Wendy Hughes
Encyclopedia
Career
Hughes began her career on television in the early 1970s with appearances in Homicide, Number 96Number 96 (TV series)
Number 96 was a popular Australian soap opera set in a Sydney apartment block. Don Cash and Bill Harmon produced the series for Network Ten, which requested a Coronation Street-type serial, and specifically one that explored adult subjects...
, Matlock Police
Matlock Police
Matlock Police was an Australian television police drama series made by Crawford Productions for the 0-10 Network between 1971 and 1975....
and in 1976, ABC Mini-Series, Power Without Glory
Power Without Glory
Power 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 :...
. Her big screen debut was in 1974 in the film Petersen
Petersen (film)
Petersen is a 1974 Australian drama film directed by Tim Burstall. Tony Petersen , a retired australian rules football star, enrolls at university to study for an arts degree...
in which she appeared naked in several scenes.
She then spent the rest of the 1970s and 1980s as one of the leading actresses in Australian cinema, with roles in Newsfront
Newsfront
Newsfront is a 1978 Australian drama film starring Bill Hunter, Wendy Hughes, and Bryan Brown, directed by Phillip Noyce. The screenplay is written by David Elfick, Bob Ellis, Philippe Mora, and Phillip Noyce. The original music score is composed by William Motzing...
, Kostas, My Brilliant Career
My Brilliant Career (film)
My Brilliant Career is a 1979 Australian drama film directed by Gillian Armstrong and based on the book of the same name by Miles Franklin....
, Lucinda Brayford
Lucinda Brayford
Lucinda Brayford is a novel by Australian author Martin Boyd.-Plot summary:Set mainly in Melbourne, Victoria and England between the early to middle parts of the Twentieth century.-Film adaptation:...
, Touch and Go, Hoodwink
Hoodwink (1981 film)
Hoodwink is a 1981 Australian thriller film directed by Claude Whatham and written by Ken Quinnell. It stars John Hargreaves and Judy Davis. The film is based on the true story of a well-publicized Australian con artist...
, Lonely Hearts, Careful, He Might Hear You
Careful, He Might Hear You
Careful, He Might Hear You is a 1983 Australian drama film. It is based on the novel of the same name by Australian-American author Sumner Locke Elliott....
, My First Wife
My First Wife
My First Wife is a 1984 Australian drama film directed by Paul Cox. The film won several AFI Awards in 1984. The film follows the dissolution of John and Helen's marriage and the aftermath.-Awards:...
, I Can't Get Started
I Can't Get Started
"I Can't Get Started" is a popular song, with lyrics by Ira Gershwin and music by Vernon Duke, that was first heard in the theatrical production Ziegfeld Follies of 1936 where it was sung by Bob Hope...
, An Indecent Obsession
An Indecent Obsession
An Indecent Obsession is a 1981 novel written by Australian author Colleen McCullough.-Summary:To the battle-broken soldiers in her care, nurse Honour Langtry is a precious, adored reminder of the world before the war. Then Michael Wilson arrives under a cloud of mystery and shame to change...
, Echoes of Paradise, Boundaries of the Heart, Warm Nights on a Slow Moving Train
Warm Nights on a Slow Moving Train
Warm Nights on a Slow Moving Train is a 1988 Australian film directed by Bob Ellis. Nominated at the AFI Awards in the Best Achievement in Cinematography category....
(1988), and Luigi's Ladies.
Hughes made her American debut in John G. Avildsen
John G. Avildsen
John Guilbert Avildsen is an American film director.-Life and career:Avildsen was born in Oak Park, Illinois, the son of Ivy and Clarence John Avildsen...
's film Happy New Year
Happy New Year (1987 film)
Happy New Year is a 1987 film directed by John G. Avildsen. The screenplay was written by Warren Lane, based on the French film La bonne année. The director of the French film, Claude Lelouch, has a cameo as a man on a train....
opposite Peter Falk
Peter Falk
Peter Michael Falk was an American actor, best known for his role as Lieutenant Columbo in the television series Columbo...
and Charles Durning
Charles Durning
Charles Durning is an American actor. With appearances in over 100 films, Durning's memorable roles include police officers in the Oscar-winning The Sting and crime drama Dog Day Afternoon , along with the comedies Tootsie, To Be Or Not To Be and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, the last two...
.
She also continued to make occasional appearances on television, such as playing Jilly Stewart in the mini-series Return to Eden
Return to Eden
Return to Eden is an Australian television drama series starring Rebecca Gilling, James Reyne, Wendy Hughes and James Smillie. It began as a three-part mini-series, shown on Network Ten in 1983. Gilling and Smillie would reprise their roles for a 22-part weekly series screened in 1986.-Mini-series...
.
During the early 1990s, she spent time in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
where she was a regular cast member of the television series Homicide: Life on the Street
Homicide: Life on the Street
Homicide: Life on the Street is an American police procedural television series chronicling the work of a fictional version of the Baltimore Homicide Unit. It ran for seven seasons on NBC from 1993 to 1999, and was succeeded by a TV movie, which also acted as the de-facto series finale...
, played a major role in the miniseries Amerika
Amerika (TV miniseries)
Amerika – suggesting a Russified name for the United States – is an American television miniseries that was broadcast in 1987 on ABC. It starred Kris Kristofferson, Mariel Hemingway, Sam Neill, Robert Urich, and a 17-year-old Lara Flynn Boyle in her first major role. Amerika was about life in the...
, and made a guest appearance on Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: The Next Generation is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry as part of the Star Trek franchise. Roddenberry, Rick Berman, and Michael Piller served as executive producers at different times throughout the production...
.
Back in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, she played lead roles on television in The Man From Snowy River
The Man From Snowy River (TV series)
The Man from Snowy River is an Australian television series based on Banjo Paterson's poem "The Man from Snowy River". Released in Australia as Banjo Paterson's The Man from Snowy River, the series was subsequently released in the United States as Snowy River: The McGregor Saga.The television...
("Snowy River: The McGregor Saga"), and State Coroner
State Coroner
State Coroner could refer to:* Coroner an officer of law responsible for investigating deaths* State Coroner an Australian television series on Network ten...
. Film appearances around this time include Princess Caraboo
Princess Caraboo (film)
Princess Caraboo is a 1994 British-American historical comedy-drama film co-written and directed by Michael Austin, based on the real-life 19th-century character Princess Caraboo, who passed herself off in British society as an exotic princess who spoke a strange foreign language; she is portrayed...
and Paradise Road.
Awards
She has been nominated for Australian Film InstituteAustralian 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...
acting awards six times, and won the Best Lead actress award in 1983 for her performance in Careful, He Might Hear You
Careful, He Might Hear You
Careful, He Might Hear You is a 1983 Australian drama film. It is based on the novel of the same name by Australian-American author Sumner Locke Elliott....
.