Carol Raye

Raye was born in Rotherhithe, south east, London, England, the daughter of Royal Navy commander Reuben B. Corkrey and Ethel McGlashan, an accomplished pianist. The family travelled extensively, including stays in Bermuda and Malta, until her father was stationed at the Portsmouth Navy Base.{{cite web|url=https://www.smh.com.au/national/carol-raye-actor-leaves-legacy-of-stage-and-television-work-20220622-p5avlx.html|title=Carol Raye: actor leaves legacy of stage and television work|work=Sydney Morning Herald|author=John Sencruk|date=22 June 2022}}

Ray's early ambition was to become a dance teacher, and she trained in ballet and ballroom at the Southsea School of Dance. Raye won her first stage role in No, No, Nanette in 1938, and was discovered the following year by Australian-born choreographer and producer Freddie Carpenter, then operating a dance academy in Soho, who further trained her in dance.{{cite web |last1=Hales |first1=George |title=Carol Raye |date=13 March 2018 |url=https://www.gettyimages.com.au/detail/news-photo/dance-producer-freedie-carpenter-who-was-joinedthe-raf-news-photo/931708680}} Carpenter suggested her for a tour of the musical comedy Bobby Get Your Gun and was also instrumental in creating her stage name. She made her professional debut opposite Bobby Howes and Bertha Bellmore at the Manchester Opera House in 1939. Her breakthrough stage role came only months later, in Funny Side Up at His Majesty's Theatre, which marked her London debut.

Raye began her career in her native United Kingdom with starring roles in films including Song of Romance, which was the first British musical film shot in technicolor,{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/32261286/carol_raye/|title=British Movie Actress, Bride of Winchester Captain|newspaper=The Boston Globe |date=29 January 1946 |page=1 }} Strawberry Roan by Maurice Elvey,

However it was the musical romance Waltz Time by Paul Stein, as Empress Maria that launched her international screen career, that year in April, publicity lead her to the United States and a stage production in the role lead role in Bonanza Bound!, after which she turned down a multi year Hollywood contract, deciding return to London, where she subsequently appeared in features including Spring Song directed by Montgomery Tully and two films directed by John Harlow, Green Fingers and While I Live and several telemovies for the BBC.

Raye also played lead roles in many musicals and television productions in her native Britain. Her theatre roles included Tough at the Top, Fun and Games, and The Merry Widow,{{cite journal |title=""The Merry Widow" - The Girl Who Stops the Show" |journal=Picture Post |location=London, England|date=22 May 1943 |volume=19 |issue=8 |pages=18–19 |url=https://www.gale.com/intl/c/picture-post-historical-archive |accessdate=9 June 2019}} Dear Miss Phoebe{{cite web |title=Carol Raye |url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0713095/ |website=IMDB |publisher=Amazon |accessdate=9 June 2019 |quote=Personal Details - Other works: She acted Harry Parr-Davies's musical, "Dear Miss Phoebe," at the Phoenix Theatre in London, England with Peter Graves in the cast.}}{{Better source needed|date=November 2019}} and The Ticket-of-Leave Man.

Raye having remarried in 1951, and with her husband being offered by the British Government, the opportunity to run a 1000-acre farm in the overseas Kenya Colony, the family settled in Navaisha Town, in the West of Mombasa.{{cite news |title=Livestock Expert Made a World of Difference in International Aid|url=https://www.smh.com.au/national/livestock-expert-made-a-world-of-difference-in-international-aid-20160314-gni95c.html |accessdate=9 June 2019 |work=Sydney Morning Herald |date=14 March 2016|location=Sydney, Australia |quote= In London, he met his future wife, Carol, through friends and they were married in 1951.}} Whilst in Kenya, two filmmakers offered Raye the lead role in their film No Rain in Timbura., which would be the first feature produced in that country. She worked briefly as a producer/director and on-screen talent for the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation from 1961 to 1964, making her one of the first faces on British East African television.

The family having emigrated to Australia in 1964, Raye was given a letter by introduction by the BBC, to the ABC Charles Moses, who in turn recommended her to the Seven Network CEO James Oswin at Sydney station ATN-7, where she took a position working as network assistant to the General Manager, it was here she devised the idea of creating a satirical television series, based on revue at the Phillip Street Theatre and the British TV series The Week That Was. Starting in November 1964, the network gave the green light for the now iconic The Mavis Bramston Show, in which Raye would also star as one of 3 originals along with Gordon Chater and Barry Creyton.

Raye also produced the pilot episode and co-produced the series (with Michael Plant), until her departure from the programme in late 1965. She resumed work on the series for the 1967 and 1968 final seasons.Atterton, Margot. (Ed.) The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Australian Showbiz, Sunshine Books, 1984. {{ISBN|0-86777-057-0}} p 185

Raye played the ongoing comedy role of much-married socialite and Baroness Amanda von Pappenburg, in the 1970s, the aunty of Don Finlayson (played by Joe Hasham) whom she visits from Heidelberg, Germany, in the top-rated soap opera Number 96. After two substantial stints with the series in the 1973–74 period, Amanda was permanently written out of the serial, but Raye remained with the serial, switching to the role of creative director for the show's producers. That busy role involved the casting of regular characters, along with reviewing the scripts and storylines."The Baroness Turns Executive". TV Week. 25 October 1975, p. 25.

