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Fiona Spence (born c. 1946) "Aussie Soap Stars Who Vanished!". Woman's Day (14 November 2022). Retrieved 15 August 2024. is an English-born retired stage and television actress and drama teacher. She is known for her television roles in Australia including Prisoner (1979–81) as prison officer Vera "Vinegar Tits" Bennett and Home and Away as the unlucky-in-love spinster Celia Stewart (1988–90).
She has made numerous returns to Home and Away reprising her role of Celia. Her other television roles include Packed to the Rafters as Eleanor McCormick (2013). Alongside her former Prisoner co-stars Val Lehman and Colette Mann (who played inmates Bea Smith and Doreen Anderson respectively), Spence was one of three actresses who filmed cameos for the Prisoner remake series Wentworth in 2019, in what was intended to be the series finale. However, the series was unexpectedly renewed for another 20 episodes and the cameos were cut and never went to air.
After living in Canada for a year, she left for England and lived in London for a time working as a saleswoman for the Fortnum & Mason department store. It was while seeing several plays in London's West End, she became interested in acting. She was engaged aged 22, but broke it off. After returning to Australia, wanting to become an actress, she trained with The Independent Theatre.
When producer John McRae took over day-to-day running of the series in 1981, plans were made to write Spence out of the series. Her character had become immensely popular during her two-years on the show and, when news of her departure was announced, the Ten Network received at least 100 phone calls and countless fan mail asking for Spence to remain. Spence however quietly left the show later stating "I loved playing Vera. But it was time to wash that dame right out of my hair."
From 1988 until 1990, Spence became well known for playing spinster Celia Stewart in Home and Away. While working on the show, she attended Monash University earning an arts degree in English. She also made sporadic television appearances during the next several years as a celebrity guest on game shows Cluedo and Sale of the Century as well as making a guest appearance on the television series Law of the Land and as Eleanor McCormick in Packed to the Rafters.
In 2018, Spence joined former Prisoner co-stars Colette Mann and Val Lehman in a cameo for series seven of Wentworth in the what was intended to be the final episode of the series, but the show was unexpectedly renewed for a further 20 episodes and the cameo scene was cut and never aired. Mann revealed in 2022, during an interview with podcast series Talking Prisoner, the cameo was the three of them standing in the yard and waving goodbye to one of the characters.
She returned to the theatre in the early 1990s recreating the role of Vera Bennett in a British stage play version of Prisoner. She also starred in a theatrical pantomime of Aladdin with fellow Home and Away co-star Greg Benson at the Theatre Royal, in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent during December 1991 and January 1992, as well as a short-lived stage show, Lipstick Dreams, in the United Kingdom.Rowe, Michelle. "The Set Is Still Wobblier Than Oliver Reed On A Bad Day, But Prisoner: Cell Block H Still Has Its Fans". The Mirror. 28 June 1998
| 1984 | Lysistrata | TV movie | |
| 2013 | Mirrors | Lola | Short film |
| 1978 | Glenview High | Maxine | Season 1, episode 29: "After the Loving" |
| 1979–1981 | Prisoner | Vera Bennett | Seasons 1–3, 222 episodes |
| 1979 | The Franky Doyle Story | Vera Bennett | TV movie (edited from episodes of Prisoner) |
| 1981 | Women of the Sun | Joy Cutler | Mniseries, episode 4: "Lo-Arna" |
| I Can Jump Puddles | Mrs. Wilson | Miniseries, episode 4: "Crutches are Nothing" | |
| 1983 | Home | Carol Davidson | TV series, episodes 29–32 |
| 1983; 1984 | Cop Shop | Nora Fitzgerald / Heather Ramsay | Episodes 456, 537 |
| 1985 | The Fast Lane | Peg | Season 2, episode 6: "Holding the Mirror up to Itself" |
| 1988–1990, 2000, 2002, 2005, 2012–2013 | Home and Away | Celia Stewart | Seasons 1–3 (regular) Seasons 13, 15, 18, 25–26, 37, 290 episodes (guest) |
| 1990 | Richard & Judy | 1 episode | |
| The Nightshift | 1 episode | ||
| 1992 | Acropolis Now | Joan | Season 5, episodes 2 & 13 |
| Cluedo | 1 episode | ||
| 1993 | Law of the Land | Magistrate Maggie Mulcahy | Season 2, episodes 1-14 |
| 1995 | Lisa | Miniseries | |
| 2013 | Packed to the Rafters | Eleanor McCormack | Season 6, episodes 1-6 & 11-12 |
| 2019 | Wentworth | New prisoner | Season 7, episode 10 (scene deleted) |
| + !Year !Title !Role !Notes | |||
| 1995 | Contestant (with Val Lehman, Colette Mann & Maggie Kirkpatrick) | 1 episode | |
| 2016 | All Star Family Feud | Contestant (with Ian Smith, Val Lehman & Colette Mann) | 1 episode |
| La Mama Theatre, Melbourne |
| Russell St Theatre, Melbourne with MTC |
| UK tour |
| Theatre Royal, Hanley |
| UK tour with Fairbank Productions |
| Theatre Royal, Hanley |
| Russell St Theatre, Melbourne with MTC |
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