Sheila Kennelly

Sheila Kennelly (born 28 December 1937) also credited as Sheila Kenneally, is a British-born Australian retired actress of theatre and music hall, television and film, with a career spanning over 50 years. From the late 1950s onwards, her early career was based exclusively in theatre and she didn't start her screen career until the late 1960s becoming well known for her roles in TV soap operas, serials, sitcoms and mini-series.

She is best known locally and internationally for her role as retired pensioner, and former carnival worker Floss McPhee an original character in Home and Away in that series first year (with several guest stints), before being written out as producers wanted to concentrate on a younger and updated cast. Previously she was known locally as wine bar owner and barmaid Norma Whittaker in Number 96 and in sitcom Kingswood Country

Early life Kennelly was born in Brighton, East Sussex, England in December 1937 and arrived with her family in Australia at an early age, where she attended North Sydney Girls High School before training at the Independent Theatre. She worked as a secretary at a radio station, before becoming a casting director and assistant, assigning aspiring actors into radio serials.

Career

Stage She started her career in stage plays in 1958, appearing with the Old Tote Theatre and the Nimrod Theatre Company, before undertaking a lengthy arts tour with A View from the Bridge and starring in numerous roles with the Neutral Bay Music Hall.

In a 2009 reunion with the cast of Number 96 on Where Are They Now?, Kennelly stated she had wanted to become a serious actor featuring in plays by such dramatists as Arthur Miller and Bertolt Brecht, but ended up in Number 96 instead as Norma, in which she used a blonde wig to disguise 'the real Sheila'.

From 1980 until 1984, she appeared opposite Ross Higgins in the sitcom Kingswood Country. She played 'cheery Italian wog', Rosa Berlucci who looked after Ted Bullpitt when his wife Thel played by Judi Farr left him. but ultimately turned it down to appear in new Seven Network soap opera Home and Away as one of 16 original characters. She played retired carnival worker Floss McPhee for the first year of screening, but was eventually written out, alongside Frank Lloyd who played her husband Nev, as the producers wanted to concentrate on a younger cast and updated formula. She would later return to reprise her role of Floss for several guest appearances.