Janeece Adele (14 April 1935 – 27 February 2000) better known as Jan Adele, was an Australian actress and entertainer with a career spanning over 50 years, active in many fields including circus, vaudeville, theatre, television and film. She was best known for her recurring comedy role of vaudevillian showgirl Trixie O'Toole in the 1970s television soap opera '' Number 96'', usually sharing scenes with co-stars Wendy Blacklock and Mike Dorsey.

Early life

Adele was a fourth-generation performer. Her grandfather Roy Kelroy had worked for Barnum and Bailey circus in America and her aunt Eilleen Pascoe Webb ran an elocution and dance school in Melbourne. Her mother, known professionally as Eris O'Dell, worked for the

Tivoli circuit The Tivoli Circuit was a successful and popular Australian vaudeville entertainment circuit featuring revue, opera, ballet, dance, singing, musical comedy, old time black and white minstrel and even Shakespeare which flourished from 1893 to th ...

and J.C. Williamson, as a singer, actress and dancer and also played piano, and was an assistant producer to

Jack Davey John Andrew Davey (8 February 190714 October 1959), known as Jack Davey, was a New Zealand-born singer and pioneering star of Australian radio as a performer, producer, writer and host from the early 1930s into the late 1950s. Later in his caree ...

at the Macquarie theatre radio and to Wallace Parnell at the Tivoli. Adele did not know her father. Adele appeared in pantomime from the age of three at Mark Foy's. As a teenager she performed in the circus as an acrobat on the high wire, and as a contortionist. At the age of 19 she began a three-year stint entertaining US troops in Korea and Japan. In 1971 she was part of the New South Wales Concert Party, entertaining Australian troops in Vietnam. After this she performed steadily in vaudeville theatre and as a show girl.

Career

Television

In the 1970s, Adele moved into television, with guest spots in the

Crawford Productions Crawford Productions is an Australian Media (communication), media production company, focused on radio and television production. Founded in Melbourne by Hector Crawford and his sister, actress and voice artist Dorothy Crawford, the company, a ...

police dramas ''

Homicide Homicide is an act in which a person causes the death of another person. A homicide requires only a Volition (psychology), volitional act, or an omission, that causes the death of another, and thus a homicide may result from Accident, accidenta ...

'' and ''

Division 4 ''Division 4'' is an Australian television police drama series broadcast by the Nine Network and created by Crawford Productions airing between 1969 and 1975 for 301 episodes. Synopsis The series was one of the first to follow up on the enor ...

''. Subsequent to this she was spotted by '' Number 96'' producer Bill Harmon in a pantomime show and he devised the character of Trixie – a warm and funny stage and nightclub entertainer who has been treading the boards for years – for her. Some of the humour of her ''Number 96'' character was built around Adele's 15 stone figure. When joining the series Adele happily signed the nudity clause present in all cast member's contracts, reasoning that she would never be called upon to strip. She was later horrified to learn she would need to appear semi-nude for a comedy sequence in the show, but went ahead with the scenes. In the late 1970s she also was a frequent comedy performer on '' The Mike Walsh Show''. Adele was a frequent guest on '' Good Morning Australia'' with Bert Newton. Later television guest appearances included '' Bony'' (1992), ''

Heartbreak High ''Heartbreak High'' is an Australian television programme created by Michael Jenkins and Ben Gannon that ran from 1994 to 1996 on Network Ten and 1997 to 1999 on ABC, for seven series. It was also partially funded from 1996 by BBC2, with som ...

'' (1994), ''

Home and Away ''Home and Away'' (''H&A'') is an Australian television soap opera. It was created by Alan Bateman and commenced broadcast on the Seven Network on 17 January 1988. Bateman came up with the concept of the show during a trip to Kangaroo Point, N ...

'' and ''42nd Street''.

Film

Adele subsequently acted in several Australian films. These included ''

High Tide Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another. Tide tables ...

'' (1987), for which she won a Best Actress Award from the

Australian Film Institute The Australian Film Institute (AFI) was founded in 1958 as a non-profit organisation devoted to developing an active film culture in Australia and fostering engagement between the general public and the Cinema of Australia, Australian film indu ...

, '' Daisy and Simon'' (1988), '' ...Almost'' (1990), '' Greenkeeping'' (1992), '' Fatal Bond'' (1992) and '' The Sum of Us'' (1994).

Personal life

Adele was married at 17. Her second husband, actor Rick Marshall, was bisexual. Her third marriage was to musician David Anderson in 1962. Adele had two daughters, Mandy and Jody.

Awards

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Adele, Jan Australian stage actresses Australian television actresses 1935 births 2000 deaths 20th-century Australian actresses Best Supporting Actress AACTA Award winners 21st-century Australian actresses