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Kerry Armstrong
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Kerry Michelle Armstrong (born 3 January 1958 in Melbourne) is an Australian actress on film, television, and stage. She is one of only two actors to win two Australian Film Institute Awards (AFI Awards) in the same year. Armstrong's 2001 awards were for Best Actress in a Leading Role for Lantana, and Best Actress in a Leading Role in a Television Drama Series for SeaChange. During 19811987, Armstrong was based in the United States, where she acted on stage and on television, including a role on soap opera Dynasty in 19851986.
trong was a frequent face on Australian television in the 1970s and early 1980s, in both acting and presenting roles.
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Encyclopedia
Kerry Michelle Armstrong (born 3 January 1958 in Melbourne) is an Australian actress on film, television, and stage. She is one of only two actors to win two Australian Film Institute Awards (AFI Awards) in the same year. Armstrong's 2001 awards were for Best Actress in a Leading Role for Lantana, and Best Actress in a Leading Role in a Television Drama Series for SeaChange. During 19811987, Armstrong was based in the United States, where she acted on stage and on television, including a role on soap opera Dynasty in 19851986.
Biography
Early years
Armstrong was a frequent face on Australian television in the 1970s and early 1980s, in both acting and presenting roles. One of her first acting roles was on TV series Marion released in March 1974. She appeared as a Channel Nine weather girl, and then tackled a dramatic acting role, appearing as a key original character Lynne Warner in Network Ten prison drama Prisoner. Initially planned to last just 16 episodes, the series was continued and Armstrong appeared in the first 44 episodes. She then switched to another on-going role in drama series Skyways for 49 episodes. In 1981 she co-hosted the Network Ten series Together Tonight with Greg Evans.
In 1981 Armstrong married rock band Australian Crawl's rhythm guitarist Brad Robinson. Armstrong and Robinson co-wrote "Easy on Your Own" a track on Australian Crawl's #1 album Sirocco and B-side to the single "Errol".
United States and Dynasty
As was common among Australian actors of the time, Armstrong emigrated to the United States in 1981. There she studied at the Herbert Berghof acting school in New York City on an acting scholarship. In order to obtain residency, Armstrong and Robinson agreed she would have to marry a US citizen, so they separated and she married her friend Alexander Bernstein. Armstrong only had a professional arrangement with Bernstein, but her long-distance from Robinson dissolved their relationship. Whilst in the US, she starred in Tom Stoppard's Dalliance, had an on-going role in daytime serial One Life to Live, and became part of 'The Actors' Gang' along with John Cusack and Tim Robbins. After working in the group's plays, Armstrong appeared in seven episodes of Dynasty as Elena, Duchess of Branagh. Robbins and Armstrong became romantically involved; Cusack, Robbins and Armstrong auditioned for Saturday Night Live but only Armstrong was offered a part she declined.
Australian return
In 1987, Armstrong returned to Australia upon the death of her grandmother. In the early 1990s, she resumed acting in Australian television series, including Police Rescue, Ocean Girl, All Together Now and Halfway Across the Galaxy and Turn Left. In 1991 Armstrong was nominated for an AFI award for Best Actress for her role in the film Hunting which was released by Paramount in the U.S.
Armstrong was offered a role in the cast of SeaChange in 1998, as Heather Jelly, the ever-devoted but long-suffering wife of corrupt local mayor Bob (John Howard). The role won her critical acclaim, mainstream attention and several awards. When SeaChange ended in 2000, Armstrong continued on with her theatre work and also led the cast of Lantana, the award winning Ray Lawrence film also starring Anthony LaPaglia, Barbara Hershey, Geoffrey Rush, Glenn Robbins and Vince Colosimo. Not only did Armstrong win the Inside Film (IF) Award, Film Critics Circle of Australia Award and the AFI Award for her Lantana performance, but the same year she won another AFI, for final season of SeaChange, making her the second actress to win two AFI awards in one year The first had been Sacha Horler for her 1998 Lead Role in Praise and 1999 Supporting Role in Soft Fruit awarded in 1999.
In 2002 Armstrong joined the cast of medico-legal drama MDA on ABC alongside Jason Donovan and Shane Bourne. However, Armstrong left the series at the end of its second season. In the series her character, Dr. Ella Davis, left the firm that was the focus of the show. After MDA, Armstrong acted in films One Perfect Day, The Oyster Farmer, Virus, Car Pool and Razzle Dazzle. On ABC-TV started screening a six-part series Bed of Roses with Armstrong in the lead role as Louisa Atherton. She has completed the film Reservations due for release in 2008.
Author
Armstrong wrote a self-help book, The Circles, released on . She described the book as being a practical exercise to empower people and map their heart. As of May 2008, the book's US publisher Beyond Words and Armstrong are negotiating book appearances for September 2008, including a mooted spot on Oprah. Her second book Fool on the Hill was released in March 2006; it was about the nature of personality. A travel guide, Newcomer's Handbook for New York City was co-edited with Belden Merims in 1996.
Public profile
Armstrong works with several charity organizations including Childwise, being a board member of Big hART and as spokesperson for the Cure for Life Foundation which sponsors research into brain tumour treatments. She represented Cure for Life in Season Five of Dancing with the Stars in 2006 with Christopher Ryan. They were the third couple voted off.
Armstrong has publicly opposed the War in Iraq; in one instance, she sat on the steps of the Victorian Parliament in a purple bra to draw attention to her cause.
On , Armstrong gave an interview to the Sunday Telegraph in which she attacked singer Kylie Minogue and actress Nicole Kidman and their contemporaries for damaging the Australian and international entertainment industries by lowering standards. Armstrong expressed disdain at the fact that the industry particularly the Academy Awards gave praise to beauty rather than talent, expressing scorn at Minogue, Kidman, and others such as Gwyneth Paltrow and Halle Berry; while expressing admiration for actors such as Meryl Streep and Cate Blanchett. However, in a July 2005 interview with The Sydney Morning Herald, Armstrong claimed that she was misrepresented in that article.
Personal life
Armstrong has been married to: Brad Robinson (briefly in 1981), Alexander Bernstein (fl. 1981), Mac Gudgeon (married in 1990) and they have a son, Mark Croft (c. 1996, separated in 2001) and they have twin sons.
In 2007, Armstrong was living with partner Greg Lucas, and her three sons, on a farm outside of Melbourne. As of 2008, she was described as a single mother with three sons living in the Yarra Valley.
Awards
- 1991 Nominated Australian Film Institute (AFI) Award Best Actress Hunting
- 2000 Nominated Logie Award Outstanding Actress in TV Series SeaChange
- 2001 Winner Logie Award Outstanding Actress in TV Series SeaChange
- 2001 Winner AFI Award Best Actress (Television) SeaChange
- 2001 Winner IF Award Best Actress Lantana (shared with co-stars Barbara Hershey, Leah Purcell, Rachael Blake and Daniella Farinacci
- 2001 Winner AFI Award Best Actress Lantana
- 2001 Winner Film Critics Circle of Australia Award Best Actress Lantana
- 2002 Nominated AFI Award Best Actress (Television) MDA
External links
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