Helen Morse
Encyclopedia
Helen Morse is an Australian actress who has appeared in films, on television, and on stage.
, England. She was the oldest of four children; her parents were a doctor and nurse. She attended school at Presbyterian Ladies' College
, in Burwood, Victoria
, and studied acting at the National Institute of Dramatic Art
in Sydney.
Morse won the Australian Film Institute Award
for Best Actress in a Leading Role
for her performance in the 1976 film Caddie
. Her notable screen performances also include roles in the film Picnic at Hanging Rock
(1975) and the television miniseries A Town Like Alice
(1981). In the 2000s, she occasionally appeared in theatre productions in Australia.
Morse was married to Australian actor/director Sandy Harbutt, with whom she starred in Stone.
, The Ensemble, The Independent, Nimrod, Marian Street, Sydney Theatre Company
, Hunter Valley Theatre Company, Queensland Theatre Company
, Harvest Theatre Company (South Australia) and the State Theatre Company of South Australia.
Her most recent award-winning roles in theatre include Theodora Goodman in Patrick White
's The Aunt's Story and Nancy in Bryony Lavery
's Frozen for the Melbourne Theatre Company
.
Other theatre credits include
Biography
Morse was born in Harrow on the Hill, MiddlesexMiddlesex
Middlesex is one of the historic counties of England and the second smallest by area. The low-lying county contained the wealthy and politically independent City of London on its southern boundary and was dominated by it from a very early time...
, England. She was the oldest of four children; her parents were a doctor and nurse. She attended school at Presbyterian Ladies' College
Presbyterian Ladies' College, Melbourne
Presbyterian Ladies' College, Melbourne , is an independent,private, Presbyterian, day and boarding school predominantly for girls, located in Burwood, an eastern suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia....
, in Burwood, Victoria
Burwood, Victoria
Burwood is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 17 km east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is largely the City of Whitehorse but includes the City of Monash in its south west corner. At the 2006 Census, Burwood had a population of 11,886.-History:The...
, and studied acting at the National Institute of Dramatic Art
National Institute of Dramatic Art
The National Institute of Dramatic Art is an Australian national training institute for students of theatre, film, and television, based in the Sydney suburb of Kensington. It is supported by the federal Office for the Arts, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. NIDA is located adjacent...
in Sydney.
Morse won the Australian Film Institute Award
Australian Film Institute Awards
The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Award, known as the AACTA Award , is an accolade presented annually by the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts . The awards recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry and television industry, including directors,...
for Best Actress in a Leading Role
Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role
The Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role is an award presented annually at the Australian Film Institute Awards. The award has been presented annually since 1971.-History:...
for her performance in the 1976 film Caddie
Caddie (film)
Caddie is an Australian film, directed by Donald Crombie, released in 1976, and belonging to the Australian film renaissance which occurred during that decade....
. Her notable screen performances also include roles in the film Picnic at Hanging Rock
Picnic at Hanging Rock
Picnic at Hanging Rock is a 1967 drama and mystery novel by Australian author Joan Lindsay. She wrote it over a four-week period at her home Mulberry Hill in Baxter, on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula. It was first published in 1967 in Australia by Cheshire Publishing and was released in...
(1975) and the television miniseries A Town Like Alice
A Town Like Alice
A Town Like Alice is a novel by the British author Nevil Shute about a young Englishwoman in Malaya during World War II and in outback Australia post-war....
(1981). In the 2000s, she occasionally appeared in theatre productions in Australia.
Morse was married to Australian actor/director Sandy Harbutt, with whom she starred in Stone.
Theatre
Morse has worked with many companies including Melbourne Theatre CompanyMelbourne Theatre Company
The Melbourne Theatre Company is a theatre company based in Melbourne. Founded in 1953, it is the oldest professional theatre company in Australia, and has its own theatre, The MTC Theatre – which houses the 500-seat Sumner Theatre and the 150-seat Lawler Studio – located in Melbourne's Arts...
, The Ensemble, The Independent, Nimrod, Marian Street, 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....
, Hunter Valley Theatre Company, Queensland Theatre Company
Queensland Theatre Company
The Queensland Theatre Company was established in 1970 as the Royal Queensland Theatre Company. The Company is the state's flagship professional theatre company, headed up by multi-award winning playwright and director Wesley Enoch...
, Harvest Theatre Company (South Australia) and the State Theatre Company of South Australia.
