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Sons and Daughters

1982

Sons and Daughters was a Logie Award winning Australian soap opera created by Reg Watson and produced by the Reg Grundy Organisation between 1981 and 1987. The first episode aired on Monday, 18 January 1982, during the Christmas/New Year non-ratings period in Sydney and Melbourne, and the official broadcast date of the final episode was 19 August 1987, although this varied across Australia and the final episode was screened in Melbourne on Sunday 27 December 1987. There are 972 half-hour episodes but during the series' original run in Australia, later episodes were shown in an hour-long format and the first pilot episode as shown in Australia was actually a 90-minute special; subsequent screenings have seen that episode split into three half-hours.

Alexandra Fowler

Cast · Known for Sons and Daughters

Alexandra Fowler came to prominence with parts in two major soap operas of the 1980s: Angela Hamilton/Keegan in Sons and Daughters and Zoe Davis in Neighbours. She also played a regular role in soap Possession (1985) and was a regular lead in Big Sky (1997) alongside actor Gary Sweet. On 24 August 2001, she appeared on the Australian-American science fiction series Farscape in the episode "Fractures" as the voice of Orrhn. From 15 November 2005 to 2007, she played the recurring role of Eve Ballantyne on the Australian drama series All Saints. From June 2013, Fowler began appearing in season one of Wentworth as Simone "Simmo" Slater and carried on right up until season 2 episode 6. However, she did make a cameo again in season 3 episode 12. Fowler rejoined the cast of Neighbours in late 2015 as Nene Williams.

Paul Sonkkila

Paul Sonkkila was an Australian actor of stage and screen who trained in Australia and in London. He had a long career in theatre, but is remembered for his cinematic roles in The Interview, The Year of Living Dangerously, Sons And Daughters, The Illustrated Family Doctor and Daybreakers.

Reg Watson

Creator · Known for Neighbours, Sons and Daughters

Reginald 'Reg' Watson (27 August 1926 - 8 October 2019) was an Australian television producer, screenwriter and executive. Watson was executive producer on the British soap opera Crossroads and created Australian media exports serials such as Prisoner, Neighbours, The Young Doctors and Sons and Daughters. Watson was a private man and rarely gave interviews. He retired in 1992 and did not produce any new television drama from then onwards.

Cassandra Webb

Cast · Known for Sons and Daughters

Cassandra grew up both in Sausalito, California and in the Australian Outback. She studied in England at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, and graduated with honors from the University of California at Berkeley with a BA in Slavic Languages and Literature. At Berkeley, she was awarded a President's Fellowship to translate and produce three Russian One-Act plays with Professor Simon Karlinsky and Professor Andrew Wachtel, now a Dean at Northwestern University. As Cassandra Webb, she had a successful acting career in Australia, starring as Suzi in the British Sci Fi film Starship, and played the blind Kelly Burns on the successful Australian television series Sons and Daughters. Her stage work includes Nora in the Australian National Premiere of Brighton Beach Memoirs, Australian National Tour of The Rocky Horror Picture Show and she portrayed several of Shakespeare's heroines Hermia, Juliet and Desdemona. She starred in Peter Gabriel's video of San Jacinto. Cassandra Wiseman lives happily and haphazardly in the wild woods of Topanga Canyon and has three children. She has served on boards of several charities, focusing on feeding the hungry and providing free classes in the arts to children at risk. She has created many school fundraisers. Her non-fiction essays have been published online on Freshyarn and in print in the Topanga Messenger and Marinscope..

Noel Hodda

Noel Hodda (born 1954) is an Australian actor, writer, dramaturge, director and teacher. He is known on his roles in the Australian television drama series, Sons and Daughters (as regular Rob Keegan from 1982-1984) and E Street (as celebrity TV doctor David Fielding from 1989-1991). Hodda was a founding member of the Riverina Theatre Company, located in Wagga Wagga and Project TYER, a Theatre In Education Co., for whom he also wrote and appeared in the play Strata Digger. Subsequently, he graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) at the UNSW Sydney and then worked as an actor for the Australian theatres.

