The
National Institute of Dramatic art is saddened to hear of the passing of
celebrated Australian actress, Wendy Hughes.
The
award-winning performer graduated from NIDA in 1970 and went on to achieve an
incredible career spanning four decades.
NIDA
Director and CEO, Lynne Williams said Hughes was one of Australia’s most
diverse actresses whose performances had captivated audiences on stage and on
screen.
“From
her early role in Homicide, to her turn as Mrs Higgins in the Sydney Theatre Company’s 2012
production of Pygmalion, Wendy has been a familiar face for more than
one generation of Australian audiences.”
Hughes
will also be remembered for her work on the long-running Network Ten series State Coroner, the iconic TV series Number 96, ABC’s Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, and numerous film projects
including My Brilliant Career and her
AFI winning role in Careful, He Might
Hear You.
She was also a strong
presence in Australia’s theatre scene, entrancing audiences as the sexy Mrs Robinson
in The Graduate, and most
recently appearing in Sydney Theatre Company’s Face to Face and Pygmalion.
In a
2007 interview with ABC’s Talking Heads, Hughes said she knew from
a young age that she wanted to be involved in theatre.
“I
started off doing a lot of classical ballet, which I was never very good at
because I was just too big, too ungainly. So I thought maybe I’ll try acting.”
Lynne
Williams offered the sympathy of the NIDA community to Hughes’ family.
