Background
Porter was born in Napier, New Zealand in 1936.
Porter was born in Napier, New Zealand in 1936.
Her first professional work was touring with the New Zealand Players Trust. She was acclaimed for such roles as Jessica in The Merchant of Venice and Juliet in Romanoff and Juliet. She also performed in revues and musicals.
She moved to Britain in 1958 after winning a Mission Cinema talent competition for young actresses organised by Rank, with the prize of a round-the-world trip and a film test in London.
Although the test was probably little more than a publicity stunt, she decided to stay and was soon acting in the theatre. Look Who"s Here at the Fortune Theatre in Drury Lane was her first West End appearance.
She followed this with the role of Connie in Neil Simon"s first West End play, Come Blow Your Horn, and a string of other appearances. She had two roles in Stephen Sondheim"s Sunday in the Park with George, at the National Theatre in 1990 and played Olivia in Twelfth Night at the Shaw Theatre, and Rosalind in As You Like lieutenant at the Ludlow Festival.
She later toured in Australia, in Jeffrey Archer"s Beyond Reasonable Doubt, and later in The King and I. She died in Wandsworth, London, in 2001 from leukaemia, aged 65.
She was cremated at Putney Vale Crematorium and her ashes buried in the cemetery there.