Rowena Wallace

Cast · Known for Sons and Daughters

Rowena Wallace (born August 23, 1947) is an English-born Australian stage and screen actress, most especially in the genre of television soap opera. She is best known for her Gold Logie-winning role as conniving Patricia "Pat the Rat" Hamilton/Morrell/Palmer in Sons and Daughters, being the first soap star to win the Gold Logie. Rowena Wallace was born England, as an only child. She moved to Australia with her parents when she was five, settling in the state of Queensland. At age fifteen, having left school and attended a business college at the insistence of her parents, Wallace decided to become an actress. She joined an advertising agency while still performing in the theatre at night.

Rob Steele

Rob Steele (born 1940/1941 - May 14, 2022) was an Australian film and television character actor who appeared in Australian films spanning four decades and he racked up more than 80 credits in TV and film during that time. Steele began acting in the early 1970s and had guest roles in TV shows such as Homicide, Matlock Police, The Young Doctors, Cop Shop, Prisoner, Carson's Law, Sons and Daughters, E-Street, A Country Practice, All Saints, Police Rescue, The Flying Doctors and Blue Heelers. He also appeared in Muriel's Wedding (1994). His final on-screen appearances were in 2007.

Lucie Arnaz

Emmy Award winner Lucie Arnaz is the daughter of television legends Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball and sister of actor Desi Arnaz Jr. Lucie Arnaz appeared from an early age on her mother's TV shows and was prominently featured as Ms Ball's daughter in Here's Lucy from 1968 to 1974. Arnaz branched out into television roles independent of her family from the mid-1970s. In 1975, she played murder victim Elizabeth Short in an NBC telefilm of Who is the Black Dahlia?, and she starred with Lyle Waggoner and Tommy Tune in Welcome to the "World," The Wonderful World of Disney special commemorating the grand opening of Space Mountain at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. In 1978, she appeared in an episode of Fantasy Island as a woman desperately trying to save her marriage. She has continued to make appearances in a number of popular television series over the years, including Murder, She Wrote, Marcus Welby, M.D., Sons and Daughters (CBS, 1991), Will & Grace and Law & Order. Arnaz also had a short-lived series of her own, The Lucie Arnaz Show, on CBS in 1985. The show was about psychologist Dr. Jane Lucas who answers questions from the public on her radio show called "The Jane Lucas Show" and in a magazine. The show first premiered on April 2, 1985, but was pulled off the air after 4 episodes aired. The remaining two episodes aired on June 4 and June 11, 1985. Another eponymous series, this one a late-night-style talk show, aired for one season from 1995 to 1996. It was unsuccessful, but The Rosie O'Donnell Show would use the same format a year later to much greater success. She won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Informational Special, in 1993 for her documentary about her parents, Lucy and Desi: A Home Movie. Arnaz has made numerous feature-film appearances, but is best remembered for her debut in The Jazz Singer (1980) in which she co-starred with Neil Diamond and Laurence Olivier. She earned a nomination for the 1981 Golden Globe Award, Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture. However Arnaz' greatest success has come in the theatre, where she has worked continually since the mid-1970s. She made her Broadway debut in February 1979 in the musical They're Playing Our Song. Arnaz won the Theatre World Award and the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her portrayal of Sonia Walsk. In 1986, she won the Sarah Siddons Award for her tour with Tommy Tune in the international company of the musical My One and Only. In 2000 she made her London debut in the new musical The Witches Of Eastwick.

Paul Goddard

Cast · Known for Farscape, The Matrix

Paul Goddard is an Australian character actor. Goddard has played Agent Brown in the film The Matrix and Stark in the science fiction television series Farscape, after having auditioned for the role of Scorpius. He has appeared in such other films as The Everlasting Secret Family, Babe, and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie, as well as the television series Sons and Daughters, The Lost World and All Saints.

