Annette Andre

The daughter of an upholsterer, Annette Andre was born in Drummoyne,{{cite news |url= https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/17611193?searchTerm=Andreallo |title= Births |page= 16 |publisher= The Sydney Morning Herald |date= 1 July 1939 |access-date= 23 November 2022}} Australia, as Annette Christine Andreallo. She was raised in Sydney and educated at Brigidine College, Sydney.{{cn|date=November 2022}}

She began work as a ballet dancer at the age of 4 at an academy linked to the Australian Ballet. At the age of 15, she decided to quit ballet and pursue acting because she realised that she was not yet 16, the legal age to work in acting. Andre enrolled in a radio training school and her first radio role was in the serial radio drama called Kid Grayson Rides the Range.{{Cite news|title=My First Job: Annette Andre – 'I didn't get stage fright on radio'|url=https://www.thestage.co.uk/advice/2017/my-first-job-annette-andre-i-didnt-get-stage-fright-on-radio/|last=Byrne|first=John|date=April 18, 2017|access-date=April 8, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170419082332/https://www.thestage.co.uk/advice/2017/my-first-job-annette-andre-i-didnt-get-stage-fright-on-radio/|archive-date=April 19, 2017|work=The Stage}} Her first role was in the television movie If It's a Rose. Her other Australian television performances included Slaughter of St Teresa's Day.{{cite magazine|magazine=Filmink|title=Forgotten Australian TV Plays – The Slaughter of St Teresa's Day|first=Stephen|last= Vagg|date=October 19, 2020|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/forgotten-australian-tv-plays-the-slaughter-of-st-teresas-day/}}

She moved to the UK in 1963 and was cast in Emerald Soup.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article46450000 |title=TV serial a multi-nation affair |newspaper=The Australian Women's Weekly |volume=31 |issue=21 |location=Australia |date=23 October 1963 |accessdate=29 August 2020 |page=17 |via=National Library of Australia}}

Her first film role was in This Is My Street (1964), in which her performance was described as "superb."{{cite magazine|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|magazine=Filmink|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/forgotten-british-moguls-nat-cohen-part-three-1962-68/|date=21 January 2025|access-date=21 January 2025|title=Forgotten British Moguls: Nat Cohen – Part Three (1962-68)}} Her other film credits include The Heroes of Telemark (1965), He Who Rides a Tiger (1965), Up Jumped a Swagman (1965), with Frank Ifield, and the Charlie Drake comedy Mister Ten Per Cent (1967). She also played Philia, a beautiful virgin concubine from the house of procurer Marcus Lycus (Phil Silvers) in the 1966 film version of the Broadway musical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. She played in the stage musical Vanity Fair in London's West End.{{cite news |author=Brian Gibson |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article46236585 |title=Annette's in top gear |newspaper=The Australian Women's Weekly | date=30 June 1965 |accessdate=7 June 2014 |page=7 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}

Her longest running role was as Marty Hopkirk's widow Jeannie Hopkirk in the ITC series Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) (1969–70).{{cite book |title=Saints and avengers: British adventure series of the 1960s

|url=https://archive.org/details/saintsavengersbr00chap

|url-access=limited

|publisher=Popular Television Genres, I.B.Tauris |author=Chapman, James |year=2002 |isbn=1-86064-754-5 |page=[https://archive.org/details/saintsavengersbr00chap/page/n215 202]}}{{Cite news|title=Sixties movie and TV star Annette Andre talks about her life on both screens|url=https://londonnewsonline.co.uk/sixties-movie-and-tv-star-annette-andre-talks-about-her-life-on-both-screens/|last=Porter|first=Toby|date=November 1, 2018|access-date=April 8, 2020|work=London News Online}} She also made guest appearances in other shows such as Whiplash, The Human Jungle, The Avengers, The Saint, Adam Adamant Lives!, The Troubleshooters, The Baron, The Brothers and The Prisoner.

During the 1970s, Andre guest starred in episodes of The Persuaders!, The New Avengers and Return of the Saint. In the 1980s, she appeared in the soap opera Crossroads as well as returning to Australia to play Jennifer Brent in Taurus Rising and Camilla Wells in Prisoner (retitled Prisoner: Cell Block H in the US and UK).

During 1985 and 1986, she appeared onstage in London's West End in the mystery thriller The Business of Murder at the Mayfair Theatre.{{citation needed|date=June 2012}}

Andre is now semi-retired from acting, and devotes much of her time to animal welfare issues. She spearheads the new BFF Support Group and, with her producer husband Arthur Weingarten, works closely with Virginia McKenna of the Zoo Check campaign.{{cite book |title=Plays and players, Issues 382–387 |publisher=Hansom Books |year=1995}} She made one of her rare appearances at the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention in Aberdeen, Maryland, US in September 2007.

She was once linked romantically with George Best, the footballer.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article110624185 |title=George Best not worried by 'sacking' |newspaper=The Canberra Times |volume=47 |issue=13,300 |location=Australian Capital Territory, Australia |date=7 December 1972 |accessdate=29 August 2020 |page=36 |via=National Library of Australia}}

In the early 1960s, she turned down a proposal of marriage from Benny Hill.Today newspaper, 23 April 1992

She has a daughter. She chose not to reveal the identity of the father.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article45656066 |title=Annette Andre: Combining the roles of actress and single parent |newspaper=The Australian Women's Weekly |volume=50 |issue=12 |location=Australia |date=8 September 1982 |accessdate=29 August 2020 |page=21 |via=National Library of Australia}}

In 2018, Andre published her memoir Where Have I Been All My Life,{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=b9ByuwEACAAJ |title= Where Have I Been All My Life? A Memoir |first1= Annette |last1= Andre |date= 2018 |publisher= Quoit Media Limited |isbn= 9781911537106 |access-date= 23 November 2022}} with a foreword by Sir Roger Moore and an appreciation by her Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) co-star, Kenneth Cope.{{cn|date=August 2020}}

• Where Have I Been All My Life? (2018)

{{reflist}}

• {{official website|https://annetteandreofficial.wordpress.com/}}
• {{IMDb name|0028130|Annette Andre}}

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Category:1939 births

Category:Living people

Category:Australian television actresses

Category:British television actresses

Category:Australian film actresses

Category:British film actresses

Category:Actresses from Sydney

Category:20th-century Australian actresses

Category:20th-century British actresses