Sonia Humphrey
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10 November 1947
Sonia Humphrey | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Sonia Humphrey (centre), aged 9, in May 1957 greeting at Dame Margot Fonteyn | |
| Born | Sonia Denise Humphrey 10 November 1947 Cambridge, England, United Kingdom |
| Died | 1 January 2011 (aged 63) Tasmania, Australia |
| Other names | Sonia MacDougall |
| Education | |
| Occupation(s) | Television presenter and journalist |
| Years active | 1969–2005 |
| Spouse(s) | Nick Creech (????–1987) Ian MacDougall (1996–2011; her death) |
| Children | 2 |
Sonia Denise Humphrey (10 November 1947 – 1 January 2011) was an Australian television presenter, newsreader and journalist. Humphrey was a talented ballerina as a child and studied television production before working as an archaeologist for five years; during this period she also converted to Judaism. In the mid 1970s Humphrey worked as a television reporter and newsreader in Australia before presenting opera and ballet simulcasts for the Australian national broadcaster ABC. The management of ABC tried to remove Humphrey as a presenter of opera broadcasts due to her pregnancy, citing "aesthetic reasons". Humphrey pursued legal action against ABC, and the decision was reversed.
Sonia Humphrey was born in 1947 in Cambridge, England to Australian scientists George Humphrey and Beverley Franklin. She was a talented ballerina, and was the youngest recipient of a diploma with solo seal from the Royal Academy of Dance—the academy's highest award. She enrolled in the Royal Ballet School in London, but after a knee injury, she left the school and moved to Sydney.
Ballet career
In Australia, she danced for the Australian Ballet before giving up dancing.[1]
Humphrey met ballerina Dame Margot Fonteyn—whom she had seen perform in London—at Sydney Airport in May 1957. A photograph of their meeting was published on the front page of The Sydney Morning Herald. Five years later they met again, when Fonteyn visited the Lorraine Norton dance studio where Humphrey was a student.[2]
Production career
In 1969, Humphrey graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA), specialising in technical production.[3]
She then joined an archaeological dig in Israel, where she remained for five years, and converted to Judaism. During the Yom Kippur War, she worked as a field producer for the American Broadcasting Company. In 1974, she produced its coverage of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus.[1]
