Carol Raye was a British-born actress of film, television, radio, theatre and revue.
18 Facts About Carol Raye
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Carol Raye's career spanned some seven decades, firstly as a film star and stage performer in the United Kingdom, where she would star, and often dance and sing, in such movies as Song of Romance, Strawberry Roan and Waltz Time, after which she briefly worked in Kenya before immigrating to Australia, where she became notable for her small-screen roles.
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Carol Raye won her first stage role in No, No, Nanette in 1938, and was discovered the following year by Australian-born choreographer and producer Freddie Carpenter, then operating a dance academy in Soho, who further trained her in dance.
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Carol Raye made her professional debut opposite Bobby Howes and Bertha Bellmore at the Manchester Opera House in 1939.
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Carol Raye began her career in her native United Kingdom with starring roles in films including Song of Romance, which was the first British musical film shot in technicolor, Strawberry Roan by Maurice Elvey,.
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Carol Raye played lead roles in many musicals and television productions in her native Britain.
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Carol Raye having remarried in 1951, and with her husband being offered by the British Government, the opportunity to run a 1000-acre farm in the overseas Kenya Colony, the family settled in Navaisha Town, in the West of Mombasa.
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The family having emigrated to Australia in 1964, Carol Raye was given a letter by introduction by the BBC, to the ABC Charles Moses, who in turn recommended her to the Seven Network CEO James Oswin at Sydney station ATN-7, where she took a position working as network assistant to the General Manager, it was here she devised the idea of creating a satirical television series, based on revue at the Phillip Street Theatre and the British TV series The Week That Was.
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Carol Raye produced the pilot episode and co-produced the series, until her departure from the programme in late 1965.
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Carol Raye resumed work on the series for the 1967 and 1968 final seasons.
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Carol Raye played the ongoing comedy role of much-married socialite and Baroness Amanda von Pappenburg, in the 1970s, the aunty of Don Finlayson whom she visits from Heidelberg, Germany, in the top-rated soap opera Number 96.
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Carol Raye acted in television and film roles through the 1990s, and into the 2000s, with appearances in SeaChange and in commercials.
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Carol Raye appeared in many Australian theatre productions, including California Suite, Pleasure of His Company, Travelling North, The Merry Wives of Windsor, You Can't Take It With You, Noises Off, and Hay Fever.
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Carol Raye retired in 2000, subsequently she campaigned Seven Network boss Kerry Stokes to release a DVD of "Mavis", although in a release to DVD of Number 96, she provided an audio commentary alongside film and TV critic Andrew Mercado, co-star Elisabeth Kirkby, and The Honourable Michael Kirby.
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On 3 November 1945, Carol Raye married US Army Engineer Captain Clark Spencer, a "prominent Winchester and Marblehead sportsman".
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Carol Raye's eldest child, Sally Ayre Smith, is a former television producer, best known for the ABC series SeaChange, but is a director of an organic farm produce marketing business.
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Carol Raye's youngest daughter, Harriet, started her career in the Sydney Theatre Company office and is an occasional actress.
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Carol Raye was honoured in the 2022 Commonwealth of Australian Queens Birthday Honours List, with an appointment to the Member of the Order of Australia, with the citation For services to the arts as an actress and producer.