1938 - 2023

When she was growing up in the 1940s and ’50s, the late actor Judi Farr was able to check the surf from her family’s ground-floor flat on Campbell Parade. It was a blessed childhood, as she and younger brother Michael spent all their leisure time catching waves, clambering around the rocks and digging in the sand, while their mother went to work.

Judi was born Judith Mary Stuart Farr in Cairns, Queensland, on September 22, 1938. When her father Amor Herbert (Bert) Farr was killed in Borneo towards the end of World War ll, his widow Phyllis moved her young family to Bondi.

Judi studied ballet for 10 years from the age of six and this ignited a passion for performing. After she left Holy Cross College, Woollahra, she spent three months at drama school before joining an amateur theatre troupe.

In the early 1960s, she had the opportunity to put her considerable comedic skills to use in the popular Phillip Street Theatre satirical revues, alongside such theatrical luminaries as Gordon Chater and Robina Beard. At around the same time, she made her debut in the exciting new medium of television in a live broadcast of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew.

In 1963, Judi married fellow actor Derry Macgillicuddy. The arrival of the first of three children caused her primary focus to shift from career to family – over the years, Judi took great delight in sharing her love of the beach with her children.

This apparent cooling of ambition, however, didn’t prevent her from being offered plum roles, notably in Australia’s first successful homegrown sitcom, My Name’s McGooley, What’s Yours? (1966-1968), co-starring Gordon Chater and John Meillon.

An early highlight of Judi’s long stage career was when, in 1982, she was cast in Death of a Salesman alongside English actor Warren Mitchell and up-and-coming local Mel Gibson. Her performance garnered unstinting praise from director George Ogilvie and her fellow cast members, as well as being an outstanding success with audiences.

In a career spanning more than six decades, Judi worked as actor and/or director with every major theatre company in Australia. At the time of her retirement, she had performed in around 140 stage productions, as well as 90-plus television shows and films.

In 2015, she became ill while working on her third season of TV’s A Place to Call Home. This was to prove her swan song − she was cast in a play at Belvoir St Theatre, due to open in 2020, but it was cancelled due to COVID-19.

Truly an actor’s actor, she was admired for her exceptional talent and professionalism, loved for her warmth, wicked sense of humour and self-effacing attitude. She believed in giving back, mentoring young performers and spending three years on the committee of the Actors Benevolent Fund, which assists performers in need.

Judi shunned the limelight and cult of celebrity and, as a result, was less well-recognised by the public than her prolific output warranted. This wasn’t the case with those in the know and she received numerous acknowledgements, including a Sydney Theatre Critics’ Award for Best Actress (1992), Australian Film Institute (AFI) Best Supporting Actor Award (2002) and a Sydney Theatre Awards Lifetime Achievement Award (2016). In 2021, she was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours.

Judi Farr died of respiratory failure on June 29, 2023. She donated her body to medical research.

Images courtesy Bridie Macgillicuddy.