Robyn Nevin

Robyn Nevin
Born	(1942-09-25) 25 September 1942 Melbourne, Australia
Spouse(s)	Jim McNeil (divorced)
Partner(s)	Nicholas Hammond (current)

Robyn Anne Nevin AM (25 September 1942), is an Australian actress, director and former head of the Sydney Theatre Company.

Biography

Early life

Robyn Nevin was born 25 September 1942, in Melbourne, to William George Nevin and Josephine Pauline Casey. She was educated at Genazzano Convent until the age of 11, when she moved with her family moved to Hobart, Tasmania, and was enrolled at the Fahan School, a non-denominational school for girls. While there, she played the lead in the school's production of Snow White at the Theatre Royal. Her parents were conservative and conventional, her father the managing director of Dunlop Australia, her mother a housewife, so to enter the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) at the age of 16 in the very first intake in 1959 was a brave step, in which she was fully supported by her parents.

Professional life

At the outset of her career, she had a variety of roles in radio and television, working mainly at the Australian Broadcasting Commission, including current affairs, music, chat shows and children's shows throughout the early 1960s. With the Old Tote Theatre Company she acted in The Legend of King O'Malley by Bob Ellis and Michael Boddy in 1970. She gravitated back to theatre, where she has been a constant presence for the last 40 years.

Although theatre has been her home ground she has also been a reliable talent in Australian films and mini-series, landing many credits for strong supporting roles. She made one foray into directing in the little-noticed The More Things Change... (1986).

In 1996 she became Artistic Director of the Queensland Theatre Company, a position which she held with varying levels of success until 1999, when she took over the position of Artistic Director of the Sydney Theatre Company, where she was Artistic Director until the end of 2007.

Nevin has performed in a range of roles at the Sydney Theatre Company, beginning in 1979 as Miss Docker in A Cheery Soul by Patrick White (reprised in 2001); and also including as Roxane in Cyrano de Bergerac in 1981; as Ranyevskaya in The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov in 2005; and as Mrs Venable in Suddenly, Last Summer by Tennessee Williams in 2015.

Awards and honours

Nominated for several awards, Nevin has thrice won the Sydney Critics' Circle Award for her theatre work.

In 1981 she won the TV Logie award in the 'Best Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Telemovie' category for her role as Shasta in Water Under The Bridge on the Ten Network. She had already won Logies as 'Most Popular Female' in Tasmania in 1965 and 1967 during her stint at the ABC.

On 8 June 1981, she was made a Member of the Order of Australia for services to the performing arts.

In 1999 she was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Tasmania.

On 21 January 2004 she gave the Australia Day Address.

Personal life

Nevin has been married twice, most notably to 'prison playwright' Jim McNeil. She currently lives with her partner, the US-born actor and screenwriter Nicholas Hammond. They met when they starred in Alan Ayckbourn's Woman in Mind at the STC in 1987. She has a daughter Emily Russell who is also an actor, also an 18-year-old grandson Sam Dawe.

Filmography

List of film and television credits

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1952	Tread Softly
1962	Consider Your Verdict	Judith Harper	TV series
1967	Bellbird
1973	Libido	Sister Caroline
1973	President Wilson in Paris	Mrs Wilson
1973	One Man in the Company	Miss Healey	1 episode: 'Let Women Go Free'
1974	Matlock Police	Sue Palmer	1 episode: 'Dancing Class'
1974	Ryan	Susan Davis	1 episode: 'Negative Proof'
1975	Ben Hall
1976	The Fourth Wish	Connie
1976	Caddie	Black Eye
1978	Father, Dear Father in Australia	Mrs. Webster	1 episode: 'Novel Exercise'
1978	Temperament Unsuited
1978	The Irishman	Jenny Doolan
1978	The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith	Mrs. McCready
1979	Letting Go
1980	Water Under the Bridge	Shasta	TV film
1980	A Toast to Melba		TV film
1980–1982	Spring & Fall	Anne/Mary	2 episodes
1982	Fighting Back	Mary
1983	The Dismissal	Lady Kerr	TV mini-series
1983	Goodbye Paradise	Kate
1983	Careful, He Might Hear You	Lila
1984	Conferenceville		TV film
1984	For Love or Money		TV film
1984	The Coolangatta Gold	Robyn Lukas
1985	Hanlon		TV series
1986	The More Things Change...		Director
1988	Emerald City	Kate Rogers
1990	The Ham Funeral		TV film
1990	Shadows of the Heart	Mrs. Hanlon	TV mini-series
1992	Resistance	Wiley
1992	Greenkeeping	Mum
1993	Seven Deadly Sins	Sloth	TV mini-series
1994	Halifax f.p: The Feeding	Angela Halifax	TV film
1994	Lucky Break	Anne-Marie LePine
1995	Angel Baby	Dr. Norberg
1996	Halifax f.p: Cradle and All	Angela Halifax	TV film
1997	The Castle	Federal Court Judge
1998	Halifax f.p: A Murder of Crows	Angela Halifax	TV film
2003	The Matrix Reloaded	Councillor Dillard
2003	Enter the Matrix	Councillor Dillard (voice)	Video game
2003	Bad Eggs	Eleanor Poulgrain
2003	The Matrix Revolutions	Councillor Dillard
2011	The Eye of the Storm	Lal
2013	Top of the Lake	Jude	Miniseries
2013	The Turning
2013–14	Upper Middle Bogan	Margaret Denyar	Main role
2014	The Broken Shore		TV film
2016	Gods of Egypt	Sharifa

External links

• Robyn Nevin at the Internet Movie Database
• Australia Day Address 2004
• In the Company of Actors