Elizabeth Alexander (actress)

Alexander was born in Adelaide, South Australia, and attended All Hallows' School, a private girls school in Brisbane.^[2] She went on to study acting at Sydney's National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA), graduating in 1973.^[1]

Alexander's acting career began early with a part in the series Bellbird in 1967. However, it was straight after graduating from NIDA, that she got her big break with the part of Esther Wolcott in the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) series Seven Little Australians.^[3] Allegedly, the producers had all but given up on the show, because they did not feel that they had found a suitable actress for the part, until they discovered Alexander. She was actually younger than actress Barbara Llewellyn, who played her stepdaughter Meg in the series.^[4]

The ten-part series delivered huge ratings when it was broadcast in 1973, and was also the first ABC series to enjoy international acclaim. It went on to win three Australian Film Institute Awards, four Penguins, a 1974 Logie Award for Most Outstanding Drama Series^[5][4] and the 1974 George Wallace Memorial Logie for Best New Talent for Alexander.^[3][5]

Alexander had a starring role opposite Colin Friels in "Pride", an episode of the 1992 anthology series Seven Deadly Sins.^[6] She had a recurring guest role in the high rating Australian medical drama All Saints as Dr. Alison Newell,^[3] ex-wife of Dr. Frank Campion, played by John Howard. She was not initially written as his ex-wife, as her character appeared before Howard joined the cast. Apparently, it was the sharp onscreen dynamic between Alexander and Howard in their early scenes together that made the writers decide to write this history into Alexander's character.

From 2008 to 2009, Alexander appeared in Home and Away playing Christine Jones, the overprotective conservative mother of Melody Jones.^[7] Her other television credits include Silent Number,^[8] Special Squad,^[8] Chopper Squad,^[8] Farscape,^[8] Murder Call,^[8] Salem's Lot^[9] and Time Trax, a science fiction series in which she starred as computer hologram 'SELMA' (alongside Dale Midkiff).^[10]

Her film work includes playing the lead role in The Killing of Angel Street (1981),^[11] opposite John Hargreaves), which won an award at the Berlin Film Festival.^[12] She also starred in Summerfield (1977) with Nick Tate and John Waters,^[13] Fred Schepisi's The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1978) playing young school teacher Miss Graf,^[14] The Journalist (1979) with Jack Thompson and Sam Neill^[15] and Sebastian and the Sparrow (1990) opposite Robert Coleby.^[16] 2010 saw her appear in a thriller called The Clinic^[17] and in 2011 she made an appearance as Cherry in another Fred Schepisi film, The Eye of the Storm.^[18] Her most recent film role was as the older iteration of Dora in 2022 feature Blueback, opposite Eric Bana, Radha Mitchell and Mia Wasikowska.^[19]

Alexander's numerous theatre credits include playing Hermione in The Winter's Tale,^[8] Portia in The Merchant of Venice^[8] (for which she received glowing reviews), Martha in the Sydney Theatre Company's production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?^[8] (for which she again received extremely positive reviews), Kate in another STC production of Harold Pinter's Old Times^[8] and many more. She also played anthropologist Margaret Mead in David Williamson's play Heretic.^[20] The play, based on Mead's life and work, was the subject of much debate and controversy, due to the very public row between the playwright, Williamson, and the director Wayne Harrison over the play's production.^[2][21][22]

Alexander has also directed a number of plays and written several screenplays, including a short film titled Memento (released by Village Roadshow) which she also directed ^[23] about the emotional problems caused by the return of a father to his family, a young boy and his mother. She directed the feature film, A Spy in the Family. She also directed a 1981 Sydney Theatre Company production of The Woman Tamer starring Mel Gibson.

Alexander also does voiceover work.

Alexander was married to actor and Play School presenter George Spartels^[3] from 1984 to 2006 and has two daughters. She currently lives in Sydney and works at Queenwood School for Girls as a dramatic arts teacher.^[2]

If fame just means 540 people a night then that's what it is, for the time being. Next week it could be millions of people and the week after that it could be none. That's what life is, you have to accept what you choose to do.^[2]