Vanessa Downing

Vanessa Downing (born 5 May 1958) also known as Vanessa Ryan, is an Australian actress, theatre director, singer, voice artist, and lawyer.

Downing was appearing with singing group The Madrigals, an acapella group who were performing at the Sydney Opera House, when she was given the role of matriarch foster mother Pippa Fletcher in Home and Away.

Downing, besides her television- and film roles, is also a prominent theatre actress who has appeared in numerous productions.

She is also a lawyer with law firm Craddock Murray Neumann, a role she juggles alongside her acting career.

Career After leaving school, Downing attended the University of Sydney, and attained her master's degree in English Literature. She subsequently trained in drama at the Australian Theatre for Young People.

Her early roles were in theatre starting from 1977, and roles include Three a Penny, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and King Lear. She is a well-known and prominent stage actress and has featured in many productions

Television roles starting from the early 1980s include: classic '80s soap opera Sons and Daughters, G.P., Water Rats, HeadLand,,All Saints and Packed to the Rafters. She had a role in the Kingswood Country re-boot series Bullpitt!, and has appeared in numerous miniseries and made-for-TV films.

Home and Away Downing is best known for her regular role as an original cast member of the television soap opera Home and Away playing a role many years her senior as foster mother Pippa Fletcher, replacing Carole Willesee, the wife of newsreader Mike Willesee, at short notice. The casting news hit the headlines at the publicity launch of the soap. The role had been auditioned for by future Neighbours star Jackie Woodburne.

When Downing left the series in 1990, the part was recast, and taken over at short notice by Debra Lawrance who went on to play the character from 1990 to 1998, with subsequent guest appearances. After Lawrance took the role, the character remarried to Michael Ross (played by Lawrance's husband Dennis Coard) and now known as Pippa Ross, was awarded a fictitious OAM for her services as a foster parent.

Post-Home and Away After Home and Away, Downing has continued to work extensively in theatre, though she has continued to appear on TV. She had guest roles in Water Rats, All Saints, Big Sky, G.P., A Country Practice, Funeral Going, Double Sculls, Melba and Packed to the Rafters. Her role as Muriel Johnstone in Bullpitt! during its two season run from 1997–1998 was as part of the main cast.

Downing also studied law, becoming a part-time lawyer in 2006. She specialised in immigration law for many years and worked for a law firm in Sydney.

Vanessa appeared in several shorts during 2020 and 2022, the most recent being Voice Activated. In October 2022, Vanessa was a guest on Ray Meagher's This is Your Life episode where she appeared alongside fellow ”Early Years" cast members Roger Oakley (Tom), Alex Papps (Frank) and Sharyn Hodgson (Carly).

Filmography

Film

Television

Theatre Source: AusStage Year Production Details 1977 Twenty Six Efforts at Pornography 1 show (NSW) 1977The Sunny South 1 show (NSW) 1977 Narrow Road to the Deep North 1 show 1980 The Ship’s Whistle 1 show (South Australia) 1980 Pericles, Prince of Tyre 1 show (South Australia) 1980 Traitors 1 show (South Australia) 1980 A Month in the Country 1 show (South Australia) 1980 The Ship’s Whistle 1 show (South Australia) 1981 Upstairs Down at the Bottom of the World 1 show (South Australia) 1981 Buckleys! 1 show (South Australia) 1981 Kangaroos in the Top Paddock 1 show (South Australia) 1981 As You Like It 2 shows (South Australia) 1981 The Threepenny Opera 1 show 1982 Charley’s Opera 23 shows (NSW) 1983 Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You 1 show (NSW) 1983 The Actor's Nightmare 1 show (NSW) 1984 Gentlemen Prefer Blondes 4 shows 1984 Key Largo 4 shows 1984 Don's Party 4 shows (Queensland) 1984 Beach Blanket Tempest 7 shows (national tour - QLD, SA, ACT) 1984 Private Lives 2 shows 1985 Steaming 2 shows (NSW, ACT) 1986 Away 1 show (NSW) 1986 The Madras House 1986 Measure for Measure 1 show (NSW) 1987 Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? 4 shows (South Australia) 1988 The 16th Australian National Playwrights Conference 1 show (NSW) 1989 Ring Round the Moon 1 show (South Australia) 1990 The Increased Difficulty of Concentration 1 show (NSW) 1990 Season’s Greetings 1 show (Queensland) 1992 St. James Infirmary Blues 1 show (NSW) 1992 The Heiress 1 show 1993 Daylight Saving 1 show (NSW) 1993 Wet and Dry 1 show (NSW) 1994 Composing Venus 1 show (Queensland) 1994 Goodworks 1 show (NSW) 1995 Falling from Grace ACT 1995 Three Birds Alighting on a Field 1 show (South Australia) 1995 How the Other Half Lives 1 show (NSW) 1996 Live Stages on Stage 1 show (NSW) 1996 Good Works 2 shows (SA, NSW) 1998 Chasing the Drama 1 show (NSW) 1991 Macbeth NSW 2000 A Cheery Soul 1 show (NSW) 2001 Love Bites 1 show (NSW) 2001 Morning Sacrifice 1 show (NSW) 2002 The Lady in the Van 1 show (NSW) 2002 Hello, Dolly! 1 show (Victoria) 2003 Mother and Child 1 show (NSW) 2003 Howard Katz 1 show (NSW) 2004 Afterplay / The Yalta Game 1 show (NSW) Influence 4 shows (national tour) 2006 Bone 1 show (NSW) 2007 King Lear 7 shows (NSW) 2008 The Busy World is Hushed 1 show (NSW) 2009 The Taming of the Shrew 9 shows 2011–2012 Faustus 2 shows (NSW) 2012 Pygmalion. 1 show (NSW) 2013 The Glass Menagerie 2 shows (NSW) 2013–2014 Much Ado About Nothing 3 shows (NSW) 2013–2014 Cyrano de Bergerac 2 shows (NSW) 2018–2020 Black is the New White 8 shows (national tour) 2020 Wicked Sisters 1 show (NSW) 2021–2022 Grand Horizons 2 shows (NSW) 2023 Do Not Go Gently 1 show 2023 On the Beach 1 show