Ruth Cracknell
Encyclopedia
Ruth Cracknell AM
(6 July 1925 – 13 May 2002) was an Australian theatre and television character actress who appeared in many comedy roles. She was known variously as "Crackers", "Dame Crackers" and "Dame Ruth" throughout a career spanning 56 years.
to Charles and Winifred Cracknell. When she was four years old, the family moved to Sydney. She was educated at North Sydney Girls High School
and, after graduating, worked at the Ku-ring-gai Council
as a clerk. At 17 she was taken to the theatre by a friend. She immediately wanted to become an actress and joined the Modern Theatre Players drama school.
. In 1948, she joined the John Alden Company and had roles in King Lear
, Measure for Measure
and The Tempest
. In 1952, at the age of 27, she left Australia to work in London for two years.
Cracknell married Eric Phillips on 25 June 1957 and they had three children, Anna, Jane and Jonathan. Unlike many women of the time, she did not retire and continued to act.
Cracknell appeared in many Australian film and TV productions, including the 1973 award-winning ABC-TV dramatisation of Ethel Turner
's Australian children's classic Seven Little Australians
.
Cracknell is most well-known for her role in the ABC
television series Mother and Son
. Written by Geoffrey Atherden
and loosely based on the cult Carl Reiner
film Where's Poppa?
, Mother and Son first screened on 16 January 1984 to 21 March 1994 for six seasons for over a decade and is often repeated. Cracknell played an elderly woman, Maggie Beare, who was slowly becoming senile. She was cared for by her long-suffering younger son Arthur (Garry McDonald
), to whom she was often indifferent but also dependent on and who she often cynically played off against her self-centred older son Robert (Henri Szeps
) and daughter-in-law (played by Judy Morris
).
Cracknell appeared in over 20 films and television series, including Play School
(throughout the 1960s), The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith
(1978), the 1983 miniseries
The Dismissal
(playing Margaret Whitlam
) and A Country Practice
(two episodes in 1984).
Cracknell acted for most of the major Australian theatre companies, especially the Sydney Theatre Company
. As well as other stage roles, she appeared in the stage production of The Importance of Being Earnest
as Lady Bracknell. The production was so popular that it was an "ongoing" stage production from 1988 to 1992 and was televised by the ABC
. She was also Patron of the Australian Theatre for Young People
. She narrated comedian Paul McDermott
's The Scree, which was released in 2004.
(AM). In 1998, the National Trust of Australia
named her one of "100 National Living Treasures
". She also received honorary doctorates from the University of Sydney
. and the Queensland University of Technology
In 2001, Cracknell was awarded the TV Week Logie Hall of Fame for her services to Australian television. Her appearance at the ceremony was the last before her death. She is currently the only Logie Hall of Fame recipient who has appeared on a TV show which also won the Logie Hall of Fame (Play School
, awarded in 2006).
Logie Awards she won:
Order of Australia
The Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, "for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service"...
(6 July 1925 – 13 May 2002) was an Australian theatre and television character actress who appeared in many comedy roles. She was known variously as "Crackers", "Dame Crackers" and "Dame Ruth" throughout a career spanning 56 years.
Early life
Cracknell was born in 1925 in Maitland, New South WalesNew South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
to Charles and Winifred Cracknell. When she was four years old, the family moved to Sydney. She was educated at North Sydney Girls High School
North Sydney Girls High School
North Sydney Girls High School is an academically selective, public high school for girls, located at Crows Nest, on the Lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia....
and, after graduating, worked at the Ku-ring-gai Council
Ku-ring-gai Council
Ku-ring-gai Council is a Local Government Area in the North Shore region of Sydney. It includes the suburbs of Lindfield, Killara, Gordon, Pymble, St Ives, Turramurra, Warrawee, and parts of Roseville, and Wahroonga. The region is named after the Kuringgai tribe who once inhabited the area...
as a clerk. At 17 she was taken to the theatre by a friend. She immediately wanted to become an actress and joined the Modern Theatre Players drama school.
Career
Cracknell's first acting jobs were in radio. By 1946, she was performing five episodes of radio plays a week. She also performed on stage with the Independent Theatre Company and the Mercury TheatreMercury Theatre (Australia)
The Mercury Theatre was an Australian theatre company that was co-founded by Peter Finch and existed from 1946-1954. It was named after the famous Orson Welles theatre company of the same name....