Her most recent award-winning roles in theatre include Theodora Goodman in Patrick White
Patrick White
Patrick Victor Martindale White , an Australian author, is widely regarded as an important English-language novelist of the 20th century. From 1935 until his death, he published 12 novels, two short-story collections and eight plays.White's fiction employs humour, florid prose, shifting narrative...
's The Aunt's Story and Nancy in Bryony Lavery
Bryony Lavery
Bryony Lavery is a British dramatist, known for her successful and award-winning 1998 play Frozen. In addition to her work in theatre, she has also written for television and radio...
's Frozen for the Melbourne Theatre Company
Melbourne Theatre Company
The Melbourne Theatre Company is a theatre company based in Melbourne. Founded in 1953, it is the oldest professional theatre company in Australia, and has its own theatre, The MTC Theatre – which houses the 500-seat Sumner Theatre and the 150-seat Lawler Studio – located in Melbourne's Arts...
.
Other theatre credits include
- Terror Australis
- A Taste of Honey
- The Woman in the Window by Alma de Groen
- Stephen SondheimStephen SondheimStephen Joshua Sondheim is an American composer and lyricist for stage and film. He is the winner of an Academy Award, multiple Tony Awards including the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, multiple Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize and the Laurence Olivier Award...
's A Little Night MusicA Little Night MusicA Little Night Music is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Hugh Wheeler. Inspired by the Ingmar Bergman film Smiles of a Summer Night, it involves the romantic lives of several couples. Its title is a literal English translation of the German name for Mozart's Serenade... - Stephanie Abrahams in Duet for One
- Blanche DuboisBlanche DuBoisBlanche DuBois is a fictional character in Tennessee Williams' 1947 Pulitzer Prize-winning play A Streetcar Named Desire...
in A Streetcar Named DesireA Streetcar Named Desire (play)A Streetcar Named Desire is a 1947 play written by American playwright Tennessee Williams for which he received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1948. The play opened on Broadway on December 3, 1947, and closed on December 17, 1949, in the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. The Broadway production was... - Title Role in Hedda GablerHedda GablerHedda Gabler is a play first published in 1890 by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. The play premiered in 1891 in Germany to negative reviews, but has subsequently gained recognition as a classic of realism, nineteenth century theatre, and world drama...
- Katherine MansfieldKatherine MansfieldKathleen Mansfield Beauchamp Murry was a prominent modernist writer of short fiction who was born and brought up in colonial New Zealand and wrote under the pen name of Katherine Mansfield. Mansfield left for Great Britain in 1908 where she encountered Modernist writers such as D.H. Lawrence and...
in The Rivers of China - Barbara in Europe by Michael GowMichael GowMichael Gow is an Australian playwright and director most famed for his 1986 work Away.As a student at Sydney University, Gow acted and directed with the Dramatic Society from 1973-1976. After graduation, Gow went on to act with Nimrod, Thalia and Sydney theatre companies.He has been the Artist...
- Carlotta in The Cherry OrchardThe Cherry OrchardThe Cherry Orchard is Russian playwright Anton Chekhov's last play. It premiered at the Moscow Art Theatre 17 January 1904 in a production directed by Constantin Stanislavski. Chekhov intended this play as a comedy and it does contain some elements of farce; however, Stanislavski insisted on...
- Ariel in The TempestThe TempestThe 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,...
- Lizzie Morden in Our Country's Good
- Elizabeth Proctor in The CrucibleThe CrucibleThe Crucible is a 1952 play by the American playwright Arthur Miller. It is a dramatization of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Province of Massachusetts Bay during 1692 and 1693. Miller wrote the play as an allegory of McCarthyism, when the US government blacklisted accused communists...
- Hannah in ArcadiaArcadia (play)Arcadia is a 1993 play by Tom Stoppard concerning the relationship between past and present and between order and disorder and the certainty of knowledge...
by Tom StoppardTom StoppardSir Tom Stoppard OM, CBE, FRSL is a British playwright, knighted in 1997. He has written prolifically for TV, radio, film and stage, finding prominence with plays such as Arcadia, The Coast of Utopia, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, Professional Foul, The Real Thing, and Rosencrantz and... - Away by Michael GowMichael GowMichael Gow is an Australian playwright and director most famed for his 1986 work Away.As a student at Sydney University, Gow acted and directed with the Dramatic Society from 1973-1976. After graduation, Gow went on to act with Nimrod, Thalia and Sydney theatre companies.He has been the Artist...
