Anne Haddy
- Category : Actress
- Type : GE
- Profile : 2/5 - Hermit / Heretic
- Definition : Split - Large
- Incarnation Cross : RAX Tension 3
Biography
Anne Haddy (5 October 1927[2] – 6 June 1999)[1] was an Australian film, television and theatre actress, best known for her role in the long-running Australian soap opera, Neighbours.
Early and personal life
Haddy was born an only child in Quorn, South Australia. She attended Adelaide High School. She acted in radio plays and school broadcasts while she was working in Adelaide University's book room. She later attended the Sydney Theatre Company.
She went to Britain in the 1950s to find acting work, but she ended up working as a secretary for Kellogg's. She married her first husband, Max Dimmitt, before returning to Australia, where she gave birth to two children. In 1960, Haddy and her family moved to Sydney. Haddy later married actor James Condon after her marriage to Dimmitt was dissolved. They acted alongside each other twice, both during Haddy's tenure on Neighbours.
Career
Haddy became one of the first presenters of Play School, a show that launched the career of many an Aussie soap star. Other programmes in which Haddy appeared include Dynasty (the 1970–71 Australian television series), Prisoner, Punishment, and a lengthy spell as Rosie Andrews in Sons and Daughters. She appeared in the film They're a Weird Mob (1966).
Health
Haddy was dogged by ill health for the last two decades of her life. She suffered a massive heart attack in 1979, which led to four bypass operations. Cancer led to severe internal operations. Shortly thereafter, she fell and broke a hip, and later learned she had stomach cancer, which was reportedly discovered early and successfully treated surgically.
In 1983, she had one of her four heart bypasses unclogged. In 1985, Reg Watson invited Haddy to join Neighbours as Helen Daniels. During her time with Neighbours, she became the longest-running actress and she remained with the show until 1997. Further heart troubles, angina and a broken hip led to the kidney trouble which caused her to retire from acting in 1997. Haddy once remarked that she would like to have her real-life funeral screened as part of the show.
Other
In 1988, Haddy's popularity were honoured when Oxford University undergraduates made her an honorary member of the university's Corpus Christi College.
Death
Anne Haddy died in Melbourne on 6 June 1999.
