Debra Byrne
Encyclopedia
Career
Byrne made her television debut on Brian and the Juniors, an early predecessor of Young Talent TimeYoung Talent Time
Young Talent Time is an Australian television variety program screened on Network Ten, running from 1971 until 1988. The series features a core group of young performers in the vein of The Mickey Mouse Club, and a weekly junior talent quest. The "Young Talent Team" regularly performed popular...
, which was hosted by a young Brian Naylor
Brian Naylor (broadcaster)
Brian Naylor was an Australian television presenter, best known for his longstanding stint as chief news presenter at National Nine News Melbourne from 1978 to 1998 and his sign-off line, "May your news be good news, and good-night."His son Matthew was killed in a plane crash at Kinglake, Victoria...
. She stayed with the show for 12 months. In 1971 she was cast as one of the original six Young Talent Time cast members. Byrne proved to be a popular cast member and in 1974 she won the Logie Award
Logie Award
The TV Week Logie Awards are the Australian television industry awards, which have been presented annually since 1959. Renamed by Graham Kennedy in 1960 after he won the first 'Star Of The Year' award, the name 'Logie' awards honours John Logie Baird, a Scotsman who invented the television as a...
for Best Teenage Television Personality and the TV Week
TV Week
TV Week is a weekly television magazine in Australia, first published as a Melbourne-only publication in December 1957 , and bearing a strong affiliation to television station GTV.The publication is still publishing weekly...
Queen of Pop Award.
In 1975, her final year with Young Talent Time, she released her first solo single, He's a Rebel, a cover of the Phil Spector produced hit by the Crystals. For seven weeks the song stayed at Number 1 on the Victorian
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
pop music charts. Her follow-up single was also a huge hit. It was a double A side consisting of a second Crystals cover, Da Doo Ron Ron, and another track called The Boogeyman. Later in 1975 she again won the Logie Award for Best Teenage Television Personality and the TV Week Queen of Pop Award.
In 1976 she was invited to London by Peter Gormley Management to record at Abbey Road Studios
Abbey Road Studios
Abbey Road Studios is a recording studio located at 3 Abbey Road, St John's Wood, City of Westminster, London, England. It was established in November 1931 by the Gramophone Company, a predecessor of British music company EMI, its present owner...
under producer Cliff Richard
Cliff Richard
Sir Cliff Richard, OBE is a British pop singer, musician, performer, actor, and philanthropist who has sold over an estimated 250 million records worldwide....
. While in London, she made many public appearances, including The Cliff Richard Show
Cliff Richard
Sir Cliff Richard, OBE is a British pop singer, musician, performer, actor, and philanthropist who has sold over an estimated 250 million records worldwide....
.
Byrne's first Australian television guest appearance as a featured solo artist was on The Graham Kennedy Show
The Graham Kennedy Show
The Graham Kennedy Show was an Australian talk show that debuted on 19 September 1972, on the Nine Network.On 23 December 1969, host Graham Kennedy has quit as host of In Melbourne Tonight, exhausted, and rested for two years. In spite of his fame and fortune, he later described that period as...
at the age of fifteen. Since then she has made a guest appearance on every major Australian Tonight show and was a regular performer on the ABC series The Saturday Show. In 1978 she merged singing with acting for the first time on the ABC's Sammy Award winning Follies series. In 1980 Byrne co-starred alongside John Farnham
John Farnham
John Peter Farnham, AO, formerly billed as Johnny Farnham , is an English-born Australian pop singer. He was a teen pop idol from 1964 to 1979, and has since forged a career as an adult contemporary singer. His career has mostly been as a solo artist although he briefly replaced Glenn Shorrock as...
in the ABC television show Farnham and Byrne.
After much rumour, Byrne's career stalled between 1980 and 1985 due to a heroin addiction
Substance dependence
The section about substance dependence in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders does not use the word addiction at all. It explains:...
. A further stumbling block occurred when a sex tape of her and a former partner was stolen and leaked to the media. However, she made a successful and highly-publicised career comeback in 1985 with the starring role as Kathy McLeod, opposite Matt Dillon
Matt Dillon
Matthew Raymond "Matt" Dillon is an American actor and film director. He began acting in the late 1970s, gaining fame as a teenage idol during the 1980s.- Early life :...
, in the film Rebel. She was nominated for an AFI
Australian Film Institute
The Australian Film Institute was founded in 1958 as a non-profit organisation devoted to developing an active film culture in Australia and fostering engagement between the general public and the Australian film industry...
Award for Best Actress in a Lead Role for her performance in this film.
In 1988 she was invited to perform at the Royal Bicentennial Concert for the then Prince
Charles, Prince of Wales
Prince Charles, Prince of Wales is the heir apparent and eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Since 1958 his major title has been His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales. In Scotland he is additionally known as The Duke of Rothesay...
and Princess of Wales
Diana, Princess of Wales
Diana, Princess of Wales was the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales, whom she married on 29 July 1981, and an international charity and fundraising figure, as well as a preeminent celebrity of the late 20th century...
. Her backing group for the concert was composed of 1500 children.
