# Carol Raye

Carol Raye AM (17 January 1923 – 18 June 2022 as Kathleen Mary Corkrey and also billed as Carole Raye) was a British-born actress of film, television, radio, theatre and revue. A comedian, singer, dancer, plus radio and television creator, producer and director, she worked in her native England as well as internationally in Kenya and Australia, where she was one of the first female television executives at a time when the industry was dominated by men.
Her career spanned some seven decades, firstly as a film star and stage performer in the United Kingdom, where she would star, and often dance and sing, in such movies as Song of Romance, Strawberry Roan and Waltz Time, after which she briefly worked in Kenya before immigrating to Australia, where she became notable for her small-screen roles.
Raye was best known as the producer and original star of the iconic TV satire The Mavis Bramston Show, alongside Gordon Chater and Barry Creyton, as well as a semi-regular star of the soap opera Number 96 as Baroness Amanda von Pappenburg, a wealthy socialite from Heidelberg, Germany, who regularly arrives at the iconic '96' to visit her nephew Don Finlayson, portrayed by Joe Hasham. As a notable media personality, she often appeared as herself on programmes like The Mike Walsh Show and was a regular panellist on the game show Blankety Blanks and an honoured guest on This Is Your Life.

## Early years

Raye was born in Rotherhithe, south east, London, England, the daughter of Royal Navy commander Reuben B. Corkrey and Ethel McGlashan, an accomplished pianist. The family travelled extensively, including stays in Bermuda and Malta, until her father was stationed at the Portsmouth Navy Base.
Ray's early ambition was to become a dance teacher, and she trained in ballet and ballroom at the Southsea School of Dance. Raye won her first stage role in No, No, Nanette in 1938, and was discovered the following year by Australian-born choreographer and producer Freddie Carpenter, then operating a dance academy in Soho, who further trained her in dance. Carpenter suggested her for a tour of the musical comedy Bobby Get Your Gun and was also instrumental in creating her stage name. She made her professional debut opposite Bobby Howes and Bertha Bellmore at the Manchester Opera House in 1939. Her breakthrough stage role came only months later, in Funny Side Up at His Majesty's Theatre, which marked her London debut.

## Career in Britain
### British film star and theatre performer

Raye began her career in her native United Kingdom with starring roles in films including Song of Romance, which was the first British musical film shot in technicolor, Strawberry Roan by Maurice Elvey,
However it was the musical romance Waltz Time by Paul Stein, as Empress Maria that launched her international screen career, that year in April, publicity lead her to the United States and a stage production in the role lead role in Bonanza Bound!, after which she turned down a multi year Hollywood contract, deciding return to London, where she subsequently appeared in features including Spring Song directed by Montgomery Tully and two films directed by John Harlow, Green Fingers and While I Live and several telemovies for the BBC.
Raye also played lead roles in many musicals and television productions in her native Britain. Her theatre roles included Tough at the Top, Fun and Games, and The Merry Widow, Dear Miss Phoebe and The Ticket-of-Leave Man.

## Work in Kenya

Raye having remarried in 1951, and with her husband being offered by the British Government, the opportunity to run a 1000-acre farm in the overseas Kenya Colony, the family settled in Navaisha Town, in the West of Mombasa. Whilst in Kenya, two filmmakers offered Raye the lead role in their film No Rain in Timbura., which would be the first feature produced in that country. She worked briefly as a producer/director and on-screen talent for the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation from 1961 to 1964, making her one of the first faces on British East African television.

