Sheila Florance

Acting

Sheila Florance

Born 1916-07-24 · St. Kilda East, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Sheila Florance (1916-1991) was an Australian actress, known for her role of Lizzie Birdsworth in TV series' Prisoner (1979-1984), Mad Max (1979) and A Woman's Tale (1991). Died of cancer in Melbourne, Australia at age 75, 9 days after winning Australian Film Institute's Best Actress award for A Woman's Tale (1991), a film where she played a woman dying of cancer.

Acting credits

Mad Max poster
6.7

In the ravaged near-future, a savage motorcycle gang rules the road. Terrorizing innocent civilians while tearing up the streets, the ruthless gang laughs in the face of a police force hell-bent on stopping them.

Mad Max

1979

End Play poster
6.4

And just when you believe there is nothing more to fear, you will begin to experience the ultimate terror of the END PLAY.

End Play

1976

Hungry Heart poster
9.0

Set in the Melbourne suburb of Brunswick, we see life through the eyes of Salvatore Bono, returning to his parents home after completing his internship as a doctor in the country.

Hungry Heart

1987

The Devil's Playground poster
6.4

Australia, 1953. Thirteen-year-old Tom Allen attends a strict Catholic seminary for boys administered by De La Salle Brothers. The adolescent students and their adult instructors struggle deeply with sexual repression and religious doubt.

The Devil's Playground

1977

Summerfield poster
6.4

When teacher Simon arrives in a small, secluded village to take over the local school, he is surprised to discover that his predecessor has disappeared without a trace - and that nobody seems too concerned about it. As Simon probes deeper into the disappearance, the inhabitants of a forbidding estate called "Summerfield" take on more and more significance.

Summerfield

1977

Nirvana Street Murder poster
7.0

Two brothers become conflicted after one goes on the run and the other has an affair with a Greek woman and takes care of an old rich lady who could be their way out.

Nirvana Street Murder

1990

No artwork available
10.0

A couple living together have a tense relationship. The woman's father dies and she becomes preoccupied with death. She almost drowns in the bath but then recovers her enthusiasm for life.

Illuminations

1976

Clay poster
5.8

A killer on the run is found lying flat on his face in a wet clay bank. He is rescued by potters who shelter him within their community. There he falls in love with a woman. Unfortunately, another man who has been calling upon the woman gets jealous and turns the fugitive in to the cops. The woman gets revenge.

Clay

1965

A Woman's Tale poster
6.3

Uplifting and intimate look at the last days of an elderly cancer victim. The film is even more relevant as it was written specifically for the lead actress, Sheila Florance, who was in fact dying of cancer as she created what is essentially a self-portrait.

A Woman's Tale

1991

No artwork available
NR

The stars of Prisoner stage an hour-long concert special from inside the walls of Pentridge Prison, where they perform variety, comedy and burlesque to their audience.

Prisoner in Concert

1981

The Tale of Ruby Rose poster
5.5

The year is 1933. Ruby Rose (Melita Jurisic) is an Australian woman living with her Welsh immigrant husband Henry (Chris Haywood) in the Tasmanian highlands. Cut off from her superjudgmental family, for whom Henry had once worked as a humble farm hand, Ruby remains isolated in her tiny house. Superstitiously terrified of the dark, she begins developing her own folklore about the inky blackness that surrounds her each night; this folklore eventually develops into Ruby's own personal religion, created to ward off the evils that she imagines lurk in every corner. Only by venturing out of her house and rekindling her relationship with her embittered father is Ruby able to exorcise her fears. Almost hypnotic in its stark beauty, Tale of Ruby Rose is proof enough that writer/director Roger Scholes deserves to be far better known.

The Tale of Ruby Rose

1988

No artwork available
7.0

Following re-runs of the Australian soap opera "Prisoner" on UK television in the late 1980s, four of the original cast make a trip to the city of Derby for a civic reception, and a live show. This documentary follows them from their arrival in the UK, and includes footage of the live show, including interviews about their time 'inside'.

The Great Escape

1990