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Carol Raye (17 January 1923 – 18 June 2022 Vale: Carol Raye as Kathleen Mary Corkrey and also billed as Carole Raye) was a British-born actress and comedian of film, television, radio, theatre and revue. She was also a singer, dancer, producer, director and media personality.
Her career spanned some seven decades, firstly as a film star and stage performer in the United Kingdom, in such movies as Song of Romance, Strawberry Roan and Waltz Time, after which she briefly worked in Kenya. She then immigrated to Australia, where she became notable for her small-screen roles, and as the first female television executive at a time when the industry was dominated by men.
Raye was best known as the creator, producer and original star of the iconic TV satire The Mavis Bramston Show, alongside Gordon Chater and Barry Creyton, as well as a semi-regular star of soap opera Number 96, as Baroness Amanda von Pappenburg.
Raye's early ambition was to become a dance teacher, and she trained in ballet and ballroom at the Southsea School of Dance.
Raye began her screen career with starring roles in films including Song of Romance, which was the first British musical film shot in technicolor, and Strawberry Roan (1945) by Maurice Elvey. However it was 1945 musical romance Waltz Time by Paul Stein, as Empress Maria that launched her international screen career. That year in April, she toured the United States with the lead role in a stage production of Bonanza Bound!. She turned down a multi-year Hollywood contract, deciding return to London, where she subsequently appeared in features including Spring Song (1946) directed by Montgomery Tully and two films directed by John Harlow, Green Fingers (1947) and While I Live (1947) as well as several telemovies for the BBC.
Raye also played lead roles in many musicals and television productions in her native Britain. Her theatre roles included Tough at the Top, Fun and Games and The Merry Widow, Dear Miss Phoebe and The Ticket-of-Leave Man.
In the 1970s, Raye played the ongoing comedy role of much-married British socialite and baroness Amanda von Pappenburg, aunt of Don Finlayson (played by Joe Hasham) whom she visits from Heidelberg, Germany, in the top-rated soap opera Number 96. She also portrayed Amanda's lookalike, Claudine. The Duke of Bedford and his wife appeared as guests on the show. After two substantial stints with the series between 1973 and 1974, Amanda was permanently written out of the serial, but Raye remained on as creative director, casting regular characters, and reviewing scripts and storylines.
From 1976 to 1977, Raye appeared in the medical soap opera The Young Doctors, playing the guest role of Rosalie Parker. She also appeared in comedy series Up The Convicts with Frankie Howard and alongside Jack Thompson and Sam Neill in the 1979 film The Journalist.
As a notable media personality, she often appeared on The Mike Walsh Show, was a regular panellist on game show Blankety Blanks and was also the subject of an episode of This Is Your Life.
In the early 1980s, Raye had a four-year appointment with the Theatre Board of the Australia Council. She appeared in many Australian theatre productions, including California Suite, The Pleasure of His Company, Travelling North, The Merry Wives of Windsor, You Can't Take It With You, Noises Off, and Hay Fever.
Raye retired in 2000, following a guest appearance in SeaChange as the mother of Sigrid Thornton character. Subsequently she campaigned Seven Network boss Kerry Stokes to release a DVD of The Mavis Bramston Show, although in a DVD release of 32 episodes of Number 96, she provided an audio commentary alongside co-star Elisabeth Kirkby, film and TV critic Andrew Mercado and The Honourable Michael Kirby.
In 1951, she married prominent veterinarian Robert Ayre Smith (1926–2006). They had three children, two of whom followed their mother into theatrical roles. Her eldest child, Sally Ayre Smith, is a former television producer, best known for the ABC series SeaChange, but is now a director of an organic farm produce marketing business. Her youngest daughter, Harriet, born in 1961 started her career in the Sydney Theatre Company office and is also an occasional actress.
Raye died peacefully at her home in Macleay River on the mid-north coast of New South Wales on 19 June 2022, at the age of 99, after a short illness. Her daughters were by her side. She was survived by her three children and three grandchildren.
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