Belinda Giblin

Cast · Known for Sons and Daughters

Sue Belinda Giblin (born 2 March 1950) professionally billed as Belinda Giblin, is an Australian actress. Prominent in theatre and television soap operas, her small screen roles include Kay Webster in The Box (1974), Sister Sue Marriott in The Sullivans (1977–1978), Alison Carr in Sons and Daughters (1985-1987), and her character roles as Cynthia Ross in 1991, and Martha Stewart, the long-presumed dead wife of Alf Stewart, in Home and Away, a role she has played on a recurring basis since 2018. Giblin is also a corporate trainer. From Wikipedia (en), the free encyclopedia

Daniel Roberts

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Daniel "Danny" Roberts (born 1966) is an Australian actor. He started with the Patch Theatre at age 12, and was in the first round at Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts in 1979. He moved to Melbourne in 1982 where he appeared in Cop Shop and The Sullivans. He then played a lead role in the soap opera Waterloo Station (1983), but the series was cancelled after a few months on air. He then became a major cast member in Sons and Daughters playing Andy Green from 1983 until the series ended in 1987. After Sons and Daughters he travelled to the United States where he met his wife. They married and had two children Alania Neil-Roberts, and David Jones-Roberts. Danny Roberts went on to a regular role in soap opera The Power, The Passion which ran for eight months in 1989. After the series was cancelled he moved to Byron Bay, New South Wales where he founded the Australian Theatre Company in 1991. He was Artistic Director of the company until 1995, then acted in the series Fire playing Georgie Parker's brother Ted Cartright. Other roles include The Last Bullet, Home and Away, Blue Heelers, Murder Call, Stingers, Young Lions, Big Sky, Close Contact. His film credits include, Blackwater Trail, Walking on Water, Beneath Clouds, Mission: Impossible 2, Dreamland. He worked on Underbelly: The Golden Mile. He currently plays Nate's father Gavin Cooper on Home and Away.

Lisa Crittenden

Cast · Known for The Sullivans

Lisa Crittenden is an Australian television actress, known such as as The Restless Years (as Briony Thompson, 1981), The Sullivans (as Sally Meredith), Prisoner (as Maxine Daniels 1982–83), Sons and Daughters (as Leigh Palmer 1985–86), Rafferty's Rules (1988) and the New Zealand produced Shortland Street (as Carrie Burton 1992–93). Crittenden retired from acting and worked in Local State Government in 2003.

Michael Latimer

Michael James Latimer (6 September 1941 – 25 June 2011) was a British television stage and film actor who later in his career turned to writing, directing and producing. Latimer was born in Calcutta, where his father had a business, and was educated at the Leys School in Cambridge from 1955 to 1959, where he was a middle-distance runner and played rugby for the English Schoolboys Team. Upon leaving school, he trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) for two years, and on leaving began acting in cabaret revues. He stood in for Peter Cook in Beyond the Fringe when the original cast took the show to New York. He appeared in various repertory and West End productions. His television appearances included The Avengers (1966–67), Sexton Blake (1968), Man at the Top (1972), Van der Valk (1972–73), in which he played Johnny Kroon alongside Barry Foster as Van der Valk, Special Branch (1973), Marked Personal (1973), Village Hall (1974), Crown Court (1974–76), The Sweeney (1975), Quiller (1975), The New Avengers (1977), Spectre (1977), Z-Cars (1978), The Professionals (1978), Maggie and Her (1979), Hammer House of Horror (1980) and Rumpole of the Bailey (1988). His film roles include A Man for All Seasons (1966), Prehistoric Women (1967) opposite Martine Beswick, Mosquito Squadron (1969), Man of Violence (1969), Got It Made (1974) and Sweeney! (1977). Latimer was the stage director for the first Johnny Nash and Bob Marley tours of the United Kingdom in 1972. He set up his own production company, Bedrock Productions; this had three top twenty hits in the German music charts for Hansa and Ariola Records. His writing for television included The Rovers (1970), the BBC play The Interview and also four episodes of Sons and Daughters (1983). He taught at RADA, London Academy of Performing Arts (LAPA) and at drama school in Australia. As a director he worked on television commercials in Australia and directed some 37 theatre productions in the United Kingdom, including Daniel Magee's play Paddywack (1994) with James Nesbitt at the Cockpit Theatre in Marylebone Latimer died at Trinity Hospice in Clapham, London, in 2011, aged 69.

