| Elspeth Ballantyne | |
| Birth Place: | Adelaide, South Australia, Australia |
| Occupation: | Actress |
| Years Active: | 1954–2013, 2022-[1] |
| Children: | 2 |
Elspeth Ballantyne (born 1939)[2] [3] is an Australian retired actress, who appeared in productions in theatre, television and films over a career that spanned nearly 60 years, a veteran of the industry having started her career as a child actor and becoming a staple of the theatre starting from 1947, in a production of Macbeth and by the age of 15 in 1954 had turned pro., performing in stage roles for the next 37 years, including a stage play tour of the United Kingdom of her iconic "Prisoner" role at the Alexandra Theatre in Birmingham.
Ballantyne is probably best known for her small screen roles in numerous TV serials. Her first major TV role was in the serial Bellbird in 1967 as librarian Laura "Lori" Chandler (formerly Grey), opposite actor Dennis Miller, whom she would marry the following year, she remained in the role until 1971.
She became a staple of the early Crawford Production serials in the 1970s, however became best known for her role in the TV cult series Prisoner (known internationally as Prisoner: Cell Block H) from 1979 to 1986 as original character of firm but fair Prison Officer Meg Jackson (later Morris). She was the only actress to appear in the series' full 8-season run. After Prisoner she took guest roles in The Flying Doctors and G.P., before regularly appearing in the soap opera Neighbours as coffee shop owner Cathy Alessi, the wife of Benito Alessi (George Spartels) and the mother of Rick and Marco Alessi (played by Dan Falzon and Felice Arena), as part of a new Italian family that was introduced to the series in 1992. She left the show the following year.
Subsequently, she appeared in guest parts on TV dramas Blue Heelers, The Secret Life of Us' and All Saints and miniseries (2013)
She has featured in film roles (with features and telemovies) including The Caterpillar Wish (2006), Moonlight and Magic (2007), Red Hill (2010), Boronia Boys (2009) and sequel Boronia Backpackers (2011)
Elspeth Ballantyne was born into a show business family in Adelaide, South Australia, the daughter of Gwenneth Ballantyne (nee Richmond), an actress and teacher and Colin George Sandergrove Ballantyne, a prominent theatre entrepreneur, who would give lectures to the young Elspeth on the likes of Shakespeare, Jonson, Ibsen, Chekhov and Strindberg[3] [4] her father began his career as a photographer, before becoming a stage actor, producer and director and theatre impresario as an arts administrator who was head of the South Australian Theatre Company, (the predecessor as the State Theatre) Company. Having started her career as a laboratory technician at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, she decided upon an acting career and attended drama school, at NIDA[5]
After NIDA, her father wanted her to join the Young Elizabethans; instead she chose to work with Raymond Westwell and Joan MacArthur in Perth, while they were establishing the National Theatre Company. Subsequently she and her brother Guy appeared in plays by her father, including as the aparrition of MacBeth, and then took roles in the Alan Hopgood "football play" And the Big Men Fly and A Cheery Soul by Patrick White
Ballantyne appeared in three iconic small screen roles, starting with the serial Bellbird broadcast by the ABC as librarian Lori Chandler and subsequently moved to commercial TV playing firm but compassionate prison officer Meg Jackson Morris in the soap opera Prisoner. Ballantyne was the only actor to stay with the series for its entire eight-year run. She later reprised her famous role of Meg in the original stage tour of Prisoner: Cell Block H – The Stage Play, which toured the UK in 1989.
In the early 1990s, she had a stint in Channel Ten soap opera Neighbours, as part of the Italian Alessi family.
She has appeared in feature films The Caterpillar Wish as Mrs. Woodbridge, and in Moonlight & Magic as thrift shop owner Desma. Ballantyne also appeared in the drama short film Twenty Five Cents (2007), and as the wheelchair-bound matriarch in the short The Last Tupper (2011). She played Maxine Danials in the Boronia movies Boronia Boys (2009) and Boronia Backpackers (2011) and Paper Giants: Magazine Wars in 2013.