. In 1948, she joined the John Alden Company and had roles in King Lear
King Lear
King Lear is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. The title character descends into madness after foolishly disposing of his estate between two of his three daughters based on their flattery, bringing tragic consequences for all. The play is based on the legend of Leir of Britain, a mythological...
, Measure for Measure
Measure for Measure
Measure for Measure is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1603 or 1604. It was classified as comedy, but its mood defies those expectations. As a result and for a variety of reasons, some critics have labelled it as one of Shakespeare's problem plays...
and The Tempest
The Tempest
The Tempest is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1610–11, and thought by many critics to be the last play that Shakespeare wrote alone. It is set on a remote island, where Prospero, the exiled Duke of Milan, plots to restore his daughter Miranda to her rightful place,...
. In 1952, at the age of 27, she left Australia to work in London for two years.
Cracknell married Eric Phillips on 25 June 1957 and they had three children, Anna, Jane and Jonathan. Unlike many women of the time, she did not retire and continued to act.
Cracknell appeared in many Australian film and TV productions, including the 1973 award-winning ABC-TV dramatisation of Ethel Turner
Ethel Turner
Ethel Turner was an Australian novelist and children's writer.She was born Ethel Mary Burwell in Doncaster in England. Her father died when she was two, leaving her mother Sarah Jane Burwell with two daughters . A year later, Sarah Jane married Henry Turner, who was twenty years older and had six...
's Australian children's classic Seven Little Australians
Seven Little Australians
Seven Little Australians is a classic Australian children's novel by Ethel Turner. Set mainly in Sydney in the 1880s, it relates the adventures of the seven mischievous Woolcot children, their stern army father Captain Woolcot and flighty stepmother Esther.In 1994 the novel was the only book by an...
.
Cracknell is most well-known for her role in the ABC
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
television series Mother and Son
Mother and Son
Mother and Son is a Logie Award-winning Australian television sitcom produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation from 16 January 1984 until 21 March 1994. The show stars Ruth Cracknell, Garry McDonald, Henri Szeps and Judy Morris...
. Written by Geoffrey Atherden
Geoffrey Atherden
Geoffrey John Atherden, AM, is an Australian television writer, best known for the sitcom Mother and Son. He also wrote the sitcom Grass Roots and the mockumentary BabaKiueria, and contributed to The Aunty Jack Show....
and loosely based on the cult Carl Reiner
Carl Reiner
Carl Reiner is an American actor, film director, producer, writer and comedian. He has won nine Emmy Awards and one Grammy Award during this career...
film Where's Poppa?
Where's Poppa?
Where's Poppa? is a 1970 black comedy film based on the novel by Robert Klane starring George Segal, Ron Leibman and Ruth Gordon. The plot revolves around the troubled relationship between a lawyer son played by Segal and his senile mother played by Gordon...
, Mother and Son first screened on 16 January 1984 to 21 March 1994 for six seasons for over a decade and is often repeated. Cracknell played an elderly woman, Maggie Beare, who was slowly becoming senile. She was cared for by her long-suffering younger son Arthur (Garry McDonald
Garry McDonald
Garry George McDonald, AO is an Australian stage and screen actor.-Early life and career:McDonald was born in Sydney and was educated at Cranbrook School and National Institute of Dramatic Art....
), to whom she was often indifferent but also dependent on and who she often cynically played off against her self-centred older son Robert (Henri Szeps
Henri Szeps
Henri Szeps OAM is an Australian actor best known for his role as Robert Beare in the ABC situation comedy series Mother and Son.-Early life:...
) and daughter-in-law (played by Judy Morris
Judy Morris
Judy Morris is an Australian actress, film director and screenwriter, well known for the variety of roles she played in 54 different television shows and films, but most recently for co-writing a musical epic about the life of penguins in Antarctica which became Happy Feet, Australia's largest...
).
Cracknell appeared in over 20 films and television series, including Play School
Play School (Australian TV series)
Play School is an Australian educational television show for children produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. It is the longest-running children's show in Australia, and the second longest running childrens show in the world. An estimated 80% of pre-school children under six watch the...
(throughout the 1960s), The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith
The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith
The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith is a 1972 Booker Prize-nominated novel by Thomas Keneally, and a 1978 Australian film of the same name directed by Fred Schepisi. The novel is based on the life of bushranger Jimmy Governor....
