Muriel Steinbeck

Muriel Myee Steinbeck (21 July 1913 – 20 July 1982) was an Australian actress who worked extensively in radio, theatre, television and film. She is best known for her role in 1946 film Smithy and her lead role in Autumn Affair (1958–59), Australia's first television soap opera.

Early life Steinbeck was born the youngest of four children of William Martin Steinbeck and Lily Clarissa (née Batten), in Broken Hill, New South Wales, where her father, a keen Shakespearean scholar was working as a headmaster and her mother was a member of the Sydney Repertory Club.

Career

Radio Steinbeck was appearing in a production of Beverley Nichols' Where the Crash Comes at Sydney Players' Club, when she was spotted by Lawrence H. Cecil of the ABC. He hired her to do radio drama and her career was launched. Her first radio play was The Silver Cord and her first serial lead was The Three Diggers (1938). She was later briefly under contract to James Raglan while he was producing at Colombia where she starred in Soldier of Fortune.

Steinbeck appeared in numerous radio serials in the 1950s and 1960s, including Blue Hills, Portia Faces Life, Gabrielle

Film Steinbeck made her film debut in the wartime propaganda short, Eleventh Hour (1942), directed by Ken G. Hall. Hall then used her in another short, South West Pacific (1943). who both went on to become major names.

The release of A Son is Born was delayed, to take advantage of publicity for her second film, Smithy, a biopic about Charles Kingsford Smith (played by Randell), in which Steinbeck played his wife. The film was a commercial success, but Steinbeck said this initially hurt her theatre career, as producers assumed she would be too expensive to hire. She resisted heading overseas to further her career, electing to stay home with her daughter, as her marriage was breaking up. Australia made few films at the time, so Steinbeck focused on radio and theatre work. and in 1951, she featured in biopic Wherever She Goes, playing the mother of the character played by Eileen Joyce. She was then in 1954 film Long John Silver.

From 1963, Steinbeck was a compere on the ABC's English for New Australians series, Making Friends. She also compered the 1963–1964 series Woman's World, focused on women's issues.

In between film engagements, Steinbeck continued to work in theatre, appearing in Dangerous Corner (1946), The Third Visitor (1946), Clutterbuck (1947), and I Have Been Here Before (1948).

In 1950, Steinbeck starred as Portia in The Merchant of Venice with John Alden Company. In 1961, she was in another production of The Merchant of Venice with the Elizabethan Theatre Trust. She was in Heartbreak House (1964) at Sydney's Old Tote Theatre.

In the 1960s, after relocating to Orange, Steinbeck worked in amateur theatricals in the area.

Although Steinbeck retired from acting in 1966, she accompanied her husband to Orange, New South Wales, to become a teacher of the arts, running her own drama school and authoring a book titled On Stage: A Practical Guide to the Actor's Craft.

Steinbeck died of cancer on 20 July 1982, aged 68.

Filmography

Film Year Title Role Notes1942 The Eleventh Hour Short film Another Threshold Nurse Short film 1943 South West Pacific The Munitions Worker (Gwennie) Short film Grumblens Mrs Grumblens Short film 1944 Australia Is Like This Mother Documentary film1946 Smithy Lady Mary Kingsford Smith A Son Is Born Laurette Graham 1949 Into the Straight Laura Curzon 1951 Wherever She Goes Mrs. Joyce 1952 Far West Story Mother 1954 Long John Silver Lady Strong 1966 They're a Weird Mob Mrs. Kelly Final film role

Television Year Title Role Notes Ref. 1956–1977 The Adventures of Long John Silver Governor's wife 3 episodes 1940 These Three 1940s When Cobb and Co. was King 2CH Bulldog Drummond Aunt Jenny's Real Life Stories 2UE Backstage of Life Strange Mysteries Storm in a Teacup 1944 Mystery of Mooredge Manor 2TM Come Again Crusoe 1946 Murder without Crime 1947 Edmund Conquest and the Pirates of the Barbary Coast Yasmin 2UE 1948–1951 Hagen’s Circus Late 1940s The Tender Heart Lead 2UW 1961 Cattleman Judith Blue Hills ABC 1936 Exit John Barcombe Mrs Barcombe St James' Hall, Sydney with Sydney Players Club 1941 Spring Tide Minerva Theatre, Sydney with Whitehall Productions 1942 Watch on the Rhine Minerva Theatre, Sydney with J. C. Williamson's Claudia 1943 Janie The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse 1946 Dangerous Corner Minerva Theatre, Sydney with Whitehall Productions The Third Visitor 1947 Clutterbuck 1948 I Have Been Here Before Independent Theatre, Sydney 1950 The Merchant of Venice Portia Independent Theatre, Sydney, St James' Hall, Sydney with John Alden Company 1961 The Merchant of Venice NSW Conservatorium of Music, Elizabethan Theatre, Newtown, Cremorne Orpheum, Sydney with John Alden Company & AETT 1964 Heartbreak House Mrs Hushabye UNSW Old Tote Theatre, Sydney