Fiona Spence (born 1947/1948)^[1] is an Australian stage and television actress and drama teacher. She is known for her television roles including Prisoner (1979–81) as Gestapo-like prison officer Vera 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). Fiona alongside her former "prisoner" co-stars Val Lehman and Colette Mann (who played inmates Bea Smith and Doreen Anderson respectively), was one of three actresses who filmed cameos for the "Prisoner" re-imaging series "Wentworth" in 2019, however the scenes where deleted and never went to air ^[2]

Early life

Spence was born in Bromley, Kent, (now in Greater London) England in 1947 or 1948^[1] to an Irish mother and an Australian-born father serving with the British Army. When her father finally left the service, Spence and her family (including her sister-in-law, casting director Kerry Spence) moved to Hong Kong when she was three and then to Australia when she was six.^[4] After leaving school, she was trained as a secretary and later traveled to Montreal where she was a hostess for the Australia Pavilion (Expo 67) at the Canadian Expo.^[5]

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.^[1] After returning to Australia, wanting to become an actress, she trained with The Independent Theatre.

Early career

Spence began acting professionally during the late 1970s. She became engaged a second time, but again the relationship ended around 1978.^[6] While living in Sydney, she appeared in her first television role in the teen drama Glenview High in 1977.^[7]

Television roles

Theatre and pantomime

In March 1984, Spence starred alongside Geraldine Cook in the 60-minute "softcore feminist" black comedy Mums, at Melbourne's La Mama Theatre. The play was about the "manic lives" of two trapped women in a high-rise flat, in which Spence played the tough, aggressive Jo, while Cook played the more light-hearted Toots.^[11] She played Bonnie in the 1986 Melbourne Theatre Company production of the play Hurlyburly at the Russel Street Theatre.^[12]

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.^[13]

Prisoner DVD commentary

A commentary and exclusive interview with Spence features on Volume 14 of the series DVD release.

Filmography

Theatre

^[14]

References

External links

• Fiona Spence at IMDb