Cornelia Frances

Cornelia Frances was a British-Australian actress who was best known for starring on the long running Australian soap opera "Home and Away" (Seven Network, 1987- ), in addition to various other television and film parts. Born and raised in Liverpool, England, Frances studied acting at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama before diving head first into a professional acting career in the early 60s. She landed her very first role, albeit uncredited, in the controversial horror thriller "Peeping Tom" (1960) and followed that up with another uncredited part in "The Queen's Guards" (1961). Frances' uncle Michael Powell directed both films. Throughout the remainder of the 60s, however, Frances had difficultly landing more film and TV work in England. Eager to give her fledgling acting career an extra push, Frances relocated to Australia in the 1960s and almost immediately began landing work. She quickly landed recurring parts on the TV shows "Catwalk" (Channel Seven, 1971) and "The Lost Islands" (The 0-10 Network, 1976), and before long was gaining admiration in her adopted country for a recurring part on the soap opera "The Young Doctors" (Nine Network, 1976-1983). Frances continued working steadily as a TV actor in Australia throughout the 1980s, and even picked up a few film roles in "Return to Snowy River" (1988) and "Outback" (1989). She nabbed her breakout part, however, in 1988 when she began appearing as Morag Bellingham on the Australian soap opera series "Home and Away." She would remain in the role over the next 29 years, appearing in 488 episodes of the long running soap. In early January of 2018 Frances learned that she had bladder cancer. She endured several months of chemotherapy and radiation, but Cornelia Frances succumbed to the disease on May 28, 2018. She was 77.