel Ashton AM (11 November 1903 – 21 October 1999), known professionally as Queenie Ashton, was a character actress, born in England, who had a long career in Australia as a theatre performer and radio personality, best known for her radio and television soap opera roles, although she did also feature briefly in films.
Ashton alongside her contemporaries Grace Gibson, Amber Mae Cecil and Ethel Lang, has been described as a pioneer for females in radio. Her best known role was in the long-running Gwen Meredith radio serial Blue Hills, as Lee Gordon and later Grannie Emily Bishop a role she would later reprise for television, with the first Australian-produced soap opera Autumn Affair.

## Biography
### Early life and stage

Ashton was born in London. She was an accomplished ballet dancer, and specialist in voice production and drama, who started performing when she was fourteen. She appeared in musical comedy on the London stage, on occasion appearing with playwright Noël Coward. She left England in 1927, and performed for Dame Nellie Melba while travelling to Australia through the Suez Canal. She first appeared in Melbourne as a soprano on the concert stage, then in musical comedy, alongside such stars as Gladys Moncrieff, whom she understudied, and Strella Wilson.

### Radio

Ashton featured in radio from the 1930s, she appeared in musical comedy opposite Dick Bentley in Oh! Quaite. Her first straight drama role was in 1939, a period piece playing Marie Antoinette.
She played Budge's mother in "Budge's Gang", a segment of the ABC Children's Session (c. 1941–45, and it was so popular it was made into a comic book). Most notably, she played the wife of Dr. Gordon and the long-running role of Granny Bishop (a character many years her senior) in the radio serial Blue Hills, for the entire 27 years of the serial's run (1949–1976 – hers were the very first and last spoken parts). Ashton, as Granny Bishop, spoke:
   "We don't have to see people every day of the week/to imagine them in their surroundings or even to live their lives with them. We can still use our imagination ... they can still be in our minds. They can still be with us and so you see, and it is isn't really very hard to say goodbye. to say goodbye and God bless."

### Television and film

Ashton also played this role on Australia's first television serial Autumn Affair. In 1957 she appeared in a one-off television play called Tomorrow's Child and played in Certain Women (as "Dolly Lucas"), She was a semi-regular cast member of A Country Practice (as "Lillian Coote") and G.P. (as "Mrs Sculthorpe").
Film roles included both theatrical and telefilms Always Another Dawn in 1948 and The Farrer Story in 1949, she also had cameo's in Mama's Gone A-Hunting in 1977 and The Year My Voice Broke in 1987. She also appeared in many television commercials, most notably for Sara Lee. She was still performing in stage and cabaret plays in her nineties and was one of Australia's last great grand dames and one of the oldest entertainers still performing.

## Personal life

Ashton married Lionel Lawson in 1931 (who died in 1950), a violinist, who became leader of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra; they had a daughter, nurse Janet Lawson, in 1933 and a son, Tony Lawson, in 1935. They divorced in 1940.
Ashton remarried in 1946 to Frederick John Cover, a theatrical agent, and founder and managing director of the actors' casting firm, Central Casting.
She died on 21 October 1999, in Carlingford, New South Wales, aged 95.

## Selected stage appearances

| Title | Year |
| Kid Boots with Leslie Henson at the Winter Garden, London | 1926 |
| Sunny as "Sue Warren" at the Empire Theatre, Sydney | 1927 |
| Rio Rita as "Carmen" at the Princess Theatre, Melbourne | 1929 |
| Whoopee! at the Empire Theatre, Sydney | 1929 |
| The Patsy (play by Barry Conners) as the nasty elder sister | 1944 |
| Anna Christie for the John Alden Company with Leonard Thiele and Lyndall Barbour | 1951 |
| A Victorian Marriage (1951 play by Warwick Fairfax) | 1951 |
| The Glass Menagerie | 1961 |
| An Evening with Noël Coward | 1965 |
| The Boy Friend | 1968/1969 |
| The Old Fashioned Show | 1977 |
| Three Sisters (by Anton Chekhov Drama theatre, Sydney Opera House) | 1977 |
| Stevie | 1982 |

