Tina Bursill

Early life

Tina Bursill was born on 24 July 1951, in Sydney.

Bursill's father, Keith, worked as an apprentice marine engineer on Cockatoo Island in Sydney Harbour from the age of 15, and joined the merchant marines when Bursill was a baby, travelling for about 14 years. He was diagnosed with asbestosis in the 1980s. Her mother was a talented coloratura soprano, but did not follow her dreams. She had a love of painting, film and theatre and frequently took Bursill to see live shows from a very young age.

During the school holidays, Bursill would visit her paternal grandfather, who was a builder, in Forster, on the mid-north New South Wales coast.

Bursill met her first boyfriend when she was 15 and they were together for several years. She thought it would lead to marriage and babies, but it was not to be.

Initially, Bursill intended to pursue a career in anthropology, however, she set her sights on becoming an actress. She was initially rejected from National Institute of Dramatic Art, but later studied there.

Career

Theatre

Bursill started her career in musicals and stand-up comedy, including stagings of Grease (1972) and Godspell (1972–1973), before being cast in more serious theatre productions, such as Zastrozzi (1982) and On Golden Pond (1992). She also starred in Macbeth as Lady Macbeth for Sydney's Ensemble Theatre.

More recently, Bursill was in a 2022 production of Cinderella with Opera Australia and a 2024 staging of The Children with STCSA.

Television

Bursill made her television debut in 1973, appearing in the lead role of short-lived comedy series The People Next Door, as Meg Penrose. She was a regular character alongside Michele Fawdon and Tony Sheldon in daily soap opera The Unisexers which was launched in 1975 on the Nine Network, however the program's low ratings led to its cancellation and removal from broadcast after only three weeks.

Following this were several guest appearances, before she received the role of ambitious assistant airport manager Louise Carter in Seven Network drama series Skyways, for which she appeared in 109 episodes from 1979 to 1981. During this period, Bursill also had a recurring role on police drama series, King's Men between 1976 and 1980, as undercover policewoman, 'Jaybee' Giddings. However, low ratings ensured the series was axed after only 13 episodes.

In 1982, Bursill appeared in ten-part ABC drama miniseries Winner Take All, as Liz Bell, mistress of the main character Dick Coleman’s mistress, mining company employee. The following year, she was cast in the role of Sonia Stevens on Network Ten's cult classic prison drama series Prisoner (Prisoner: Cell Block H), in which she was introduced in the fifth season as a devious ice queen, imprisoned for heroin trafficking. She remained in the series until 1984. After departing Prisoner, Bursill appeared in recurring roles in A Country Practice as Bianca Forbes-Hamilton (1981) and Cecily Day (1985) and Hey Dad..! as Det. Sgt. Anne Burke (1987).

Bursill had a recurring role on the Seven Network soap opera Home and Away in 1992, as schoolteacher Lois Crawford. She later also played the recurring role Stella Patterson from 2001 to 2002. In 1997, she landed a role in Heartbreak High from season five, portraying Hilary Scheppers (the mother of characters Ryan and Anita), after having previously appeared in the series a year earlier as TV news reporter, Trish Ferro.

Bursill portrayed Moody family matriarch, Maree, in the 2011 miniseries A Moody Christmas. She then reprised her role as Maree in the series follow-up, The Moodys, in 2014. Also in 2014, she had a recurring guest role in drama series The Time of Our Lives, as Lenore, the alcoholic mother of Herb (Stephen Curry). That same year, during its thirtieth season, Bursill appeared in long-running soap opera Neighbours, in the recurring role of Kathy Carpenter, mother of Lauren Turner (Kate Kendall) and ex-wife of Lou Carpenter (Tom Oliver). She had previously appeared opposite Oliver in King's Men.

Film

Bursill made her feature film debut in 1975 when she was cast in The Great Macarthy, a football-based comedy with John Jarratt and Barry Humphries. Her next film role came in 1984, when she appeared in Melvin, Son of Alvin (the second sequel to the 1973 comedy, Alvin Purple), as 60 Minutes-style reporter, Dee Tanner. In 1987, she starred in Jilted, which earned her an Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.

Further film credits include Afraid to Dance (1988), Spider and Rose (1994), Billy's Holiday (1995), The Goddess of 1967 (2000), Son of the Mask (2005), Three Blind Mice (2007), Wish You Were Here (2012) and The Flip Side (2018).

She has also had roles in several made-for-television films, including biopic Never Tell Me Never (1998) alongside Claudia Karvan and Michael Caton, Aftershocks (1998), a docudrama about the 1989 Newcastle earthquake with Jeremy Sims, Susie Porter and Lynette Curran, and Heroes' Mountain (2002), retelling the true story of the 1997 Thredbo landslide and the plight of Stuart Diver (as played by Craig McLachlan). In 2013, she played the role of Pat in the TV film Jack Irish: Dead Point, opposite Guy Pearce in the title role. This also reunited her with her The Great Macarthy co-star Barry Humphries.

Personal life

Bursill was in an on-and-off relationship with Australian singer Shirley Strachan, while she was working on the series Skyways and during Strachan's tenure on Shirl's Neighbourhood. The pair also did several charity junkets together during that time. Bursill has never been married but her most significant relationship lasted 14 years and she is on good terms with both him and his two daughters.

Bursill's father had a stroke in the late 1990s and then a mini-stroke in 2015, so she moved in with him to care for him in the final year of his life. Her mother died of dementia in 2013.

Filmography