Muriel Myee Steinbeck (21 July 1913 – 20 July 1982) was an Australian actress who worked extensively in radio, theatre, television and film. She is best known for her role in 1946 film Smithy (1946) and her lead role in Autumn Affair (1958–59), Australia's first television soap opera.
Early life Steinbeck was born the youngest of four children of William Martin Steinbeck and Lily Clarissa (née Batten), in Broken Hill, New South Wales, where her father, a keen Shakespearean scholar was working as a headmaster and her mother was a member of the Sydney Repertory Club. Her family left Broken Hill when Steinbeck was five.
Steinbeck was educated in Newcastle and at Sydney Girls High (1926–1930), where taking an interest in acting, she often appeared in school plays. When the family moved to Sydney she became involved in amateur theatre, appearing in plays, particularly Shakespeare, such as The Merchant of Venice and A Midsummer Night's Dream and becoming renowned for her performances in comedy and drama.
Career
Radio Steinbeck was appearing in a production of Beverley Nichols' Where the Crash Comes at Sydney Players' Club, when she was spotted by Lawrence H. Cecil of the ABC. He hired her to do radio drama and her career was launched. Her first radio play was The Silver Cord and her first serial lead was The Three Diggers (1938). She was later briefly under contract to James Raglan while he was producing at Colombia where she starred in Soldier of Fortune.
Steinbeck appeared in numerous radio serials in the 1950s and 1960s, including Blue Hills, Portia Faces Life, Gabrielle and Cattleman.
Film Steinbeck made her film debut in the wartime propaganda short, Eleventh Hour (1942), directed by Ken G. Hall. Hall then used her in another short, South West Pacific (1943). She made her feature film debut in A Son Is Born (1946), a melodrama where she played the lead role, of an unhappily married woman, alongside Peter Finch, and Ron Randell, who both went on to become major names.
The release of A Son is Born was delayed, to take advantage of publicity for her second film, Smithy, a biopic about Charles Kingsford Smith (played by Randell), in which Steinbeck played his wife. The film was a commercial success, but Steinbeck said this initially hurt her theatre career, as producers assumed she would be too expensive to hire. She resisted heading overseas to further her career, electing to stay home with her daughter, as her marriage was breaking up. Australia made few films at the time, so Steinbeck focused on radio and theatre work. She was sufficiently famous that she was able to command paid endorsements, for chocolate and lipstick.
In 1949, Steinbeck played the role of Laura in horse-racing melodrama Into the Straight and in 1951, she featured in biopic Wherever She Goes, playing the mother of the character played by Eileen Joyce. She was then in 1954 film Long John Silver.
Steinbeck's final film role before her retirement was 1966 comedy They’re a Weird Mob, in which she played Mrs. Kelly, wife of Chips Rafferty’s character Harry.
Television Steinbeck appeared in 1954 series The Adventures of Long John Silver, playing the governor's wife. She went on to star in the lead role in Australia's first TV soap opera, Autumn Affair (1958), playing Julia Parrish, a middle-aged widowed mother who wrote popular novels.
In 1960, Steinbeck was in two TV plays – Thunder on Sycamore Street and Reflections in Dark Glasses, the latter of which was met with rave reviews. She also had a recurring role in the serial, Stormy Petrel, playing the wife of Captain Bligh.
From 1963, Steinbeck was a compere on the ABC's English for New Australians series, Making Friends. She also compered the 1963–1964 series Woman's World, focused on women's issues.
Theatre Steinbeck began appearing on the stage regularly at the Minerva Theatre in Sydney's Kings Cross. She was in such productions as Spring Tide (1941), Claudia (1942), Watch on the Rhine (1942), Janie (1943), and The Amazing Dr Clitterhouse (1943).
In between film engagements, Steinbeck continued to work in theatre, appearing in Dangerous Corner (1946), The Third Visitor (1946), Clutterbuck (1947), and I Have Been Here Before (1948).