(1978), the 1983 miniseries
Miniseries
A miniseries , in a serial storytelling medium, is a television show production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. The exact number is open to interpretation; however, they are usually limited to fewer than a whole season. The term "miniseries" is generally a North American term...
The Dismissal
The Dismissal (TV miniseries)
The Dismissal is an Australian television miniseries, first screened in 1983, that dramatised the events of the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis....
(playing Margaret Whitlam
Margaret Whitlam
Margaret Whitlam AO is a prominent Australian personality and the wife of former Prime Minister of Australia Gough Whitlam...
) and A Country Practice
A Country Practice
A Country Practice is an Australian television drama series. One of the longest-running of its kind, produced by James Davern of JNP Productions, it ran on the Seven Network for 1,058 episodes from 18 November 1981 to 22 November 1993. It was produced in ATN-7's production facility at Epping,...
(two episodes in 1984).
Cracknell acted for most of the major Australian theatre companies, especially the Sydney Theatre Company
Sydney Theatre Company
The Sydney Theatre Company is one of Australia's best-known theatre companies operating from The Wharf Theatre near The Rocks area of Sydney, as well as the Sydney Theatre and the Sydney Opera House Drama Theatre....
. As well as other stage roles, she appeared in the stage production of The Importance of Being Earnest
The Importance of Being Earnest
The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People is a play by Oscar Wilde. First performed on 14 February 1895 at St. James's Theatre in London, it is a farcical comedy in which the protagonists maintain fictitious personae in order to escape burdensome social obligations...
as Lady Bracknell. The production was so popular that it was an "ongoing" stage production from 1988 to 1992 and was televised by the ABC
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
. She was also Patron of the Australian Theatre for Young People
Australian Theatre for Young People
The Australian Theatre for Young People is Australia's flagship youth theatre company and the largest youth theatre in the world. Over 6000 young people aged between three and 26 participate in the company's work across Australia....
. She narrated comedian Paul McDermott
Paul McDermott (comedian)
Paul McDermott is an Australian comedian, actor, writer, director, singer, artist and television host. He currently hosts the satirical news-based 'Good News World' a follow up to quiz show Good News Week which airs in Australia on Network Ten...
's The Scree, which was released in 2004.
Death
Cracknell died of a respiratory illness in a Sydney nursing home on 13 May 2002, aged 76, shortly after a visit from her children, Anna Jeffery, Jane Moore and Jonathan Phillips. She was also survived by seven grandchildren.Honours and awards
In 1980, Cracknell was appointed a member of the Order of AustraliaOrder of Australia
The Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, "for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service"...
(AM). In 1998, the National Trust of Australia
National Trust of Australia
The Australian Council of National Trusts is the peak body for community-based, non-government organisations committed to promoting and conserving Australia's indigenous, natural and historic heritage....
named her one of "100 National Living Treasures
Australian Living Treasures
Australian Living Treasures are people who have been nominated by the National Trust of Australia. The first list of 100 Living Treasures was published in 1997....
". She also received honorary doctorates from the University of Sydney
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...
. and the Queensland University of Technology
Queensland University of Technology
Queensland University of Technology is an Australian university with an applied emphasis in courses and research. Based in Brisbane, it has 40,000 students, including 6,000 international students, over 4,000 staff members, and an annual budget of more than A$750 million.QUT is marketed as "A...
In 2001, Cracknell was awarded the TV Week Logie Hall of Fame for her services to Australian television. Her appearance at the ceremony was the last before her death. She is currently the only Logie Hall of Fame recipient who has appeared on a TV show which also won the Logie Hall of Fame (Play School
Play School (Australian TV series)
Play School is an Australian educational television show for children produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. It is the longest-running children's show in Australia, and the second longest running childrens show in the world. An estimated 80% of pre-school children under six watch the...
, awarded in 2006).
Logie Awards she won:
- 1993: Most Outstanding Actress
- 1994: Most Outstanding Actress
- 1994: Most Popular Comedy Personality
- 2001: TV Week Logie Hall of Fame
External links
- Australians: Ruth Cracknell, Australian Broadcasting Corporation
- Ruth Cracknell bio, National Film and Sound Archive
- Ruth Cracknell's acting credits