Lorrae Desmond AM, MBE
Desmond in 2012
Born	Beryl Hunt[1] (1929-10-02)2 October 1929[1][2] Mittagong,New South Wales, Australia
Died	23 May 2021(2021-05-23) (aged 91) Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia[3]
Other names	Sheila Hunt Beryl Gorshenin Lorrae Gorshenin
Occupations	Actress singer recording artist television presenter radio presenter theatre lyricist
Years active	1945–2001 (retired)
Spouse	Alex Gorshenin ​ (m. 1963⁠–⁠1976)​
Awards	Member of the Order of the British Empire Logie 1984 – Best Supporting Actress in a Series for:A Country Practice (1981) Gold Logie (1962)

Lorrae DesmondAM, MBE (bornBeryl Hunt;^[4] 2 October 1929 – 23 May 2021)^[a] was an AustralianGold Logie-award-winning singer, recording artist, radio and television presenter, character actor, and playwright, with a career that spanned over 55 years both locally and in the United Kingdom.

She started her career in England, in the vein of entertainerCicely Courtneidge. Desmond carved out a career as a variety performer, as a singer and radio/television presenter, primarily at the BBC, where she had her own shows duringWorld War II.

Returning to Australia, she became a popular presenter and remains best known to early local television audiences as hostess of the musical variety programThe Lorrae Desmond Show from 1960 until 1964. As a variety entertainer and vocalist, she made numerous cabaret and TV appearances includingIn Melbourne Tonight,The Graham Kennedy Show,The Kamahl Show,The Ted Hamilton Show and appeared onParkinson in Australia, andThe Jack Benny Show.^[3]

She was subsequently asked to tourSouth Vietnam with the Entertainment Unit during theVietnam War. She also toured the Middle East, Malaysia, Singapore, Kenya and Somalia,^[3] where she became known for her live singing performances, billed as aforces sweetheart, in the style ofVera Lynn andAnne Shelton, for which she was honoured with an MBE for services to entertainment.

She started taking roles in local soap operas and serials starting from the late 1960s, including a guest role in theCrawford Productions staple seriesHomicide, and a guest role inNumber 96, after which she was given a more permanent role in the ill-fated seriesArcade in 1980.

However, she became famous for her long-running role in the television seriesA Country Practice, as the original character of nurse Shirley Gilroy, appearing in 816 episodes from 1981 to 1992.

In 1997, she briefly guest starred inHome and Away as Isobel Dupre, the mother ofDonald Fisher (Norman Coburn).

She had worked as a theatre lyricist, writing the playHoney in 2001, based on the novelSmoky Joe's Cafe byBryce Courtenay.

Desmond was born on 2 October 1929, in the Southern Highlands town ofMittagong,New South Wales, to Alice and Des Hunt.^[1][2][5] She left Mittagong after the fire season, and briefly lived on an island on theGreat Barrier Reef in Queensland. After leaving Mittagong Primary School, she trained as a hairdresser, but inspired byGracie Fields, decided she wanted to become an entertainer. By the age of 10, Desmond had travelled to Britain with her family.

She started her career in England in 1945, as a teenager of a mere 15 as a singingcigarette girl and became a celebrity there. She performed as both a solo artist and with backing group The Rebels, whilst making studio recordings and featured in everything from theatre, cabaret, pantomime, and radio. She had her own shows including several for theBBC, includingMeet Lorrae andSwing with Lorrae.^[6]

In 1957, she competed in the second semi-final of theFestival of British Popular Songs, where the winner got to participate in theEurovision Song Contest. She also featured in her own comedy seriesTrouble for Two in 1958, and was in the cast of several of theTerry-Thomas TV specials.^[7]

In his bookBounder (2008), Graham McCann states that Desmond might have even married Terry-Thomas, who had been her constant companion for ten years. Instead, the actor married Belinda Cunningham, despite a 26-year age gap between the two. Desmond refuted this in an ABC interview in April 2008, saying that whilst she dated Thomas for 10 years, they would never have married.^[8]

Returning to Australia in the early sixties, her career kicked off in 1962, as presenter of the self-titled music variety showThe Lorrae Desmond Show and in 1961, she made history by being the first woman on television to win the GoldLogie (which was in fact Silver, as women at the time received the Silver Statuette, and men received the Gold Statuette)^[9] TheGold Logie award that year was a dual honour, withTommy Hanlon Jr. also winning the coveted trophy.

