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Join the roomJulia Blake is a British-Australian actress, notable for numerous film and TV roles, particularly in Australia. She also acted in the theatre.
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Julia Blake (born 1937) is a British-Australian actress, notable for numerous film and TV roles, particularly in Australia. She also acted in the theatre.
Julia Blake was born in Bristol, England, in 1937. Her father Fred Blake, a commercial artist, was married to wife Edna, a homemaker. Her parents were conservative Primitive Congregationalist parishioners who attended church three times on Sundays. As a child, Blake trained in ballet and elocution.
Blake initially also had ambitions to be an artist and attended Bristol University, receiving an honours degree in drama and French. She played the role of Sally Bowles in a production of I Am a Camera in her last year of university. Peter O'Toole attended the show, bringing her flowers and encouraging her to attend drama school. She subsequently undertook her training in theatre at the Bristol Old Vic, after winning a scholarship. She lived with her parents until the age of 22.
Blake has had an extensive stage career, beginning in repertory theatre in the UK, where she worked with her husband-to-be Terry Norris in productions of Angels in Love and Two Faces of Murder.
She continued her work in theatre in Australia from 1963 through to 2017, performing frequently with Norris. She appeared in a 1966 production of Private Yuk Objects at Melbourne's Russell Street Theatre. In 1970, she appeared in The Rope Dancers, winning an Erik Award for her performance. In 1977, she was in both The Cherry Orchard and The Crucible and in 1979 she featured in a production of Uncle Vanya.
Blake toured for four months with a 1988 production of The Browning Version. In 1990, she appeared in Noël Coward’s Present Laughter, while rehearsing for her role as Belle in the play Another Time, which she performed in the following year.
In 2004, Blake toured nationally in a HIT Productions staging of The Gin Game. In 2006, she appeared alongside Jason Donovan as Else Klingenfeldt in Festen, for Melbourne Theatre Company.
Blake later performed in a 2013 stage production of 4,000 Miles at Melbourne's Red Stitch Actors Theatre. The same year, she performed once again in The Crucible for Melbourne Theatre Company.
Her most recent stage role was playing Genevieve Marduk in a 2017 MTC production of John.
After an early role as Eurasian prostitute Hong Kong Anna in teleplay The Hot Potato Boys in 1963, Blake played guest roles in legal drama Consider Your Verdict. Further TV plays followed, before she eventually landed the role of Elaine Thomas in local TV drama Bellbird in 1972, remaining with the series for four years. During her time on Bellbird, Blake had roles in several Crawford Productions police procedural series, including
Division 4 (1969–1975), Matlock Police (1973–1975) and Homicide (1975).
In 1978, Blake appeared as Cook in the miniseries Against the Wind, before playing the part of Jewish mother Eva Goldman in the series Twenty Good Years, the next year. A supporting role in the Ned Kelly miniseries The Last Outlaw followed in 1980, where she appeared alongside John Jarratt and Steve Bisley.
Blake made several appearances in cult television series Prisoner (known internationally as Prisoner Cell Block H). She initially had a regular role as Evelyn Randall in season 3 (1981) and a guest role as Alice Dodds in season 5 (1983). She rejoined the series in 1986, during its eighth and final season, playing her best known role of Nancy McCormack, a Wentworth Detention Centre inmate, who took the blame for a crime her son committed.
In 1985, Blake starred in miniseries The Dunera Boys, which won her a Best Supporting Actress award at the Penguin Awards the following year. Another award-winning turn came in 1989, with her performance in miniseries Edens Lost, earning her a Best Actress accolade at both the Australian Film Institute Awards and the Sammy Awards.
She had roles in several other miniseries throughout her career including Women of the Sun (1982), Under Capricorn, and Sword of Honour (1986) and A Difficult Woman (1998). American miniseries included Salem's Lot (2004), playing Eva Prunier opposite Rob Lowe and Donald Sutherland and The Starter Wife (2007) with American actress Debra Messing, in which Blake played supporting character, Mrs. Caldecott.
Blake later had a supporting role as Louisa's feisty, activist mother, Minna Franklin in Bed of Roses from 2008 to 2011. During this period she also played Ellie, the mother of former prime minister Bob Hawke (played by Richard Roxburgh) in 2010 biographical TV movie Hawke, with her husband Norris playing his father Clem.
