Vale Shirley Ann Richards

Shirley Ann Richards has passed away - I was said although, admittedly, I was unware she was still with us. Richards really enlivened Australian cinema in the late 1930s, a rare actor under contract to a studio (Cinesound, who later signed Jean Hatton). She never played a lead role but was an important ingenue - bright, cheerful, athletic yet classy, she managed to convey a combination of virtuousness with a spark in her eye. You knew she would hold out for the right chap but when it was on it was going to be on. She fitted in perfectly at the studio, and enjoyed reasonable success in Hollywood in what turned out to be a short lived career. For me her best performance was in Dad and Dave Come to Town where she was paired with the sprightly Billy Raze, a more suitable match for her than John Longden, Lloyd Hughes or Frank Leighton. Vale Shirley.