Carol Raye

Carol Raye AM (17 January 1923 – 18 June 2022 as Kathleen Mary Corkrey and also billed as Carole Raye) was a British-born actress of film, television, radio, theatre and revue. A comedian, singer, dancer, plus radio and television creator, producer and director, she worked in her native England as well as internationally in Kenya and Australia, where she was one of the first female television executives at a time when the industry was dominated by men.

Her 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.

Raye was best known as the producer and original star of the iconic TV satire The Mavis Bramston Show, alongside Gordon Chater and Barry Creyton, as well as a semi-regular star of the soap opera Number 96 as Baroness Amanda von Pappenburg, a wealthy socialite from Heidelberg, Germany, who regularly arrives at the iconic '96' to visit her nephew Don Finlayson, portrayed by Joe Hasham. As a notable media personality, she often appeared as herself on programmes like The Mike Walsh Show and was a regular panellist on the game show Blankety Blanks and an honoured guest on This Is Your Life.