## Filmography

Film
| Year | Title | Role | Type |
| 1948 | Always Another Dawn | Molly Regan | Feature film |
| 1949 | Strong Is the Seed (aka The Farrer Story) | | Feature film |
| 1980 | Age Before Beauty | Narrator | Film short |
| 1987 | The Year My Voice Broke | Mrs. O'Neil | Feature film |
Television
| Year | Title | Role | Type |
| 1957 | Tomorrow's Child | | Teleplay |
| 1958-1959 | Autumn Affair | Granny Bishop | TV series, 156 episodes |
| 1959 | Lady in Danger | Mrs Lamprey | Teleplay |
| 1959 | Pardon Miss Westcott | Lydia Patterson | Teleplay musical |
| 1960 | Whiplash | Miss Culbert | TV series, 1 episode |
| 1962; 1964 | Consider Your Verdict | Adelaide Upton | TV series, 2 episodes |
| 1965-1970 | Homicide | Emily Simpson / Mrs. Miriam Pinkerton / Mrs. Hamilton / Dulcie Reynolds | TV series, 4 episodes |
| 1965 | TV Spells Magic | Guest (with Max Meldrum, Ron Shand, Ruth Cracknell, Evie Hayes, Wendy Blacklock, David Copping, Kevin Miles, Gwen Plumb, Chips Rafferty & Keith Petersen) | TV special |
| 1967 | My Name's McGooley, What's Yours? | Miss Fitchett | TV series, 1 episode |
| 1968 | Hunter | Mrs. Pankhurst | TV series, 1 episode |
| 1969-1973 | Division 4 | Emily Harrison / Elizabeth King / Mary Larkins / Mother O'Connell / Mrs. Wilde | TV series, 6 episodes |
| 1969 | Pastures of the Blue Crane | | TV series |
| 1971 | Matlock Police | Mrs. McIntyre | TV series, 4 episodes |
| 1971-1972 | The Godfathers | Mrs. Frenchman | TV series, 4 episodes |
| 1972 | Crisis | | TV pilot |
| 1973 | Elephant Boy | Doreen Graham | TV series, 1 episode |
| 1973-1976 | Certain Women | Dolly Lucas | TV series, 257 episodes |
| 1974 | The Evil Touch | Elspeth Pfeiffer | TV series, 2 episodes |
| 1976 | Solo One | Annie Robinson | TV series, 1 episode |
| 1977 | Image of Death | Mrs. Brooks | TV film |
| 1977 | Mama's Gone A-Hunting | Old Woman in Restaurant | TV film |
| 1977 | Say You Want Me | | TV film |
| 1977 | The Restless Years | Jessica Metcalf | TV series, 1 episode |
| 1978-1981 | Cop Shop | Agnes Hinch / Mrs. Roberts / Evelyn Armstrong / Betty Walton | TV series, 6 episodes |
| 1978 | This Is Your Life | Herself | TV series, 1 episode |
| 1978 | The Mike Walsh Show | Guest | TV series, 1 episode |
| 1979 | Skyways | Mrs. Fow | TV series, 1 episode |
| 1980 | Young Ramsay | Dolly Farrell | TV series, 1 episode |
| 1981 | The Love Boat in Australia | Mrs. Selkirk | TV film, 2 episodes |
| 1981 | The Love Boat | Mrs. Selkirk | TV series, 2 episodes |
| 1982, 1990 | A Country Practice | Mrs. 'Coote' Duggan | TV series, 2 episodes |
| 1983 | Warming Up | Mrs. Marsh | TV film |
| 1985 | Double Sculls | Pianist | TV film |
| 1986 | Mother And Son | Elsie | TV series, 1 episode |
| 1987 | Poor Man's Orange | Mrs. Casement | TV miniseries, 2 episodes |
| 1987 | Dearest Enemy | | TV pilot |
| 1988 | Rafferty's Rules | Mrs. Capra | TV series, 1 episode |
| 1988 | The Dirtwater Dynasty | Old Patient | TV miniseries, 1 episode |
| 1989 | In Melbourne Today | Guest - Herself | TV series, 1 episode |
| 1990 | A Country Practice | Mrs. Lillian Coote | TV series, 19 episodes |
| 1991 | The Miraculous Mellops | Customer | TV miniseries, 1 episode |
| 1991-1992 | G.P. | Mrs. Jessica Sculthorpe | ABC TV series, 6 episodes |

## Radio

| Year | Title | Role |
| 1939 | East Lynne | Lady Isabel |
| 1949–1976 | Blue Hills (radio serial) | Granny Bishop |

## Recognition

In 1950 she won the Macquarie Network's award for "best performance by an actress in a supporting role" (in "Edward, My Son").
In 1980, she was appointed by her stage name Queenie Ashton a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for her services to the performing arts.