With there having been a fictional Baroness character on the series, fittingly the real Duke of Bedford and his wife appeared as guests on the show.

In 1976-77, Raye acted in the medical soap opera The Young Doctors, playing the guest role of Rosalie Parker. She acted in television and film roles through the 1990s, and into the 2000s, with appearances in SeaChange and in commercials.

In the early 1980s, Raye had a four-year appointment with the Theatre Board of the Australia Council.{{cite news |last1=Clare |first1=John |title=Will the Liberal Party steal Carol Raye? |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/32261952/carol_raye/ |accessdate=5 June 2019 |work=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=27 March 1982 |location=Australia, New South Wales, Sydney |page=47|via = Newspapers.com}}

She appeared in many Australian theatre productions, including California Suite, Pleasure of His Company, Travelling North, The Merry Wives of Windsor, You Can't Take It With You, Noises Off, and Hay Fever. Raye was a subject of This Is Your Life.

Raye retired in 2000, subsequently she campaigned Seven Network boss Kerry Stokes to release a DVD of "Mavis", although in a release to DVD of Number 96, she provided an audio commentary alongside film and TV critic Andrew Mercado, co-star Elisabeth Kirkby, and The Honourable Michael Kirby.

On 3 November 1945, Raye married{{cite news |title=Former Winchester Boy Wed to English Actress |url=https://archive.org/stream/WinStar_010446_032946/WinStar_1946_1_djvu.txt |accessdate=9 June 2019 |work=Winchester Star |date=1 February 1946 |quote=Among the English war-brides trying to make arrangements for passage to the United States is Carol Raye, English film star, who is married to a former Winchester boy, Capt. Clark Spencer, U.S.A. Engineers, currently on his way home from the ETO. Married in England. 3 Nov. 1945, Capt. and Mrs. Spencer have been living at Whitelands House, Chelsea. England.}} U.S. Army Engineer Captain Clark Spencer, a "prominent Winchester and Marblehead sportsman" (Massachusetts, USA).{{cite news |title=British Movie Actress, Bride of Winchester Captain |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/32261286/carol_raye/ |accessdate=5 June 2019 |work=The Boston Globe |date=29 January 1946 |location=Massachusetts, Boston |page=1|via = Newspapers.com}}

In 1951, she married prominent veterinarian Robert Ayre Smith (1926-2006). They had three children, two of whom followed their mother into theatrical roles. Her eldest child, Sally Ayre Smith, is a former television producer, best known for the ABC series SeaChange, but is now a director of an organic farm produce marketing business.{{cite web |last1=Brown |first1=Jamie |title=Sustainable direction for film producer |url=https://www.theland.com.au/story/4155030/a-change-of-heart/ |website=The Land |publisher=Fairfax |accessdate=9 June 2019 |location=North Richmond, NSW |date=18 September 2016 |quote=Marcus has already built a pole and mud-brick ranch style home for Sally's parents – Robert who worked as a veterinarian in Kenya before coming to Australia with his screen siren wife Carol Raye, who actually gave up a promising London career in front of the camera to be with her husband in east Africa.}} Her youngest daughter, Harriet, started her career in the Sydney Theatre Company office and is also an occasional actress.{{cite web |title=Harriet Ayre-Smith |url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm8737424/ |website=IMDB |publisher=Amazon |accessdate=9 June 2019 |quote=Actress, Punk in Disco, Queen of the Road (TV Movie)}}{{Better source needed|date=November 2019}}

Raye was honoured in the 2022 Commonwealth of Australian Queens Birthday Honours List, with an appointment to the Member of the Order of Australia (AM), with the citation For services to the arts as an actress and producer.{{cite web|title=Ms Carol Raye AM|url=https://honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/awards/2010940|website=Australian Honours|publisher=Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (Australia) |access-date=21 June 2022}}{{cite web|url=https://www.gg.gov.au/queens-birthday-2022-honours-list|title=The Queens Birthday 2022 Honours List}}

{{cite web | url=https://ausstage.edu.au/pages/contributor/4484 | title=AusStage }}

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• {{IMDb name|id=0713095|name=Carol Raye}}
• {{discogs artist|Carol Raye}}

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Category:1923 births

Category:2022 deaths

Category:20th-century British actresses

Category:20th-century Australian actresses

Category:Actresses from London

Category:Australian satirists

Category:Australian stage actresses

Category:Australian television actresses

Category:Australian women comedians

Category:British emigrants to Australia

Category:Members of the Order of Australia

Category:Logie Award winners

Category:21st-century Australian women

Category:21st-century Australian people

Category:20th-century English women

Category:20th-century English people

Category:Australian expatriates in England

Category:Comedians from the London Borough of Southwark

Category:Actors from the London Borough of Southwark

Category:People from Rotherhithe