Gwen Plumb

Born in the inner-west Sydney suburb of Stanmore and raised in the eastern beach suburb of Coogee, Gwen Plumb did not plan on taking up acting as a career. A chance invitation from a member of the David Jones tailoring department, where she was working at the time, led to her accepting a role in a local Drama Club's play. She had never acted before in her life, but it proved to be the start of what was to become an illustrious new career. She is best known for her performance of a motherly gossip called Ada Simmonds, who operated the hospital kiosk in the Australian television series The Young Doctors (1976). As well as appearances in television and film, Plumb worked at Sydney's AM radio station 2GB, where she had her own interview programme, and also partnered a mid-morning radio variety show with Gordon Chater, where they were widely known to Sydneysiders by their nicknames: Pussy and Charlie. She was also a stage performer, and starred in the Australian production of the Nell Dunn play Steaming (1985). In the late 1990s, within two months of an operation to remove a suspected bowel cancer, this veteran performer was back on her feet and rehearsing for a stage production of 'Arsenic and Old Lace'. Plumb received the British Empire Medal (BEM) in the 1970s, and was made a Member in the General Division of the Order of Australia (AM) on the Queen's Birthday Honours List, at the age of 81. Her autobiography, "Plumb Crazy", was published in 1994. She suffered a decline in health after her bowel cancer operation, and stated that she exhausted herself with the play and never recovered completely from the surgery. Gwen Plumb died in her home at Kirribilli (the first suburb north of the Sydney Harbour Bridge) on the 5th of June 2002, aged 89.