28/02/2026
Queenie van de Zandt
5h ·
So saddened to hear of the passing of Australian legend of TV and theatre, and a woman I was very lucky to have as a friend for the past 19 years - the beautiful and brilliant Lorraine Bayly.
Lorraine and I met in 2007 when we were both cast in the 's production of Rabbit Hole by David Lindsay-Abaire, along with Mark Kilmurry, Georgie Parker, and Jonathan Prescott, directed by one of Lorraine's closest friends, Sandra Bates. Lorraine played my and Georgie's Mum in the play.
When I heard she had been cast in that role, I was literally beside myself!
You see, along with millions of other people, I grew up with Lorraine already feeling like a mother figure, having watched her on The Sullivans as a child in the 70's.
I so clearly recall the episode when Grace Sullivan, her character in the show, was killed during the war in an explosion when she went over to visit one of her sons in London. I could not believe that she had died. I can remember exactly where I was, in our lounge room, with its bright green carpet and hot pink curtains, sitting on the faux black leather armchair, and I began to weep as if my own mother had been taken from me.
My actual mother, who was lovely, walked into the room from the kitchen to see why I was so upset. I explained to her that Grace Sullivan had just been killed. I think she was so overwhelmed by my reaction and intense emotion that, in what was not one of her finest parenting moments, she decided that if I was this upset about a TV character dying, then I was not old enough to watch The Sullivans and she never let me watch it again!
I was left with this dreadful grief and no outlet for it. So, when I heard that Lorraine would play my mother in this play, it was like Grace had come back from the dead.
Of course, I told her that story as soon as I met her, and she absolutely loved it. Lorraine loved stories and I loved sitting in the dressing room with her, hearing all about her life. She was such an incredible woman and was a great storyteller and had such an incredible life.
She told us of her wonderful love affairs, her incredible travels and career and her unquenchable curiosity and thirst for knowledge. She never stopped learning, and she was fiercely independent, outspoken and resilient. Every few years she learned something new - the saxophone, ballroom dancing and she was nearly 70 when I met her and had just started to play tennis.
When she was struck down with debilitating arthritis, she studied alternative medicine and created a specific potion that she took every day and the pain of her arthritis went away completely. That's who she was. Determined, uncompromising and with incredible strength of character.
We kept in touch after the play, mostly by phone as I moved away from Sydney, but she would call me and I would call her, just like every mother and daughter, to check in. She was like that with so many of her 'children' from different shows and TV series that she had done. Not having any biological children of her own, she just adopted the ones that she got through her work. She was a beautiful mum and a beautiful friend.
I'm so glad that I got to see her last year when I took one of her best friends, Sandra Bates, along to visit her in the aged care home where she had been for a while. I, of course, bought a beautiful slice of chocolate cake, as she was a complete choc-alcoholic her whole life. We had such a beautiful visit, reminiscing about the play, about our life, and I got to tell her how much she meant to me and hold her hand one last time.
How lucky was I to know her, love her and be loved by her.
Goodnight Mum, you were truly wonderful in everything you did - and I will forever be grateful that I got to be one of your children. You were a brilliant actor, a voracious lover of life, always a student, always curious, an incredible friend and a great mum. RIP darling. Thank you for everything. ###x
PS. If you want to see a bit of Lorraine in action in the play, here's a link to the promo of Rabbit Hole:
RABBIT HOLE by David Lindsay-AbaireWINNER 2007 PULITZER PRIZE FOR DRAMASydney premiereDirector Sandra BatesDesigner Graham MacleanLighting Designer Martin Ki...
