Jan Adele

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Jan Adele
Born
Janeece Adele [1]

14 April 1935 [2]
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Died27 February 2000 (aged 64)
Allawah, New South Wales, Australia [2]
Occupations
  • vaudevillian
  • circus performer
  • actress
  • singer
  • dancer
Years activec. 1938-1998 [1]

Janeece Adele (14 April 1935 [2] – 27 February 2000) better known as Jan Adele, was an Australian actress and entertainer with a career spanning over 50 years, in circus, vaudeville, theatre, television and film. She was best known for her role as showgirl Trixie O'Toole in the 1970s soap opera Number 96 . [1]

Contents

Early life

Adele was a fourth-generation performer. Her grandfather Roy Kelroy had worked for Barnum and Bailey circus in America and her aunt Eilleen Pascoe Webb ran an elocution and dance school in Melbourne. Her mother, known professionally as Eris O'Dell, worked for the Tivoli circuit and J.C. Williamson, as a singer, actress and dancer and also played piano, and was an assistant producer to Jack Davey at the Macquarie theatre radio and to Wallace Parnell at the Tivoli. Adele did not know her father.

Adele appeared in pantomime from the age of three at Mark Foy's. As a teenager she performed in the circus as an acrobat on the high wire, and as a contortionist. At the age of 19 she began a three-year stint entertaining US troops in Korea and Japan. In 1971 she was part of the New South Wales Concert Party, entertaining Australian troops in Vietnam. [3] After this she performed steadily in vaudeville theatre and as a show girl.

Career

Television

In the 1970s, Adele moved into television, with guest spots in the Crawford Productions police dramas Homicide and Division 4 .

Subsequent to this, she was spotted by Number 96 producer Bill Harmon in a pantomime show and he devised the recurring character of Trixie O'Toole – a warm and funny vaudevillian showgirl and nightclub entertainer who has been treading the boards for years – for her.

Some of the humour of her Number 96 character was built around Adele's 15 stone figure. When joining the series Adele happily signed the nudity clause present in all cast member's contracts, reasoning that she would never be called upon to strip. She was later horrified to learn she would need to appear semi-nude for a comedy sequence in the show, but went ahead with the scenes. She often shared scenes with co-stars Wendy Blacklock and Mike Dorsey.

In the late 1970s, Adele was a frequent comedy performer on The Mike Walsh Show . She was also a frequent guest on Good Morning Australia with Bert Newton. Later television guest credits included Bony (1992), Heartbreak High (1994), Home and Away and 42nd Street. [1]

Film

Adele subsequently acted in several Australian films. These included High Tide (1987), for which she won a Best Supporting Actress Award from the Australian Film Institute, Daisy and Simon (1988), ...Almost (1990), Greenkeeping (1992), Fatal Bond (1992) and The Sum of Us (1994). [1]

Personal life

Adele was married at 17. Her second husband, actor Rick Marshall, was bisexual. Her third marriage was to musician David Anderson in 1962. Adele had two daughters, Mandy and Jody. [2]

Awards

YearWorkAwardCategoryResult
1977Jan Adele Mo Awards Comedian of the YearWon
1982Jan Adele and Lucky Grills – Fun Follies Mo Awards Variety Show of the YearWon
1987 High Tide Australian Film Institute Awards Best Actress in a Supporting Role Won

[4]

Filmography

Film

YearTitleRoleType
1976 Caddie DaisyFeature film
1981 Winter of Our Dreams WomanFeature film
1987 High Tide BetFeature film
1988 Daisy and Simon (aka Where the Outback Ends)DaisyFeature film
1990 Wendy Cracked a Walnut (aka ...Almost)MajorieFeature film
1991 Fatal Bond Mrs. KarvanFeature film
1992 Greenkeeping DoreenFeature film
1994 The Sum of Us BarmaidFeature film

Television

YearTitleRoleType
1960 The Bobby Limb Show Guest performer
The Joe Martin ShowGuest performer
1969 In Melbourne Tonight Guest performer6 episodes
1969–1985 The Mike Walsh Show Guest performer
1971–1972The Bob Rogers ShowGuest performer
1973 Homicide 1 episode
1974 Division 4 1 episode
1974–1975 Number 96 Trixie O'Toole63 episodes
1976Mummy and MeTV pilot
1978 Graham Kennedy's Blankety Blanks Panelist
1981 Personality Squares Contestant1 episode
1985 Blankety Blanks Contestant3 episodes
1987 Have a Go Guest judge6 episodes
1988 Rafferty's Rules Mrs. Gunning1 episode
1990 Home and Away Helen Cody2 episodes
1991 A Country Practice Mrs. Howie1 episode
The Miraculous Mellops Customer2 episodes
1992 Bony Mrs. Adele1 episode
1994 Heartbreak High Ruby26 episodes

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Lentz III, Harris M. (2008). Obituaries in the Performing Arts, 2000. McFarland. p. 7. ISBN   9780786452057.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Jan Adele interviewed by Bill Stephens".
  3. ↑ "Entertainer Jan Adele, who is a member of the NSW Concert Party, sings on stage..." Retrieved 6 April 2019.
  4. ↑ "Mo Award Winners". Mo Awards . Archived from the original on 7 March 2022. Retrieved 14 March 2022.
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