Background
Esme Melville was born as Esme Grace Mount-Melville on 23 July 1918 and grew up in Norwood. Her mother was Margaret Mount-Melville.
Esme Melville was born as Esme Grace Mount-Melville on 23 July 1918 and grew up in Norwood. Her mother was Margaret Mount-Melville.
At the 2007 Australian Institute Awards she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role of Mission Collard in Romulus, My Father. Her theatre roles included Mistress Bedwin in Oliver! (1961-1962, 1966-1967).
Melville had four separate ongoing roles on television soap opera, Neighbours, including as Rose Belker during 2006.
She died on 14 September 2006 after a short illness, aged 88. Melville started as a theatre actress in Adelaide in 1939 – just before the outbreak of World World War World War II On 11 May 1944 Melville enrolled into the Women"s Royal Australian Naval Service as a transport driver and was honourably discharged on 13 September 1946 from Victoria Barracks in Melbourne.
She remained in that city and from 1956 worked at Street Martins (later became Street Martins Youth Arts Centre) for eight years. Her television credits of the 1970s included various guest roles in the Crawford Productions police dramas Homicide, Division 4, Matlock Police and Bluey.
Other appearances included guest roles in Crawford"s adventure series Ryan (1973), and in the miniseries Power Without Glory (1976).
She also made frequent appearances in televisions series Prisoner, Blue Heelers, and Neighbours. Foreign the latter series she portrayed four different characters starting in 1986 with Mistress York and most recently, in 2006, as the hard-of-hearing, Rose Belker.
Her theatre roles include Serita in Waiting in the Wings, Mrs Grey in The Secretary Bird (1969) and Mistress
Bedwin in Oliver (1961-1962, 1966-1967). Melville also acted in several feature films including Alvin Purple Rides Again (1974), Dimboola (1979), I Can Jump Puddles (1981) (television), Squizzy Taylor (1982), Annie"s Coming Out (1984), Niel Lynne (1985), The Four Minute Mile (1988) (television), Mull (1989), Spotswood (1992), Say a Little Prayer (1993), The Heartbreak Kid (1993), Dead End (1999), Siam Sunset (1999), A Telephone Call for Genevieve Snow (2000), Dalkeith (2001), Crackerjack (2002), Forbidden (2003), Romulus, My Father (2007).
At the 2007 Australian Institute Awards she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role of Mission Collard in Romulus, My Father. She worked in student films, independent short films, did voice-overs and appeared in television ads.
Esme Melville had died on 14 September 2006 after a short illness, aged 88.