- Good Works by Nick EnrightNick Enright-Life:He was drama captain of St Ignatius' College, Riverview in 1964, where, like Gerard Windsor and Justin Fleming, he was taught by Melvyn Morrow. At that school, he won the 1sts Debating Premiership in both 1966 and 1967....
- The Twilight Series FED/FEST
- Death and the Maiden with Sydney Theatre CompanySydney Theatre CompanyThe 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....
- The Funniest Man in the World with Keene/Taylor Theatre Projects
- Kaddish with Keene/Taylor Theatre Projects
Filmography
- Love and War (1967)
- You Can't See Round Corners (1967) (TV series)
- Contrabandits (1967) ... as Angela Carrol
- Homicide (1967–1972) (TV series) (three episodes)
- RiptideRiptide (Australian TV series)Riptide is a TV series that is often considered "very Australian", but like The Outsiders, it was mainly an endeavor brought to fruition by a foreign producer and foreign principal actors...
(1969) ... as Joanna Decker - The Legend of Robin Hood (1971) (TV series) (voice)
- SpyforceSpyforceSpyforce was an Australian TV series produced from 1971 to 1973, based upon the adventures of Australian Military Intelligence operatives in the South West Pacific during World War II...
(1971) (TV series - two episodes) ... as Joan - The Kenneth Connor Show (1972) ... various roles
- Marco Polo (1972) (TV)
- Crisis (1972) (TV)
- Barrier Reef (1972) (TV) ... as Joan Norris
- Matlock PoliceMatlock PoliceMatlock Police was an Australian television police drama series made by Crawford Productions for the 0-10 Network between 1971 and 1975....
(1972) (TV) ... as Susan Williams - A Touch of Reverence (1974) (TV series)
- Marion (1974) (TV series) ... as Marion Richards
- Division 4Division 4Division 4 was an Australian television police drama series made by Crawford Productions for the Nine Network between 1969 and 1975 for 300 episodes....
(1969–1974) (TV series) (six episodes) - RyanRyan (TV series)Ryan was an Australian adventure television series screened by the Seven Network from 27 May 1973. The series was produced by Crawford Productions and had a run of 39 one hour episodes....
(1973–1974) (TV series - two episodes) - Stone (1974) ... as Amanda ... (also Costume Designer)
- Picnic at Hanging RockPicnic at Hanging RockPicnic at Hanging Rock is a 1967 drama and mystery novel by Australian author Joan Lindsay. She wrote it over a four-week period at her home Mulberry Hill in Baxter, on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula. It was first published in 1967 in Australia by Cheshire Publishing and was released in...
(1975) ... as Mlle de Poitiers - Luke's Kingdom (1976) (TV series) ... as Kate
- CaddieCaddie (film)Caddie is an Australian film, directed by Donald Crombie, released in 1976, and belonging to the Australian film renaissance which occurred during that decade....
(1976) ... as Caddie Marsh - Power Without GloryPower Without GloryPower Without Glory is a 1950 novel written by Australian writer Frank Hardy. It was later adapted into a mini-series by the Australian Broadcasting Commission .- Publication :...
(1976) (TV series) - AgathaAgatha (film)Agatha is a 1979 drama thriller film directed by Michael Apted, starring Vanessa Redgrave, Dustin Hoffman and Timothy Dalton, and written by Kathleen Tynan...
(1979) ... as Evelyn Crawley - A Town Like AliceA Town Like AliceA Town Like Alice is a novel by the British author Nevil Shute about a young Englishwoman in Malaya during World War II and in outback Australia post-war....
(1981) (TV series) ... as Jean Paget - Far EastFar East (film)Far East is a 1982 Australian drama film directed by John Duigan and starring Bryan Brown, Helen Morse and John Bell. Far East is a remake of the 1942 classic Casablanca....
(1982) ... as Jo Reeves - Silent Reach (1983) (TV series) ... as Antonia Russell
- Out of Time (1984) (TV) (voice) ... as Iris/Sammie
- The Adventures of Robin Hood (1985) (TV series) (voice) ... as Maid Marion
- Pozières (2000)
- Lost (2000) ... as Mrs Harris
- The Eye of the StormThe Eye of the Storm (2011 film)The Eye of the Storm is an Australian drama film directed by Fred Schepisi. It is an adaptation of Patrick White's novel of the same name. It stars Geoffrey Rush, Charlotte Rampling and Judy Davis...
(2011) ... as Lotte