Mary Ward , also known as Mary Ward Breheny, is a former Australian actress of stage, television, and film, and a radio announcer. Ward trained in England and Australia, and worked in England on the stage circuit, before appearing in film. Returning to Australia, she became one of the first female radio announcers at the ABC in Australia. She is perhaps best known, both locally and internationally though as a character actress portraying elderly characters in television soap opera roles including the original character of: "Mum" Brooks in the cult seriesPrisoner, in which she appeared sporadically from 1979 and 1981and devious Dee Morrell in soap opera Sons and Daughters in 1983.
Biography
Early life and career in England
Ward was born in Fremantle, Western Australia on 6 March 1915, to a pearler She began acting professionally shortly after leaving high school, and later studied at the Perth drama school. She also studied in England, performing as a stage actress for several years. Ward worked in England in film and repertory stage theatre, before returning to Australia prior to World War II, when she became one of the first female radio announcers for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation during the war as "The Forces Sweetheart". She returned to the English stage, while also performing parts for the British Broadcasting Corporation, and appeared in a cameo role in the 1949 film, Eureka Stockade. Ward returned to Australia in the early 1950s, and made her first television appearance as a minor character in detective series The Vise - originally titled Saber of London - in 1954, and in the television movieThe High-Flying Head the following year. She had starring roles in the television moviesMarriage Lines and The Tower.
Career in Australia
Television, stage and film
She began working in television full-time in the mid-1970s, appearing in the series Rush, Homicide, and as Aunt Marian Castle in Don Chaffey's Harness Fever with Andrew McFarlane, Robert Bettles and Tom Farley in 1977. Harness Fever would later appear as a two-part episode, Born to Ride, on Wonderful World of Disney in 1979. She continued her stage work in the 1970s with the Melbourne Theatre Company, remaining with the company until 1983, performing in a David Williamsonstage production. In 1979, Ward first appeared in one of her best known roles, "Mum" Brooks, on the popular soap opera Prisoner. She portrayed an elderly institutionalised inmate, serving an eighteen-year prison sentence for the euthanisation of her terminally-ill husband Jim Brooks. When the filming schedule for the series increased from one to two hours per week in 1979, she and co-star Carol Burns decided to leave the series. However, her character remained a popular one during the show's early years, and she reprised her role occasionally until her character died off-screen in 1983. She starred with a number of her fellow Prisoner co-stars in the 1981 television movie I Can Jump Puddles as a character called Mrs. Birdsworth. She took guest roles with appearances on The Young Doctors in 1981 and A Country Practice in 1982, before being given the more prominent role as scheming Dee Morrell in Sons and Daughters during 1983. Ward starred in the 1985 television series The Henderson Kids and its 1987 follow-up series The Henderson Kids II. During the late-1980s, she had supporting roles in films Jenny Kissed Me and Backstage as well as appearing in more soap guest roles including G.P. and Neighbours in 1989. After starring in the 1989 television movie Darlings of the Gods, she returned again to the theatre and, in 1991, appeared in the play Alive and Kicking. With the exception of an appearance in the television series The Damnation of Harvey McHugh in 1994, in the 1990s Ward remained largely absent from Australian television screens until 1997, appearing in the film Amy. Between 1999 and 2000, she played the recurring character Betty Withers in the police dramaBlue Heelers. Ward turned 105 in 2020.
