Joan Bruce

Joan Bruce (born Joan Thompson) (29 February, 1928 – 26 April, 2014) was an English-Australian actress born in Surrey, England to George and Olive Thompson, and taking the stage surname name of Bruce after her maternal grandmother.

Trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, she appeared in repertory theatre in northern England from 1948, when after marrying first husband Frank Baden-Powell in 1954, they immigrated the following year to Perth, Australia and toured Oceania with the Australian Elizabeth Trust company in plays Separate Tables and Sleeping Prince, with her husband taking on the role of stage manager and Bruce acting. After returning to Perth to give birth to her daughters, she appeared in plays The Anniversary, Entertaining Mr. Sloane and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. Lauded for her performances, she was considered one of Perth's finest actors. In Adelaide she featured in the production of Patrick White's Ham Funeral, and was awarded as actress of the year. Before taking the show to Sydney, she also was in the cast of Night on Bald Mountain, another play by Patrick White, before moving with her daughters to Sydney in 1968, and spending the next ten years working numerously including roles in The Entertainer, Travelling North, Heartbreak House, The Life and Times of Nicholas Appelby and Something Afoot.

She married her second husband Kenneth William in 1978, and subsequently appeared on television in roles in Chopper Squad and A Country Practice, before retiring in 1988. She was best known however for her long-running roles in the Australian soap opera Certain Women with Queenie Ashton and June Salter and for voicing the kangaroo in the 1977 children's animation/live action film Dot and the Kangaroo. She died in 2014, aged 86.