Ballantyne was married to actor Dennis Miller from 1968 to 1977. Both had leading roles in the long-running series Bellbird. They have two sons together: Matthew and Tobias.[6] She is the sister of film producer Jane Ballantyne.
| Title | Year | Role | Type | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1966 | Melbourne | Narrator | Film short | |
| 1975 | End Play | Welfare Officer | Feature film | |
| 1978 | Blue Fin | Mrs. Pascoe | Feature film | |
| 1982 | Breakfast in Paris | Millie | Feature film | |
| 1989 | Blowing Hot and Cold | Shelagh MacBean | Feature film | |
| 1990 | A Doctor's Response | unknown role | Film short | |
| 2000 | Selkie | Loopy | Feature film | |
| 2005 | Three Dollars | Eddie's Mother | Feature film | |
| 2006 | The Caterpillar Wish | Mrs. Woodbridge | Feature film | |
| 2007 | Moonlight & Magic | Desma | Feature film | |
| 2007 | Twenty Five Cents | unknown role | Film short | |
| 2008 | Floating | Elderly Woman | Film short | |
| 2009 | Boronia Boys | Maxine | Feature film | |
| 2010 | Red Hill | Old Woman | Feature film | |
| 2010 | The Last Tupper | Rhonda | Film short |
| Year | TV show/TV movie | Role | Episode/Other Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1963 | Consider Your Verdict | Cynthia Martin | TV series, 1 episode "Queen Versus Luxton" (#1.106) | |
| Double Yolk | Jane | TV movie | ||
| And The Big Men Fly | Lil | ABC TV Movie | ||
| By Accident | unknown role | ABC Teleplay | ||
| 1964–1975 | Homicide | various roles Maureen Davis Cheryl Evans Joyce Suzi Knight | 4 episodes "The Silent Witness"- 1964 (#1.9) "One Itch To Murder"- 1972 (#9.34) "The Fireworks Man"- 1974 (#11.34) "Rage"- 1975 (#12.22) | |
| 1965 | Photo Finish | TV movie | ||
| Daphne Laureola | unknown role | TV play | ||
| 1966 | Plain Jane | Kathleen | ABC Teleplay | |
| Anonymous | unknown role | ABC TV series, 1 episode | ||
| 1967–1971 | Bellbird | Laura 'Lori' Chandler / Laura 'Lori' Grey | ABC TV series, Regular cast-518 episodes | |
| 1973 | Ryan | Rhoda Bitov | TV series, 1 episode The Girl with the Golden Slippers (#1.11) | |
| 1974 | Marion | Joan Carruthers | ABC TV miniseries, 3 episodes | |
| This Love Affair | Laura | ABC TV series, 1 episode 2: 'Tilting At Windmills' | ||
| 1972–1975 | Matlock Police | Various roles Shirley Evans Jenny Fisher Judy Martin Jean Thompson | 4 episodes "Chain Reaction"- 1972 (#2.82) "The Loan Wolf"- 1973 (#3.126) "Prosperity Breeds Contempt"- 1974 (#4.148) "First Day Out" – 1975 (#5.185) | |
| 1972–1975 | Division 4 | Various roles Janet Walker Dr. Jan Moore Fran Taylor Iris Ryan Karen Marsh Sen. Const. Terri Standish Policewoman June Salmon | 9 episodes "For The Love of Money"- 1972 (#4.27) "Senior Stewart"- 1972 (#4.38) "Flight Plan"- 1972 (#5.1) "Traveling Man"- 1973 (#5.12) "Talk Back"- 1973(#6.4) "The Virgil"- 1974 (#6.35) "Easy Mark"- 1975 (#7.4) "A Sense of Duty Part 1&2"-1975 (#7.15, 16) | |
| 1975 | Quality of Mercy | unknown role | ABC TV series, 1 episode "The Love Job" (#1.2) | |
| 1976 | Tandarra | Molly Martin | TV series, 1 episode "That's What Worries Me" (#1.13) | |
| 1976 | Power Without Glory | Dorothy Wells | ABC TV miniseries, 2 episodes "Confound Their Politics" (#1.23) "Fallen Heroes" (#1.24) | |