Byrne has enjoyed a successful stage career interspersed with appearances on such televisions programs as The Secret Life of Us
The Secret Life of Us
The Secret Life of Us was a television drama series set in the beachside suburb of St Kilda, Melbourne, Australia. The series was produced by Southern Star Entertainment and screened in Australia from 2001 to 2005 on Network Ten and on Channel 4 in the UK...
, Home and Away
Home and Away
Home and Away is an Australian soap opera that has been produced in Sydney since July 1987 and is airing on the Seven Network since 17 January 1988. It is the second-longest-running drama and most popular soap opera on Australian television...
, Police Rescue
Police Rescue
Police Rescue was an Australian television series which originally aired on ABC TV between 1989 and 1996. It was produced by ABC and Southern Star Xanadu in association with the BBC....
, The Flying Doctors
The Flying Doctors
The Flying Doctors is an Australian drama series produced by Crawford Productions that revolved around the everyday lifesaving efforts of the real Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia....
, G.P., State Coroner and Law of the Land.
In 1991 Byrne released her album Caught in the Act, which eventually went gold. And in 1994 she released her contemporary album Sleeping Child, which includes songs about her children, relationships, sexual abuse, substance dependence, loss and grief. She continues to be a prolific stage artist, and has starred in many productions including the roles of Grizabella in Cats
Cats (musical)
Cats is a musical composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot...
and Fantine in Les Misérables
Les Misérables (musical)
Les Misérables , colloquially known as Les Mis or Les Miz , is a musical by Claude-Michel Schönberg, based on the novel of the same name by Victor Hugo....
, Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard
Sunset Boulevard (musical)
Sunset Boulevard is a musical with book and lyrics by Don Black and Christopher Hampton and music by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Based on the 1950 film of the same title, the plot revolves around Norma Desmond, a faded star of the silent screen era, living in the past in her decaying mansion on the...
and feature roles in Jerry's Girls
Jerry's Girls
Jerry's Girls is a musical revue based on the songs of composer/lyricist Jerry Herman.-Production history:Created by Herman and Larry Alford in 1981, the show originated as a modest presentation at Onstage, a nightclub located in the theatre district in midtown-Manhattan . Writing in The New York...
and Hot Shoe Shuffle. She was invited to reprise the role of Fantine for The Complete Symphonic Recording of Les Misérables, which featured the best performers from worldwide productions. The album won a Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
for Best Theatre Musical Soundtrack. She also recorded a little known 'eco' song called Nature's Lament, with the Australian cast of Les Misérables.
In recent years Byrne has been most notable for her role of Norma Desmond, opposite Hugh Jackman
Hugh Jackman
Hugh Michael Jackman is an Australian actor and producer who is involved in film, musical theatre, and television.Jackman has won international recognition for his roles in major films, notably as action/superhero, period and romance characters...
, in the first Australian production of Sunset Boulevard
Sunset Boulevard (musical)
Sunset Boulevard is a musical with book and lyrics by Don Black and Christopher Hampton and music by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Based on the 1950 film of the same title, the plot revolves around Norma Desmond, a faded star of the silent screen era, living in the past in her decaying mansion on the...
, and her extensive live cabaret
Cabaret
Cabaret is a form, or place, of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue: a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables watching the performance, as introduced by a master of ceremonies or...
and concert performances. She also wrote, directed, choreographed and stars in the live cabaret show Girls, Girls, Girls. The show also stars Wendy Stapleton
Wendy Stapleton
Wendy Anne-Marie Stapleton is an Australian pop/rock singer-songwriter, and musical theatre and television actress. Stapleton has performed as a backing singer, session musician and a solo artist; she fronted various Melbourne-based groups including Wendy Stapleton Band and Wendy & the Rocketts ...
and Nikki Nicholls and was the 2002 winner of the Herald Sun
Herald Sun
The Herald Sun is a morning tabloid newspaper based in Melbourne, Australia. It is published by The Herald and Weekly Times, a subsidiary of News Limited, itself a subsidiary of News Corporation. It is available for purchase throughout Melbourne, Regional Victoria, Tasmania, the Australian Capital...
Best Cabaret Award. And her live cabaret show, Caught In the Act Again, earned a Green Room Award nomination for Best Cabaret Performance and Best Musical Arrangement.
Since 1972 Byrne has been a regular performer at the Christmas Eve Carols by Candlelight
Carols by Candlelight
Carols by Candlelight is an Australian Christmas tradition that originated in southeastern Australia in the 19th century and was popularised in Melbourne in the 1930s. The tradition has since spread around the world. It involves people gathering, usually outdoors in a park, to sing carols by...
concert at Melbourne's Sidney Myer Music Bowl
Sidney Myer Music Bowl
The Sidney Myer Music Bowl is an outdoor performance venue in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is located in the lawns and gardens of Kings Domain, close to the Arts Centre and the Southbank entertainment precinct...
. At the 2005 concert she performed a duet of Silent Night with her five-year-old daughter, Lucille ("Lulu"), who was making her professional stage and television debut.
