Philippa Baker

Career

Radio Baker acted in the long-running radio serial Blue Hills, spending five years playing a Scottish nurse.

Television and film Baker appeared in television plays by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation from 1958 onwards, and then featured in a few different roles in early Crawford Productions police procedurals Homicide and Division Four.

Baker however became best known for playing Roma in top-rated soap opera Number 96. She joined as Russian emigrant Roma Lubinski early in the show's run in 1972, becoming a comedy double-act with Johnny Lockwood, who played her character's soon-to-be husband Aldo, the deli proprietor, Roma works in the deli and owns her own restaurant, it is reviewed she is a concentration camp survivor.

Aldo and Roma reprised their roles in the 1974 feature film version of Number 96. They were written out of the serial in late 1974 with all the attached publicity, but returned several weeks later: it was always planned as a temporary absence and revealed the media stories where a publicity stunt.

By August 1975 however, the program's ratings had entered a slump and a drastic revamp of the show was planned. The writers decided to write out several high-profile characters, so in early September 1975 the show's famous bomb blast killed four residents including Roma and Aldo. The couples where extremely popular and there was much campaigning by fans to bring back there favourite characters. In 1976 Baker and co-star Lockwood appeared in a retrospective documentary special, titled ...And They Said It Wouldn't Last, commemorating the 1000th episode of Number 96.

In 1976 Baker joined comedy series The Norman Gunston Show in a recurring sketch The Checkout Chicks, a parody of melodramatic soap operas set in a supermarket. The Checkout Chicks featured other former Number 96 actors Abigail, Vivienne Garrett, Candy Raymond, Judy Lynne and Anne Louise Lambert.

In 1977, she appeared in the guest role of Mrs. Jamieson (Dennis Jameison's mother) in the soap opera The Young Doctors.

Through the 1980s Baker made various appearances in theatre, television and film. She had small roles in the films Annie's Coming Out (1984) and Young Einstein (1988).

Theatre 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

Filmography

Film

Television

Theatre YearTitleRolePlaywright 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 YearTitleRoleType1950s Blue Hills Scottish nurse Radio serial