Web Quotableonline.com Frasescelebres.org Greatbookscollection.org

Sheila Florance (July 24, 1916 – October 12,
1991) was an Australia|Australian film and
television actor|actress.

Born in St. Kilda, Victoria|St Kilda, Melbourne,
Australia, Florance was a frequent guest star in
various television series during the 1960s and was
a regular on the Bellbird (TV series)|Bellbird
series.  In the 1970s she began appearing in
films, most notably Petersen (1974), End Play
(1975), The Devil's Playground (1976), and Mad Max
(1979).

In 1979 she joined the cast of the television
series Prisoner (TV series)|Prisoner (known
outside of Australia as Prisoner: Cell Block H). 
As the recalcitrant, alcoholic, convicted murderer
Lizzie Birdsworth, Florance became one of the
show's favourite performers, and while the writers
usually used her for comic relief, she was also
given more substantial dramatic storylines.  Her
popularity was such that she won two Logie Awards
as Australia's most popular television actress in
1981 and 1983.  Florance left the show in 1984 and
worked in such films as Nirvana Street Murder
(1990).

However, later, in a "heated" on air exchange with
Grundy's senior Vice President, Peter Pinne on a
"live" United Kingdom|British television programme
("Open Air") in 1989, Florance was highly critical
of the Grundy production company and its treatment
of the cast.

Her final film role was in A Woman's Tale (1991). 
As a genteel, elderly woman, down on her luck, who
reminisced with her nurse of better days, while
dying of cancer, Florance gave a performance that
was widely praised both within Australia, and
internationally following the film's release. 
Florance herself was fighting cancer during the
filming.  She won the Australian Film Institute
Award for Best Actress for her work, and seven
days after receiving the award, died from the
disease, in Melbourne.