Vivean Gray, who has died aged 92, was a British-born actress who became familiar to television viewers of the 1970s and 1980s for her roles in a series of Australian television soap operas, including as Edna Pearson in Prisoner Cell Block H, as Ida Jessop in The Sullivans (which earned her a Logie Award in 1978 for Best Sustained Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role), and later, and most famously, as the loathsome busy-body Mrs (Nell) Mangel in Neighbours.
For years afterwards, Vivean Gray topped opinion polls as the nastiest television “baddie” of all time, with some of the more dedicated viewers of Neighbours failing to distinguish between the actress and the fictional character.
Aside from her work on the small screen, Vivean Gray enjoyed success on film, notably as Miss McCraw in Peter Weir’s Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), which tells the story of the Valentine’s Day disappearance in 1900 of several Appleyard College students and their maths teacher (Vivean Gray) at Hanging Rock. The film, which was often mistakenly thought to have been based on a true story, won a BAFTA Award for Cinematography.
Vivean Gray was born Jean Vivra Gray on July 20 1924 at Cleethorpes, where she attended Thrunscoe Grammar School. She was the eldest of four children. Her father, Allan, was a fish merchant at Grimsby Docks. During the mid-1930s, the family moved to Kingston upon Thames, only to be evacuated back to Cleethorpes in 1941. The family moved backed to Surrey in 1945, settling in New Malden.
Vivean Gray always wanted to be an actress but found limited opportunities in Britain outside repertory theatre. Struggling to make it as a serious actress, she took a number of jobs, including as a local reporter and a photographer. Later she became a nurse and served with the Women’s Land Army, before emigrating to Australia in 1952.
From the late 1950s onwards Vivean Gray established herself as a reliable character actress, working in theatre and on film; her credits include A City’s Child (1972), Libido (1973), The Great MacArthy (1975), and Peter Weir’s The Last Wave (1977) starring Richard Chamberlain.
Her height and skeletal frame made for easy stereotyping, and she was often cast as spinsters, nuns, doctors or interfering neighbours.
It was her long run as the next-door neighbour Ida Jessop in The Sullivans, set in Melbourne during the Second World War, which prompted producers to create the character of Nell Mangel, the arch nemesis of Madge Ramsay (played by Anne Charleston). Vivean Gray became an instant success in the series when she joined in 1986.
Every afternoon millions would tune in to watch her daily battles with the younger members of Ramsay Street, as well as her relationship with her fellow Christian and lodger Harold Bishop (played by Ian Smith).
As the cantankerous and interfering Mrs Mangel, she constantly tried to make Harold see that Madge was an unsuitable woman for a man of his high moral standing, but nothing could deter him. Finally Harold stood up to Mrs Mangel’s snide remarks about “that Ramsay woman” on the morning of his wedding to Madge, when he told her that no matter what Mrs Mangel thought about the union, he was in love. It proved to be one of the most popular episodes in the shows history.
However, the actress suffered an astonishing amount of abuse from members of the general public, so convincing was her character. Ultimately, it was this which forced her decision to leave the soap opera in 1988, content that she had made more of an impression with her character in two years than most actors could achieve in a lifetime. The writers had Mrs Mangel marry retired dentist John Worthington (played by Brian James), leave Australia and settle at St Albans. In 2005, producers tried to persuade her to return for its 20th anniversary episode, but she refused.
Vivean Gray left Australia for Britain in the mid-1990s and settled at Shoreham-by-Sea, rejecting all requests for interviews or autographs from fans.
Vivean Gray, born July 20 1924, died July 29 2016
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