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Patricia Lovell

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"Pat Lovell" redirects here. For the American Olympic wrestler, see Pat Lovell (wrestler).

Patricia Lovell
AM, MBE
Born
Patricia Anna Parr

1929
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Died26 January 2013 (aged 83)
Other namesMiss Pat
Occupation(s)Film producer, actress
FamilyJenny Lovell (daughter), Nigel Lovell (husband, actor) (born;1916- died 2001, married 1956)[1]

Patricia Anna Lovell AM MBE (née Parr; 1929 – 26 January 2013),[2] commonly referred to as Pat Lovell, was an Australian film producer and actress, whose work within that country's film industry led her to receive the Raymond Longford Award in 2004 from the Australian Film Institute (AFI).

Her productions include 1975's Picnic at Hanging Rock, and Gallipoli, which received an AFI Award in 1982 as Best Film.

Early life and career

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Lovell was born in Sydney, New South Wales, in either Artarmon or Willoughby,[1] the second child,[3] and first daughter, of Letitia Evelyn (née Forsyth) (5 January 1906 – 21 April 1986) and Harold George Parr (1901 – 23 March 1970), an optometrist. During her childhood three of her five siblings died, including one who was quite ill at birth and died at 18 months, and her parents divorced. She attended Presbyterian Ladies' College, Armidale, but "didn't do well in the Leaving at all" and failed to get a university pass.[1]

She began her career in radio at the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) in the early 1950s, becoming a junior broadcaster in children's programs. That led to her joining the cast of the Children's Session.[4][2] Despite the pressure of live television and having no formal training, she started making weekly appearances on ABC Children's TV, and in 1960 began her most fondly-remembered role as 'Miss Pat' [a] in ABC TV's children's television program Mr. Squiggle.[2][5]

In 1964, Lovell became what she characterised as "one of the minor beauties"[1] on the panel of Beauty and the Beast. When ATN-7's early morning Sydney Today show began in 1969 she and Bruce Webster were its co-presenters,[6] and it was there as an interviewer that she met Peter Weir, the director with whom she would produce her two best-known films, Picnic at Hanging Rock and Gallipoli.[1] In 1988, she and Mel Gibson formed a film production company "Lovell Gibson", but it was dissolved without making a film.[6]

Later career

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Lovell worked as Head of Producing at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS) between 1996 and 2003.[2]

Personal life

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Parr met her future husband, actor Nigel Lovell (1916–2001), through the Metropolitan Theatre in Sydney.[1] He was a widower with a daughter. They married in 1956,[7][8] and had two children, Simon Lovell, a helicopter pilot,[9] and Jenny Lovell, an actor known for her role on the soap opera Prisoner[10] (called Prisoner: Cell Block H in the UK and the USA). The couple eventually divorced.[1]

Lovell died on 26 January 2013 from liver cancer, aged 83.[9]

Filmography

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Film

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Television

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Honours

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Pat Lovell was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 1978 New Year's Honours.[11] In the 1986 Queen's Birthday Honours she was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM).[12]

Notes

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  1. ^ A sobriquet given by her puppet costar, reminiscent of the famous English stage actress 'Mrs. Pat' (Campbell).

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g "Transcripts: Patricia Lovell". Talking Heads with Peter Thompson. Australia. 24 April 2006. Archived from the original on 10 March 2013. I'm quite unsure as to actually where I first came into the world. I think it was either Artarmon or Willoughby. I never found I discussed it with my parents at all.
  2. ^ a b c d McLeod, Kathryn. "Lovell, Patricia". The Encyclopedia of Women & Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia. Australian Women's Archives Project 2014. Retrieved 4 April 2016.
  3. ^ Deaths: Parr, The Sydney Morning Herald, (Wednesday, 27 March 1929), p. 16.
  4. ^ Inglis, K.S. (2006). This is the ABC: The Australian Broadcasting Commission 1932–83. Black Inc. / Schwartz Publishing. ISBN 978-1863951814. A nice commentary on the Children's Session and the Argonauts Club
  5. ^ Bolton, Jessica, "Mr Squiggle's Christmas Cards: From Norman Hetherington to Patricia Lovell", National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, December 2017.
  6. ^ a b Mark McGinness (4 February 2013). "Grande dame of film, TV". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
  7. ^ Engagements: Lovell—Parr, The Sydney Morning Herald, (Saturday, 21 August 1954), p. 56.
  8. ^ McGinness, Mark (4 February 2013). "Grande dame of film, TV". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 5 May 2014. Retrieved 13 June 2016.
  9. ^ a b Fife-Yeomans, Janet (27 January 2013). "Mr Squiggle's Pat Lovell dies aged 83". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 27 January 2013. Retrieved 27 January 2013.
  10. ^ "Jenny Lovell". IMDb. Retrieved 4 April 2016.
  11. ^ It's an Honour: MBE
  12. ^ It's an Honour:AM
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Further reading

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General references:

  • Patricia Lovell (1995). No picnic : an autobiography. Sydney : Pan Macmillan. ISBN 0-7329-0823-X.
  • Brian McFarlane, Geoff Mayer, Ina Bertrand (Ed.) (1999). The Oxford companion to Australian film. Melbourne, Australia; New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-553797-1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)


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