Bunney Brooke

Career

Earlier career (1946–1970s)

Brooke started her early career in repertory theatre and later worked as a typist with Melbourne-based television production company Crawford Productions. The association with Crawford awoke Brooke's creative side, and she became interested in scripts, joining an amateur theatrical group. A year later, she traveled to the UK. Within a week of arriving, she secured work in the repertory theatre as well as radio and television shows.

Brooke's acting career continued into the 1970s. She was working as director of the Adelaide Theatre Company when she was asked to audition for a role in Number 96. The producers of the show were having trouble filling the role of Flo Patterson, a friend and comic foil of gossip Dorrie Evans (Pat McDonald), and Brooke fit the part. Initially seen as a frequent visitor to the flat of Dorrie and her husband Herb, the writers soon burnt down Flo's off-screen apartment in a neighbouring suburb and moved Flo permanently into Dorrie and Herb's flat, where she became a key character in many of the serial's comedy stories.

Brooke continued with Number 96 until the series ended in 1977, also appearing in the film adaptation in 1974. After this she remained a frequent face on Australian television, with roles in television programs like the soap operas The Young Doctors and The Restless Years in the late 1970s. Brooke was specially written into the Young Doctors episode as a clown, she so impressed Grundy Organization executive Reg Watson with her knowledge of clownsmanship.

Ten years prior, she wrote a play about a clown in a bid to entice the very young into theatrical appreciation. So successful was the play she did another naming her clown Trumbo and had him looking for his red nose. Finding such enthusiastic responses from audiences in small theater venues around Melbourne, Brooke wrote a third clown play. In November 1980, Brooke won the Penguin Award for Best Single Performance by an Actress.

Brooke was known to a new generation of viewers with an ongoing role in the children's series Round the Twist (1989) as Nell Rickards, and, in 1990, played Auntie Violet "Vi" Patchett in the soap opera E Street. When she left that series in 1991, her character was written out by accepting the marriage proposal of old friend Johnny Little, played by former Number 96 actor Johnny Lockwood in a guest role.

She appeared in the second series of Round the Twist (1992) and guest starred in some of the later episodes of A Country Practice. Brooke, alongside previous co-star Joyce Jacobs from A Country Practice, acted in a short called Heaven on the 4th Floor (1998), credited as "Bunny Brooke". Note that is with the letter "e" missing from the first name as sometimes credited in other various previous works. This was her last known acting credit. She was subsequently diagnosed with cancer. She died in 2000.

She had at least 69 known acting credits to her name in theatre work, spanning four decades ranging from 1956 to 1989.

Death Brooke, a heavy smoker and drinker, died in a Manly, New South Wales, hospital on 2 April 2000, aged 75, after a two-year battle with bowel and liver cancer.

On 20 January 2009, her 1974 Silver Logie Award, presented to Brooke in 1975 by the Hollywood actor John Wayne, was purchased by an anonymous Queensland bidder in a 24-hour auction on eBay for A$2,225.

Tributes Director Charlie Little had Brooke reflect on her life to him not long before she died as her illness worsened. Little recalls, she said "I've done all the things I've wanted to do in my life. I've been a very lucky woman". He also said Brooke was "Quite Chaplin-esque".

Fellow Number 96 cast member Elisabeth Kirkby said: "Brooke's performance was mesmerising. There was no dialogue. It was just the expression on her face. It was almost as [if] it was actually happening".

Elaine Lee, another Number 96 cast-member, said Brooke "was about laughter, laughter, laughter. We used to laugh a lot, she was a very funny lady". Mark Mitchell, comedian and fellow Round The Twist star, said it was "impossible not to learn from Bunney. You could turn to her in a moment of exasperation knowing she would impart something very timely, if humbling".

Frankie J. Holden, another Round The Twist star, said Brooke "Could play with the kids, be a serious actress opposite the adults and that night drink the crew under the table".