Blake's numerous guest roles have included Moynihan (1978), Cop Shop (1978–1981), Holiday Island (1981), Carson's Law (1983), Zoo Family (1985), and Winners (1985). Later guest credits include SeaChange (1999), Blue Heelers (2001), All Saints (2004), City Homicide (2007), Winners & Losers (2011) and Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries (2013). She also appeared in a season 4 episode of House Husbands (2015), reuniting her with her former Last Dance co-star, Firass Dirani.
On the big screen, Blake has also appeared in numerous films, including 1977 Australian classic The Getting of Wisdom and 1979 award-winning drama My Brilliant Career – the latter starring Judy Davis, Sam Neill and Wendy Hughes. Other early roles included Ozploitation horror film Patrick (1978) in which she played Matron Cassidy and thriller Snapshot (1979) opposite Sigrid Thornton.
She was a favourite of director Paul Cox, featuring in several of his films, including Lonely Hearts (1982), Man of Flowers (1983) My First Wife (1984) and Cactus (1986).
Blake starred opposite Leo McKern and Graham Kennedy as Frances, in 1987 film Travelling North, based on the play of the same name by David Williamson. The role saw her nominated for Best Actress at the Australian Film Institute Awards that year. In 1989, she had a part in television film The Magistrate, followed by a lead role in 1990 thriller Father, playing Lithuanian refugee, Iva Zetnick. Her role in the latter earned her a Best Supporting Actress accolade at the 1990 Australian Film Institute Awards.
In 2000, Blake played the lead role of Claire in another of Paul Cox's films, the romantic drama Innocence, alongside Bud Tingwell and her husband Terry Norris. Her portrayal saw her nominated for a Best Actress award at the Australian Film Institute Awards. A further Cox film followed, with 2004 drama Human Touch, opposite Jacqueline McKenzie.
In 2009, Blake starred as Heather Hudson in American superhero blockbuster X-Men Origins: Wolverine, alongside fellow Australian actor Hugh Jackman. Shot at Sydney's Fox Studios, the film utilised several other Australian actors, including Peter O’Brien and Max Cullen. The following year, Blake appeared in The Boys are Back, which saw her nominated for another Australian Film Institute Award.
Blake next had a starring role opposite Firass Dirani in 2012 psychological thriller Last Dance as lead character, Holocaust survivor Ulah Lippmann. American actress Gena Rowlands was originally cast in the role, but had to drop out two weeks before filming, as her work visa was cancelled.
In 2015, Blake appeared in Looking for Grace, alongside Richard Roxburgh and Radha Mitchell, and The Dressmaker opposite Kate Winslet, Judy Davis and Liam Hemsworth. In 2016, she had a lead role alongside Anthony LaPaglia in A Month of Sundays, at the age of 79. The following year, she had a role in teen drama film Dance Academy: The Movie. Her most recent film role was 2020 mystery thriller The Dry starring Eric Bana.
Her other film credits of note include An Indecent Obsession (1985), Georgia (1988), Hotel de Love (1996), Matching Jack (2010) and Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (2010).
As a long-standing advocate for Australian content on screen, Blake served on the board of Film Victoria in the 1990s.
In 2018, together with actor husband Terry Norris, Blake was the recipient of the Equity Lifetime Achievement Award at the Equity Ensemble Awards.
While working in repertory theatre in Yorkshire, England, Blake met Australian-born actor Terry Norris. The couple married on 24 March 1962, between a matinee and evening performance, before spending their honeymoon in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, learning lines for their next play together.
Blake moved to Australia together with Norris in 1963. She lost their first child, a daughter to cot death, but the couple went on to have three other children – Dominic, Jane and Sarah. She took a hiatus from acting in the 1970s to raise their children, and another extended break in the early 1990s, when an ongoing back-to-back run of television and stage productions lead to exhaustion and stress.
Blake and Norris's daughters followed them into the acting profession. Their son-in-law Robert Connolly is a director, having worked on miniseries The Slap and Barracuda, and 2009 film Balibo. By 2018, Blake and Norris also had four grandchildren.
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