## Career in Australia
### Mavis and 96

The family having emigrated to Australia in 1964, Raye was given a letter by introduction by the BBC, to the ABC Charles Moses, who in turn recommended her to the Seven Network CEO James Oswin at Sydney station ATN-7, where she took a position working as network assistant to the General Manager, it was here she devised the idea of creating a satirical television series, based on revue at the Phillip Street Theatre and the British TV series The Week That Was. Starting in November 1964, the network gave the green light for the now iconic The Mavis Bramston Show, in which Raye would also star as one of 3 originals along with Gordon Chater and Barry Creyton.
Raye also produced the pilot episode and co-produced the series (with Michael Plant), until her departure from the programme in late 1965. She resumed work on the series for the 1967 and 1968 final seasons.
Raye played the ongoing comedy role of much-married socialite and Baroness Amanda von Pappenburg, in the 1970s, the aunty of Don Finlayson (played by Joe Hasham) whom she visits from Heidelberg, Germany, in the top-rated soap opera Number 96. After two substantial stints with the series in the 1973–74 period, Amanda was permanently written out of the serial, but Raye remained with the serial, switching to the role of creative director for the show's producers. That busy role involved the casting of regular characters, along with reviewing the scripts and storylines.
With there having been a fictional Baroness character on the series, fittingly the real Duke of Bedford and his wife appeared as guests on the show.

### Other TV shows

In 1976-77, Raye acted in the medical soap opera The Young Doctors, playing the guest role of Rosalie Parker. She acted in television and film roles through the 1990s, and into the 2000s, with appearances in SeaChange and in commercials.

### Theatre

In the early 1980s, Raye had a four-year appointment with the Theatre Board of the Australia Council.
She appeared in many Australian theatre productions, including California Suite, Pleasure of His Company, Travelling North, The Merry Wives of Windsor, You Can't Take It With You, Noises Off, and Hay Fever. Raye was a subject of This Is Your Life.
Raye retired in 2000, subsequently she campaigned Seven Network boss Kerry Stokes to release a DVD of "Mavis", although in a release to DVD of Number 96, she provided an audio commentary alongside film and TV critic Andrew Mercado, co-star Elisabeth Kirkby, and The Honourable Michael Kirby.

## Marriages

On 3 November 1945, Raye married U.S. Army Engineer Captain Clark Spencer, a "prominent Winchester and Marblehead sportsman" (Massachusetts, USA).
In 1951, she married prominent veterinarian Robert Ayre Smith (1926-2006). They had three children, two of whom followed their mother into theatrical roles. Her eldest child, Sally Ayre Smith, is a former television producer, best known for the ABC series SeaChange, but is now a director of an organic farm produce marketing business. Her youngest daughter, Harriet, started her career in the Sydney Theatre Company office and is also an occasional actress.

## Honours

Raye was honoured in the 2022 Commonwealth of Australian Queens Birthday Honours List, with an appointment to the Member of the Order of Australia (AM), with the citation For services to the arts as an actress and producer.

## Filmography
### Film

| Year | Title | Role | Type |
| 1945 | Strawberry Roan | Molly Lowe | Feature film |
| 1945 | Waltz Time | Empress Maria | Feature film |
| 1945 | Dressing Up | | TV film |
| 1946 | Spring Song | Janet Hill / Janet Ware | Feature film |
| 1947 | Green Fingers | Jeannie Mansell | Feature film |
| 1947 | While I Live (aka Dream of Olwen) | Sally Grant | Feature film |
| 1949 | The Good Companions | Susie Dean | TV film |
| 1949 | Happy Week-End | Polly | TV film |
| 1950 | Triple Bill | | TV film |
| 1954 | No Rain at Timbura | Mrs Carol Massey | |
| 1956 | Ivor Novello | | TV film |
| 1984 | Man of Letters | Ursula Panhandle | TV film |
| 1985 | Remember Me | Jenny's mother | TV film |
| 1979 | The Journalist | Maggie | Feature film |
| 1985 | Relatives | Aunty Joan | Film |