| 1976 | Solo One | Sylvia Simpson | TV series, 1 episode "Little Joe" (#1.5) | |
| 1977 | Bluey | Rhoda Lewis | TV series, 1 episode "Son of Bluey" (#1.39) | |
| 1978 | Cop Shop | Claudie Gaynor, Dawn Curran (3 episodes) | TV series, Episodes: #1.52, #1.71, #1.72 | |
| 1979–1986 | Prisoner (UK:'Prisoner: Cell Block H / Canada 'Caged Women'.) | Meg Morris/Meg Jackson | Regular cast- 669 episodes | |
| 1979 | Ride on Stranger | unknown role | ABC TV miniseries, 1 episode | |
| 1982 | Telethon 1982 | Guest - Herself | TV special | |
| 1986 | Adrian | unknown role | Film documentary | |
| 1986 | Kids 21st Birthday Channel Ten Telethon | Guest - Herself with Prisoner cast: Colette Mann, Jane Clifton, Glenda Linscott & Val Lehman taped appearance | TV special | |
| 1987 | The Fool's Shoe Hotel | unknown role | Teleplay | |
| 1987–1991 | The Flying Doctors | 3 roles Barbara Freeman Wendy Ross Alice Franklin | 3 episodes "The Unluckiest Boy in Town" – 1987 (#2.3) "Cadenza" – 1988 (#4.20) "None So Blind" -1991 (#8.6) | |
| 1988 | Captain Johnno | Mrs. Greenwood | ABC TV Movie | |
| Spit MacPhee | Grace Tree | TV miniseries | ||
| 1989 | In Melbourne Today | Guest - Herself | TV series, 1 episode | |
| 1989–1991 | Pugwall | Aunt Annabelle | TV series, 10 episodes | |
| 1991 | G.P. | Jean Watson | TV series, 1 episode "The Price You Pay" (#3.27) | |
| 1991 | Tonight Live With Steve Vizard | Herself - Guest | TV series, 1 episode | |
| 1992–1993 | Neighbours | Cathy Alessi | TV series, Regular Cast- 45 episodes | |
| 1993;2000 | Good Morning Australia | Herself - Guest | TV series, 2 episodes | |
| 1997 | One Way Ticket | Elizabeth | TV film | |
| 1998 | State Coroner | Pat Thompson | TV series, 1 episode "Three's A Crowd" (#2.9) | |
| 2000 | Good Morning Australia | Herself & Shimon Moore | TV series, 1 episode | |
| SeaChange | Coral Kiss | ABC TV series, 2 episodes "Love Is in the Time of Coleridge" (#3.11) "To Thine Own Self Be Relatively True" (#3.12) | ||
| 2002 | Blue Heelers | Margaret White | TV series, 1 episode "Sins of The Father" (#9.16) | |
| Marshall Law | Irene | TV series, 1 episode "Money Talks" (#1.17) | ||
| 2003 | The Secret Life of Us | Celebrant | TV series, 1 episode "The Quality of My Life" (#3.6) | |
| 2003–2004 | Stingers | Chief Comm. Steadman | TV series, 2 episodes "Boosted"- 2003 (#7.27) "Break and Enter"- 2004 (#8.8) | |
| 2004 | All Saints | Anne Lytton | TV series, 2 episodes "Benefit of the Doubt" (#7.30), "Don't Look Back" (#7.31) | |
| 2005 | Last Man Standing | Aunty Marg | TV series, episode 1.1 | |
| 2008 | City Homicide | Miss Evelyn Purcell | TV series, 1 episode "Thicker Than Water" (#2.1) | |
| Rush | Edie | TV series, 1 Episode #3.22 | ||
| 2011 | A Current Affair | Herself with Prisoner cast: Carol Burns, Patsy King, Val Lehman, Jane Clifton, Judith McGrath & Margaret Laurence | TV series, 1 episode | |
| 2013 | The Morning Show | Herself with Prisoner cast: Colette Mann, Fiona Spence, Val Lehman & Carol Burns | TV series, 1 episode | |
| 2013 | Emily King | ABC TV miniseries, 1 Episode #1.1 | ||
| 2022 | Boronia Backpackers | Maxine Daniels | 4 episodes | |
| 2023 | Mondo Maniacs | Desma | 2 episodes |