Joanna Milosz, also known as Joanna Milosz-Piekarska, Brooke's long-time agent, said: "Nearly everyone in the industry of the older generation knew Brooke, worked with Brooke, was taught by Brooke or directed by Brooke" and "she had an incredible impact on the industry". 1962–1963 Consider Your Verdict (as Bunny Brooke) / Alice Munro TV series, 2 episodes 1965 The Magic Circle Club Aunty Vale (as Bunny Brooke) TV series 1966 Jimmy Herself TV series, 1 episode 1971 Matlock Police Mrs. Andrews TV series, 1 episode 1971–1973 Homicide Mum Enright / Mrs. Hovey / Sandra Martin TV series, 3 episodes 1971–1973 Division 4 Lorna Matthews / Lily Reid / Elsie Hudson / Kate 'Porky' Robinson / Edna Mitchell / Joan Marriott TV series, 6 episodes 1973 The Gentlemen of Titipu Voice TV movie 1974–1977 Number 96 Flo Patterson TV series, 247 episodes 1975 The 17th Annual TV Week Logie Awards Herself (Won Award) TV special 1975 Pot Of Gold Herself TV series 1976 The 1976 Annual TV Week Logie Awards Herself - Audience member with 'Number 96' cast: Jeff Kevin, Chard Hayward, Wendy Blacklock, Mike Dorsey & Frances Hargreaves TV Special 1976 Number 96: And They Said It Wouldn't Last Herself with Pat McDonald & Ron Shand TV special 1977 Number 96: The Final Night Herself with Pat McDonald & Ron Shand TV special 1977 Telethon '77 Guest - Herself TV special 1977–1978 Kirby's Company Maisie Peters TV series, 14 episodes 1978 A Good Thing Going Stella TV movie 1978 The Young Doctors Trixie Rogers TV series, 2 episodes 1978–1981 Tickled Pink Auntie / Angela (as Bunny Brooke) ABC TV series, 3 episodes 1979–1982 Cop Shop Madge Baxter / Hilda Preston / Binnie TV series, 6 episodes 1979 Skyways Aunt Shirley TV series, 1 Episode 1979; 1979 The Mike Walsh Show Guest - Herself TV series, 1 episode 1979 The Rock Pool (as Bunny Brooke) ABC TV Movie 1979; 1980 The Mike Walsh Show Guest - Herself TV series, 1 episode 1979 Ride on Stranger Grannie Jones ABC TV miniseries, 1 Episode 1980 Cornflakes For Tea Mrs. Lewis TV movie 1980 Dead Man's Float aka 'Smuggler's Cove' Parish TV movie 1980 The 22nd Annual TV Week Logie Awards Herself (Won Award) TV special 1980 The Mike Walsh Show Guest - Herself TV series, 1 episode 1981 The Restless Years Amy Blake TV series 1982 Holiday Island Tillie Taggart (as Bunnie Brooke) TV series 1983 Carson's Law Ma Bonner TV series, 3 episodes 1984 Boy In The Bush Gran Ellis ABC TV Mini-Series, 2 episodes 1984 The Mike Walsh Show Guest - Herself TV series, 1 episode 1985, 1993 A Country Practice Nancy Plummer / Mrs. Plummer / Alice McKenna (as Bunny Brooke) TV series, 4 episodes 1985 Zoo Family Madam Rosalita TV series, 1 episode 1987 Camera Script episode "Second Star On The Right" 1989–1990 E Street Vi Patchett TV series, 125 episodes 1989, 1992 Round The Twist Nell Rickards ABC TV series, 26 episodes 1992 Round The Twist Aunt Tuneless ABC TV series 1993 A Country Practice Alice McKenna TV series, 4 episodes 1996 Good Morning Australia Herself – Guest TV series, 1 episode 1996 Midday Herself – Guest TV series, 1 episode

Awards Year Award Nominated work Result 1975 Silver Logie Award Best Australian Actress – Number 96 1980 Logie Award Best Lead Actress In A Miniseries/Telemovie – The Rock Pool, ABC 1980 Penguin Award Best Single Performance by an Actress – The Rock Pool, ABC