Background
The youngest of the four children of William Martin Steinbeck and Lily Clarissa (née Batten), Muriel Steinbeck was born in Broken Hill, New South Wales, where her father was working as a headmaster.
The youngest of the four children of William Martin Steinbeck and Lily Clarissa (née Batten), Muriel Steinbeck was born in Broken Hill, New South Wales, where her father was working as a headmaster.
She was educated at Newcastle and Sydney Girls High, and when the family moved to Sydney she became involved in amateur theatre, appearing in plays such as The Merchant of Venice and A Midsummer Night"s Dream and becoming renowned for her performances in comedy and drama.
She is best known for her performance as the wife of Sir Charles Kingsford Smith in and for playing the lead role in Autumn Affair (1958-1959), Australia"s first television serial. She worked regularly on radio, including station 2GB and 2UE after being noticed by Lawrence H. Cecil of the American Broadcasting Company, and appeared in numerous radio serials in the 1950s including Blue Hills, Portia Faces Life and Gabrielle. She became best known as Julia in the Australian television soap opera Autumn Affair, by Gwen Meredith.
After appearing in the short film South West Pacific in 1943, she made her feature film debut in, before appearing in her most famous film role as Charles Kingsford-Smith"s wife in Smithy.
She died of cancer on 20 July 1982, a day before her 69th birthday.