Carole Skinner

Carole Skinner (born 8 May, 1944) is Australian actress, particularly known for her performances in film, theatre and television. She is perhaps best known for her role as Nola McKenzie in the soap opera, Prisoner (1983), in Sons and Daughters (1985-1986), as Doris Hudson, and in the miniseries, The Harp in the South (1987), and its sequel, Poor Man's Orange (1987), as Delie Stock.

Robert Baxter

Robert Baxter is an Australian actor. Baxter was first seen onscreen in the 1977 movie The F.J. Holden. He played a policeman, a role he was to reprise many times during his career. Between 1979-1983 he played Petty Officer 'Swain' Reynolds on the TV series Patrol Boat. Throughout the 1980s he had guest roles in shows such as Prisoner, Sons and Daughters, Rafferty's Rules and A Country Practice. In the 1990s he popped up in Police Rescue, All Saints and Joh's Jury. In 2010-2011 he worked as a voiceover artist on the computer games Dead Rising 2 and Dead Rising 2: Off the Record.

Gary Frank

Cast · Known for Remington Steele

Gary Frank (born October 9, 1950) is an acclaimed American actor most recognized for his portrayal of Willie Lawrence on the beloved 1970s ABC drama series Family. His sensitive performance on the show earned him a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 1977. Born in Spokane, Washington, Frank began his career as a child actor before gaining wider notice starring alongside Glynnis O'Connor in the 1974 series Sons and Daughters. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, he became a prolific television presence, guest-starring on iconic programs such as Remington Steele, Murder, She Wrote, Matlock, and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Beyond episodic TV, he appeared in notable television films like Enola Gay: The Men, the Mission, the Atomic Bomb and provided voice work for Batman: The Animated Series. As of 2024, Frank resides in Los Angeles with his wife, Carroll Newman, and has recently focused on writing his personal memoir.

Jay Hammer

Jay Hammer (born November 16, 1944) is an American actor best known for his run as freelancer journalist Fletcher Reade who falls in love with Dr. Claire Ramsey on CBS Daytime's Guiding Light from March 1984 until March 1998. He returned briefly in the spring of 1999, and again made an appearance as the show ended in 2009. He had a notable role as Allan Willis during the 1978–1979 season of The Jeffersons. His character on The Jeffersons was the son of mixed-race couple Tom and Helen Willis (Franklin Cover and Roxie Roker). Other appearances include roles in The Blue Knight, Kojak, Mannix, Sons and Daughters, Emergency!, and Adam-12. His theater credits include off-Broadway productions of Passing Through from Exotic Places and Serenading Louie. He played the role of ranch forehand Max Dekker on Texas in 1981. Description above from the Wikipedia article Jay Hammer, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Katy Brinson

Kathleen Jean "Katy" Brinson is an Australian actress, remembered for her roles in television soap operas. Her performing career began as a ballet dancer in the 1970s. Brinson then moved to Sydney to attend the National Institute of Dramatic Art. She played Judy Sutton in The Young Doctors, Jill Clark in Prisoner and Wendy Armstrong in Sons and Daughters. She had a recurring role as public defender Lisa Blake in the legal drama Rafferty's Rules.

