Carol Burns obituary

The Australian actor Carol Burns, who has died of cancer aged 68, gained a cult following worldwide as the butch biker Franky Doyle in the TV soap opera Prisoner (titled Prisoner: Cell Block H outside Australia). The show featured the female prisoners of the fictional Wentworth Detention Centre, where Franky was serving a life sentence for armed robbery and murder.

From the first episode, in 1979, Franky was making advances to fellow prisoners. She also revealed to the tough prison officer Vera Bennett (played by Fiona Spence) that she was known by the nickname “Vinegar Tits”, and blamed it on another prisoner, “Queen” Bea Smith (Val Lehman). Franky briefly took over the mantle as Wentworth’s “top dog” on Bea’s release but was knocked down – with Bea’s fists – on her return.

When auditioning for the part, Burns voiced concern that there might be no depth to Franky’s character. “Great role, folks,” she said. “But she’s too nasty, too evil. Justify her behaviour, pull her back a little, and I’ll do it.” The actor regarded Franky as an unloved lost soul and brought great sensitivity to the stories of Franky’s illiteracy and her plans to run a small farm with her brother, Gary (Greg Stroud), after her hoped-for early release.

Burns was named best actress at the 1980 Australian TV industry’s Logie awards. However, when Prisoner was commissioned beyond its original run, she decided to leave after 20 episodes, worried that standards could not be maintained, and the character of Franky was written out of the show: she escaped from Wentworth after hearing that Gary had died in a tractor accident, and was shot dead by the police, crying out: “Bloody bastards!”

The impact of Franky – and Burns – was acknowledged when Network 10, which broadcast Prisoner, edited clips together into The Franky Doyle Story (1979), reported at the time to be the most videotaped television film in Australia. The serial continued until 1986 and was revived with new actors in 2013 as Wentworth (titled Wentworth Prison in Britain).

Burns was born in Brisbane, Queensland, the daughter of Mary (nee Langford), a receptionist, and William, a motor spare parts manager. She attended Brisbane state high school and from the age of 11 had elocution lessons. She then gained valuable stage experience with the amateur Brisbane Arts theatre, making her debut as Gretel in Hansel and Gretel (1965) when it added a children’s theatre season to its annual calendar.

In 1970, she was a founder member of the Queensland Theatre Company, and appeared in its productions over the next 45 years. She made her final stage performance with the company in 2015 when she played Winnie – buried to her waist, then neck, in sand – in Happy Days. Burns also acted with companies in Sydney, Melbourne and South Australia, and directed Queensland Theatre Company productions of The Road to Mecca (2002) and A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (2003), as well as her own adaptation of Picnic at Hanging Rock (2013) for Brisbane Arts theatre.

After leaving Prisoner, she had guest roles in Australian television programmes such as Carson’s Law (1983) and Blue Heelers (1998 and 2001), and the mini-series All the Rivers Run (1983) and Eureka Stockade (1984). She starred in two feature films based on real-life stories – as the wife of a mass murderer in Bad Blood (1981), directed by Mike Newell, and as Agnes Doig, a Scottish immigrant, in Strikebound (1984), about a coalminers’ strike in 1930s Australia.

During a spell in Britain, Burns appeared on television in episodes of Taggart (1985), Strike It Rich (1986), Hannay (1989), The Bill (1989) and Casualty (1993 and 1994); and on stage in Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, Ray Lawler’s story of Queensland sugar cane cutters, at Birmingham Repertory theatre (1990). After returning to Australia, she took a guest role in two episodes of the British police drama Heartbeat that were filmed there.

Burns is survived by her second husband, the composer Alan Lawrence, whom she married in 1980. Her first marriage ended in divorce.