She appeared in the TV playRed Peppers.

TheAustralian Government invited her to tour Vietnam from 1967 to 1971, to entertain the troops. She was widely courted as being theAustralian Forces Sweetheart, amongst others includingDinah Lee,Little Pattie,Cathy Wayne, Sylvia Raye, Lynne Fletcher and Jacqui De Paul.^[10] Australia didn't have its own honours system at the time, however Desmond was appointed a Member of theOrder of the British Empire (MBE) in 1970 for services to "entertainment and the welfare of the Australian Forces in Vietnam".^[11][12]

Desmond's television appearances includeHomicide andNumber 96 (1973) andArcade (1980), both series written byDavid Sale, however the latter series was unsuccessful and cancelled after 16 episodes. Later, in 1997, she also had a guest appearance onHome and Away as Isobel Dupre, the mother of regular characterDonald Fisher played byNorman Coburn.^[9]

Desmond, after having appeared in the ill-fated series Arcade, was touted by theSeven Network to appear in their new seriesA Country Practice which became her best-known role as Shirley Dean Gilroy, and appeared from the series' inception in November 1981 until 1992. In 1984 she won the Logie for Best Supporting Actress for this role. In one of the series' iconic episodes in 1992, Desmond decided to leave the series and the long-running character Shirley was killed off in an off-screen plane crash, with the actress stating she did not want a prolonged death storyline arc like that of Molly Jones (Anne Tenney).

Desmond co-wrote the lyrics to the musicalMan of Sorrows (originally titledJesus Christ Revolution) which premiered in Melbourne in 1972.^[13]

About the industry, she said:

What I really wanted to do was write lyrics for songs. I did do a few weeks inHome And Away afterACP, but I'm a bit sick of performing—after you've been doing it for 50 years you're just going around in circles! The thing I liked most about being a performer was putting the act together, which is why I've come back to writing. It's still pleasant to be recognized as Shirley because people are always nice to me. And with thoseACP repeats onHallmark, it goes from generation to generation.^{[citation needed]}

In 2001, she obtained the rights to write the lyrics for a musical play based on Bryce Courtenay's novelSmoky Joe's Cafe, about the effects of theVietnam War on a veteran. The play, entitledHoney, premiered in 2007 at theRiverside Theatre Parramatta.^[14]

She was also a magazine columnist forThat's Life; she wrote an article called "Ask Lorrae", in which readers would write in, asking for advice and information.

Desmond took part in anA Country Practice reunion special in 2006, as part of the "Television Turns 50" celebrations, and the series' 30th-anniversary reunion in 2011.^[15]In 2017, Desmond, who was the first female to win aGold Logie, appeared at theLogie awards, to present an award opposite her cousin's son, Chinese Australian actor and presenterSam Pang.

Desmond toured Australia, performing inHigh Society and her own one-woman show.^[14]

Desmond was married to Sydney surgeon Dr. Alex Gorshenin from 1963 to 1976.^[16] They travelled to the United States together, where he continued to study. Prior to her marriage, Desmond was involved in a long-running affair of several years with the English comic actorTerry-Thomas. She died on 23 May 2021, inGold Coast, Queensland, aged 91.^[17]

Year	Honour	Awarded for
1970	Member of theOrder of the British Empire (MBE)	For services to entertainment and the welfare of the Australian Forces in Vietnam[11][12]
2021	Member of the Order of Australia	For significant service to the performing arts as an actor, entertainer and singer.[19]

• "Celebrity Artist Biography".School of Arts Cafe website. Archived fromthe original on 30 March 2008.
• Lorrae Desmond atIMDb
• Lorrae Desmond at the National Film and Sound Archive

• 1929 births
• 2021 deaths
• 20th-century Australian actresses
• 20th-century Australian women singers
• 21st-century Australian women singers
• Actresses from New South Wales
• Members of the Order of Australia
• Australian Members of the Order of the British Empire
• Australian soap opera actresses
• Gold Logie winners
• People from the Southern Highlands (New South Wales)

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