Abigail

Cast · Known for Sons and Daughters

Abigail became Australia's undisputed number 1 female sex symbol through her role as virginal blonde Bev Houghton in Number 96 (1972). English born Abigail was educated in France. Her mother was a Ceylonese (Sri Lankan) of Dutch Burgher/Eurasian ethnicity. Abigail came to Australia in 1971 and played female lead in "There's a Girl in My Soup" in Perth. Moved to Sydney and got noticed in a TV commercial in which she played a Marilyn Monroe type bombshell opposite Phil Silvers. Landed the role of Bev in Number 96. Was an original cast member and one of the most popular stars of the series, though Abigail quickly tired of the monotonous storylines for Bev (she was a shy virgin and the scriptwriters conspired to simply throw her into bed with a series of men) and after several public disagreements with the show's producers left suddenly in June 1973. The role of Bev was hastily recast, with the new actress taking over mid-episode. Abigail was the only major star of the series not to appear in the movie version released in 1974. Abigail had difficulty gaining many serious roles after leaving the series, and appeared in several bit-parts closely following the contours of her sex-symbol image in various sex-comedy films of the mid 1970s. Later appeared in several comedy roles on the stage, played a prim French teacher in school based drama Class of '74 (1974) and a super-efficient secretary in the early episodes of hospital soap The Young Doctors (1976). Was finally lured back to Number 96 in 1976 briefly playing a new character called Eve who was to appear in a proposed spin-off series with Elaine Lee though the new series was never picked-up. Retired from acting and lived on a banana plantation in Queensland. Publicly criticized the increasingly overt sex-scenes and violence featured in the later episodes of Number 96. In 1984 after a long absence from the limelight was cast as comic heroine Caroline Morrell in television soap Sons and Daughters (1982) by producers desperate to revamp the show after the departure of the series most famous character Patricia "Pat the Rat" Hamilton portrayed by Rowena Wallace. Abigail's character was a great success and the show survived a further three years with Caroline quickly becoming one of the central characters. She continued with the series until its demise in 1987. Later appeared in guest roles on TV shows such as the long-running series Neighbours (1985), and was added to the cast of floundering series Chances (1991) in a last ditch attempt to spice up its quickly fading popularity. In return to her sex-comedy roots, Abigail's Chances character was a sex-therapist named Bambi Chute.

Elspet Gray

Elspet Jean Gray, Baroness Rix (née Gray; 12 April 1929 – 18 February 2013) was a Scottish actress, who first became known for her partnership with her husband, Brian Rix, and later was cast in many television roles in the 1970s and 1980s. She played Lady Collingford in the television series Catweazle and Mrs. Palmer in the television series Solo, alongside Felicity Kendal. Gray had a long stage career, particularly known for her appearances in the Whitehall farces, the company being managed by her husband Brian Rix, which were originally performed at the Whitehall Theatre and later at the Garrick. Gray married Brian Rix in 1949. The couple had four children - two sons and two daughters. Their eldest child, daughter Shelley (born 1951) had Down syndrome. The experience of caring for her led the couple to become active campaigners for the disabled. Rix later became Mencap chairman and president. He became a life peer in 1992. This page is based on a Wikipedia article written by contributors. Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.

John Pasquin

Director · Known for Family Ties, Home Improvement, L.A. Law

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia John Pasquin (born November 30, 1944) is a director of film, television, and theatre. Pasquin began directing Broadway theatre plays in the early 1980s. He also directed TV shows such as Family Ties and Growing Pains. His producing debut came in 1991 with the hit show Home Improvement. He has directed three Tim Allen movies as well, The Santa Clause 1994, Jungle 2 Jungle 1997, and Joe Somebody 2001. Also, he directed the sequel to Miss Congeniality. He is married to actress JoBeth Williams and has five sons and five daughters. Description above from the Wikipedia article John Pasquin, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Barbara Bates