### Television

| Year | Title | Role | Type |
| 1964-68 | The Mavis Bramston Show | Various roles | TV series |
| 1965 | Today with Carol Raye | Host | TV series |
| 1965 | The Peek Snatchers | | |
| 1966 | 66 And All That | Host | TV series |
| 1966 | Australian Playhouse - "Across the Bridge" | | Teleplay, 1 episode |
| 1967 | The Delightfully Desperate, Daring and Different Doings of Daphne Davenport | Daphne Davenport | Teleplay |
| 1969 | The Pennyweathers | | TV pilot |
| 1969 | Riptide | Laurianne French | TV series |
| 1970 | Tarbucks Luck | | TV series |
| 1973-75 | Number 96 | Baroness Amanda Von Papenburg / Claudine | TV series |
| 1976 | Up the Convicts | Lady Fitzgibbons | TV series |
| 1976 | This Is Your Life: Gordon Chater | Guest | TV series |
| 1976-77 | The Young Doctors | Rosalie Parker | TV series |
| 1977-78 | Graham Kennedy's Blankety Blanks | Regular Panellist | TV series, 15 episodes |
| 1977 | This Is Your Life: Carol Raye | Guest | TV series |
| 1978 | Cappriccio! | Guest | TV series |
| 1978 | Loss of Innocence | | TV miniseries |
| 1978 | Chopper Squad | Eileen Traill | TV series |
| 1978 | Micro Macro | Guest | TV series |
| 1978 | Exploring the Psychic Mind | | |
| 1979-84 | The Mike Walsh Show | Guest | TV series, 6 episodes |
| 1980 | Parkinson in Australia | Guest | TV series |
| 1987 | Rafferty's Rules | | TV series |
| 1994 | Mission Top Secret | Mrs. Jessie Burdock | TV series |
| 1994 | The Mavis Bramston 30th Anniversary Special | Herself | TV special |
| 2000 | SeaChange | June Dawson | TV series |
| 2008 | Face Painting with Bill Leak | | |
| 2022 | Pushing the Boundaries: The Mavis Bramston Show | | TV documentary |

## Theatre

| Year | Title | Role | Type |
| 1938 | No, No, Nanette | | |
| 1939 | Bobby Get Your Gun | | Manchester Opera House |
| 1939 | Funny Side Up | | His Majesty's Theatre, London |
| | Tough at the Top | | |
| 1941 | Fun and Games | | Princes Theatre |
| 1943 | The Merry Widow | | |
| 1950-51 | Dear Miss Phoebe | Miss Phoebe Throssel | Phoenix Theatre |
| | The Ticket-of-Leave Man | | |
| 1969 | Lie Back and Enjoy It | | Phillip Street Theatre |
| 1976 | California Suite | Hannah Warren / Diana Nichols / Gert Franklyn | Ensemble Theatre |
| 1977 | The Pleasure of His Company | Katharine Dougherty | Theatre Royal, Sydney, Comedy Theatre, Melbourne |
| 1978 | The Mighty 1978 RSL Talent Quest | Performer / Guest Judge | Whitehorse Pub Theatre, Newtown |
| 1979 | Travelling North | Frances | Nimrod Theatre Company, Melbourne Athenaeum, Civic Playhouse, Newcastle |
| 1980 | The Merry Wives of Windsor | Mistress Alice Ford | Sydney Opera House Drama Theatre |
| 1981 | Hay Fever | Judith Bliss | Playhouse, Newcastle |
| 1982 | You Can't Take It With You | | Sydney Opera House Drama Theatre |
| 1982-83 | Noises Off | Dotty Otley | Her Majesty's Theatre, Brisbane, Comedy Theatre, Melbourne, Canberra Theatre Centre, Theatre Royal, Sydney, His Majesty's Theatre, Perth |
| 1982 | Night and Day | | Marian Street Theatre, Canberra Theatre Centre |
| 1984 | Agnes of God | | Melbourne Athenaeum, University of Sydney |
| 1985 | Stepping Out | | Regal Theatre, Perth, Opera Theatre, Adelaide, Comedy Theatre, Melbourne, Canberra Theatre Centre |
| 1989-90 | Hay Fever | | Glen Street Theatre, Laycock Street Theatre, Sydney Opera House, Twelfth Night Theatre, Gold Coast Arts Centre, Canberra Theatre Centre |