Byrne is divorced from Australian actor Neil Melville
Neil Melville
Neil Melville is an Australian actor. He was born in Sydney, but spent most of his childhood in Apollo Bay, Victoria.Melville graduated from Adelaide's Flinders University with a Bachelor of Arts in Drama, and performed in a number of university productions, including, most notably, the world...
and was the partner of French musician, Ced Le Meledo, with whom she collaborated on the live show Paris-Melbourne. She has three daughters.
In 2006, her autobiography Not Quite Ripe was published.
On 6 July 2007, it was announced that Byrne would be reprising her role of Grizabella in the ExitLeft production of Cats, to be staged at the Derwent Entertainment Centre
Derwent Entertainment Centre
Derwent Entertainment Centre is a multi-purpose arena and is the primary venue, in Hobart, for large indoor functions/events. It was constructed in 1989 and is situated in between the waterfront of the River Derwent, the Brooker Highway and Tattersalls Park.Between 1989 and 1996, it was the home of...
in Hobart
Hobart
Hobart is the state capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Founded in 1804 as a penal colony,Hobart is Australia's second oldest capital city after Sydney. In 2009, the city had a greater area population of approximately 212,019. A resident of Hobart is known as...
in late-October 2007.
In 2009 she played the role of Sue in Metro Street
Metro Street
Metro Street is an original Australian musical with book, music and lyrics by Matthew Robinson. It was awarded the Pratt Prize for Musical Theatre in 2004, and went through many workshops and readings, including at The Adelaide Cabaret Festival in 2006, before its world premiere season with the...
at its world premiere in Adelaide and its subsequent tour to South Korea.
Byrne is currently playing the Bird Woman in the original 2010 Melbourne production of the stage musical, Mary Poppins
Mary Poppins (musical)
Mary Poppins is a Walt Disney Theatrical musical based on the similarly titled series of children's books by P. L. Travers and the Disney 1964 film. The West End production opened in December 2004 and received two Olivier Awards, one for Best Actress in a Musical and the other for Best Theatre...
.
Awards
- 1974 TV WeekTV WeekTV Week is a weekly television magazine in Australia, first published as a Melbourne-only publication in December 1957 , and bearing a strong affiliation to television station GTV.The publication is still publishing weekly...
Logie AwardLogie AwardThe TV Week Logie Awards are the Australian television industry awards, which have been presented annually since 1959. Renamed by Graham Kennedy in 1960 after he won the first 'Star Of The Year' award, the name 'Logie' awards honours John Logie Baird, a Scotsman who invented the television as a...
for Best Teenage Television Personality, - 1974 TV Week Queen of Pop Award,
- 1975 TV Week Logie Award for Best Teenage Television Personality,
- 1975 TV Week Queen of Pop Award,
- 1985 AFIAustralian Film InstituteThe Australian Film Institute was founded in 1958 as a non-profit organisation devoted to developing an active film culture in Australia and fostering engagement between the general public and the Australian film industry...
Award nomination for Best Actress in a Lead Role for Rebel, - 1985 Mo AwardMo AwardsThe Mo Awards are long running annual Australian entertainment industry awards. They recognise achievements in live entertainment in Australia....
for Female Vocal Performer, - 1991 Grammy AwardGrammy AwardA Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
for Best Theatre Musical Soundtrack, shared with cast of The World Symphonic Recording of Les Misérables, - 2002 Herald SunHerald SunThe Herald Sun is a morning tabloid newspaper based in Melbourne, Australia. It is published by The Herald and Weekly Times, a subsidiary of News Limited, itself a subsidiary of News Corporation. It is available for purchase throughout Melbourne, Regional Victoria, Tasmania, the Australian Capital...
Best Cabaret Award for Girls, Girls, Girls, - Green Room AwardGreen Room AwardsThe Green Room Awards are peer awards which recognise excellence in cabaret, dance, drama, fringe theatre, musical theatre and opera in Melbourne....
nomination for Best Cabaret Performance and Best Musical Arrangement for Caught in the Act Again, - 2009 Daegu Musical Award for Best Actress for Metro Street.
Solo recordings
- He's a Rebel (single)
- Da Doo Ron Ron/The Boogeyman (single)
- How Can I Tell You? (single)
- She's a Rebel
- Tell Sonny Not to Come (single)
- You Promised Me the Love (single)
- Heroes (single)
- Debbie Byrne
- Natures Lament (single with Les Miserable cast)
- Say Goodbye To The Broken Hearted (single)
- Caught In The Act (1991)
- Sleeping Child (1994)
- Heaven Down Here (5 song ep) (1995)
- New ways To Dream (1997)
Collaborative albums
- Cats
- Les Misérables
- The Complete Symphonic Recording of Les Misérables
- Sunset Boulevard
- The Young Talent Team Sing the Hits!
- Young Talent Time – The Collection
- Great Moments in Australian Theatre
- Young Talent Team 10th Anniversary Special
- Rebel Soundtrack
- The Best of Carols by Candlelight
- Kate Ceberano & friends (for the duet "You've Always Got The Blues")
- John Farnham – One Voice: The Greatest Hits
- Disney Duets – A Family Celebration
- With all my Heart – John McAllJohn McAllJohn McAll is a pianist, composer, arranger and producer with experience ranging from jazz, pop, blues, contemporary classical, afrobeat and theatre....
on Piano