Barbara Jane Bates (August 6, 1925 – March 18, 1969) was an American singer and actress, best known for her portrayal of Phoebe in the 1950 drama film All About Eve and as Katy Morgan on It's a Great Life (1954–1956). The eldest of three daughters, Bates was born in Denver, Colorado. While growing up in Denver, she studied ballet and worked as a teen fashion model. The shy teen was persuaded to enter a local beauty contest and won, receiving two round-trip train tickets to Hollywood, California. Two days before returning to Denver, Bates met Cecil Coan, a United Artists publicist, whom she would later marry. In September 1944, 19-year-old Bates signed a contract with Universal Pictures after Cecil Coan introduced her to producer Walter Wanger. Soon after, she was cast as one of the "Seven Salome Girls" in the 1945 drama, Salome Where She Danced starring Yvonne De Carlo. Around this time, she fell in love with Coan, who was married with two sons and two daughters. In March 1945, Coan divorced his wife Helen Coan and secretly married Bates, on March 25, 1945, in Chihuahua, Mexico. Bates spent the next few years as a stock actress, landing bit parts in movies and doing cheesecake layouts for magazines such as Yank, the Army Weekly and Life. One of those photo sessions caught the eye of executives at Warner Bros., which signed her in 1947. Warner Bros. highlighted her "girl-next-door" image and her acting career took off. She appeared with some of the biggest stars of the day, including Bette Davis in June Bride and Danny Kaye in The Inspector General. In late 1949, Bates auditioned for the small role of Phoebe in Fox's upcoming All About Eve. In competition for the part were Zsa Zsa Gabor and others, but Bates impressed the producers and was given the part. She made a short but important appearance as the devious schemer, Phoebe, at the end of the film. Bates's image is enshrined in the film's last scene, posing in front of a three-way mirror, while holding the award won by her idol Eve Harrington, played by Anne Baxter. After her appearance in All About Eve, Bates co-starred in Cheaper by the Dozen, and its sequel Belles on Their Toes, with Jeanne Crain and Myrna Loy. In 1951, she landed a role opposite MacDonald Carey and Claudette Colbert in the comedy Let's Make It Legal. Fox refused to lend out Bates for the role of the suicidal ballerina saved by Charlie Chaplin's aging vaudevillian in Limelight (1952). She co-starred with Donna Reed as the love interests of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in the 1953 hit comedy The Caddy. In January 1967, Bates's husband died of cancer. Devastated by his death, Bates grew more depressed, and she again became suicidal. Later that year, she returned to Denver and fell out of public view. For a time, Bates worked as a secretary, dental assistant, and hospital aide. In December 1968, she married for the second time, to a childhood friend, sportscaster William Reed. Despite her new marriage and location, Bates remained increasingly despondent and depressed. On March 18, 1969, just months after her marriage to Reed, Barbara Bates died from suicide in her mother's garage by carbon monoxide poisoning. She was 43 years old. She is buried at Crown Hill Cemetery in Jefferson County, Colorado.

Abraham Sofaer

Cast · Known for I Dream of Jeannie

​From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.   Abraham Sofaer (October 1, 1896 – January 21, 1988) was a stage actor of Burmese-Jewish descent who became a familiar supporting player on film and television in his later years. He was born in Rangoon, Burma (now Yangon, Myanmar). Sofaer's strong features and resonant voice complemented the many exotic character parts he played. He began his acting career on the London stage in 1921, but soon was alternating between London and Broadway. By the 1930s, he was appearing in both British and American films. Among his more prominent performances were the dual role of the Judge and Surgeon in Powell and Pressburger's A Matter of Life and Death (1946) and St. Paul in Quo Vadis (1951). He also appeared on television from its earliest days in the late 1930s and on radio. Although his film appearances diminished after the 1950s, he continued to have guest roles on dozens of major U.S. television series throughout the 1960s, including Star Trek ("Charlie X"), The Twilight Zone ("The Mighty Casey"), Lost in Space ("The Flaming Planet") and The Outer Limits ("Demon with a Glass Hand"), until retiring in the mid 1970s. He may be best-remembered for his recurring role as Hadji, the master of all genies, on I Dream of Jeannie. Sofaer married Psyche Angela Christian, with whom he had two sons and four daughters. He died in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, as the result of congestive heart failure in 1988. The noted jurist of the same name is the son of one of the actor's cousins. Description above from the Wikipedia article Abraham Sofaer, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.