Rebecca Gilling

Early life Gilling was born in 1953 in Castlecrag, a suburb of Sydney, Australia. Of British descent, she is from a family that were heavily involved in politics. Her mother was prominent feminist Bridget Gilling, who was also a social worker. Her father was WWI navy servicemen Douglas Chambers. Her grandmother was notable suffragist Cicely Corbett Fisher. Whilst her great-grandparents were politicians for the Liberal Party (UK), her great-grandfather was Charles Corbett, who was married to suffragist Marie Corbett. Her great-aunt was suffragist, liberal and feminist Dame Margery Corbet Ashby. which was released in the U.S. as The Dragon Flies.

Gilling went on to act in several television series. She played a regular role in Glenview High (1978–1979) as Robbie Dean and then appeared in The Young Doctors (1979–1981) as Liz Kennedy. Gilling later achieved international recognition in both the miniseries (1983) and subsequent series (1986) of Return to Eden, as protagonist Stephanie Harper.

She had smaller guest roles in the film The Naked Country (1985), TV series City West (1984), TV movies The Blue Lightning (1986), A Dangerous Life (1988) and Danger Down Under (1988), and miniseries The Paper Man (1990).

During the 1990s, she made a guest appearance on medical drama G.P. and was a presenter on the Nine Network lifestyle series Our House.

Gilling has been with the Australian not-for-profit environmental organisation, Planet Ark for over 20 years, and is a spokesperson for National Tree Day. She was appointed CEO of Planet Ark in 2022. Additionally, she has a Masters of Sustainability from Macquarie University and has studied horticulture.

Filmography

Film Year Title Role Type1974 Number 96 Diana Moore Feature film Stone Vanessa Feature film 1975 The Man from Hong Kong Angelica Feature film 1985 The Naked Country Mary Dillon Feature film 1987 Feathers Fran Film short 1990 Heaven Tonight Annie Dysart Feature film 1994 The Raid Narrator (voice) Film documentary 2009 Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation! Herself Feature film documentary

Television

Theatre YearTitleRoleType 1972 The Star and the Branch BOAMA, Speech and Drama Studio, Sydney 1974 The Little Prince Geographer Mechthild Harkness Speech and Drama Workshop, Sydney 1982 What the Butler Saw Marian St Theatre, Sydney 1994–1995 False Accusations 1995 The Mudlarks

References and footnotes