In 1950, Steinbeck starred as Portia in The Merchant of Venice with John Alden Company. In 1961, she was in another production of The Merchant of Venice with the Elizabethan Theatre Trust. She was in Heartbreak House (1964) at Sydney's Old Tote Theatre.
In the 1960s, after relocating to Orange, Steinbeck worked in amateur theatricals in the area.
Personal life Steinbeck was married to her first husband, Robert Aubrey, a journalist, from 7 July 1934 until their divorce in 1949. They had a daughter, Janice Claire, born in 1939.
Steinbeck then married company manager and engineer, Brian Dudley Nicholson in 1951.
Steinbeck lost a brother and a cousin during World War II; her brother was a POW and died in 1945, while her cousin was reported dead in 1944.
Although Steinbeck retired from acting in 1966, she accompanied her husband to Orange, New South Wales, to become a teacher of the arts, running her own drama school and authoring a book titled On Stage: A Practical Guide to the Actor's Craft.
Steinbeck died of cancer on 20 July 1982, aged 68.
Filmography
Film Year Title Role Notes1942 The Eleventh Hour Short film Another Threshold Nurse Short film 1943 South West Pacific The Munitions Worker (Gwennie) Short film Grumblens Mrs Grumblens Short film 1944 Australia Is Like This Mother Documentary film1946 Smithy Lady Mary Kingsford Smith A Son Is Born Laurette Graham 1949 Into the Straight Laura Curzon 1951 Wherever She Goes Mrs. Joyce 1952 Far West Story Mother 1954 Long John Silver Lady Strong 1966 They're a Weird Mob Mrs. Kelly Final film role
Television Year Title Role Notes Ref. 1956–1977 The Adventures of Long John Silver Governor's wife 3 episodes 1958–1959 Autumn Affair Julia Parrish 156 episodes 1960 Reflections in Dark Glasses Nancy Roberts TV play, episode of Shell Presents Stormy Petrel Mrs Elizabeth Bligh Miniseries, 3 episodes Thunder on Sycamore Street TV play, episode of The General Motors Hour 1962 Jonah Caroline Chisholm 1 episode 1963 Making Friends Compère 1963–1964 Woman's World Compère
Radio Year Title Role Notes Ref. The Silver Cord Macquarie Radio Theatre 2GB Lux Radio Theatre 2GB / 2UW James Raglan Players 2UE Coriolanus ABC Abraham Lincoln ABC The Lady of the Lamp ABC Cyrano de Bergerac ABC 1934–1935 Smithy Lady Kingsford Smith 1937 Coronets of England Lady Castlemaine 2CH / 2TM / 2HD 1938 The Three Diggers Lead 2BL The Merchant of Venice Portia ABC 1939 Soldier of Fortune Queen Adeline 2LE 1940 These Three 1940s When Cobb and Co. was King 2CH Judge Marshall’s Family 2UW, 2GB 1941 How the Other Half Lives 2UW Bulldog Drummond Aunt Jenny's Real Life Stories 2UE Backstage of Life Strange Mysteries Storm in a Teacup 1944 Mystery of Mooredge Manor 2TM Diary of the Air 1945 The Man Who Didn’t Die Come Again Crusoe 1946 Murder without Crime 1947 Edmund Conquest and the Pirates of the Barbary Coast Yasmin 2UE 1948–1951 Hagen’s Circus Late 1940s The Tender Heart Lead 2UW 1950s Quick As a Flash ABC This is My Story 2SM 1959 Beth 1961 Cattleman Judith 1963– English for New Australians ABC Blue Hills ABC Portia Faces Life 3UZ / 2UW Gabrielle
Theatre Year Title Role Notes Ref. 1933 Where the Crash Comes St James' Hall, Sydney with Sydney Players Club 1935 Drama Through the Ages Independent Theatre, Sydney 1936 Exit John Barcombe Mrs Barcombe St James' Hall, Sydney with Sydney Players Club 1941 Spring Tide Minerva Theatre, Sydney with Whitehall Productions 1942 Watch on the Rhine Minerva Theatre, Sydney with J. C. Williamson's Claudia 1943 Janie The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse 1946 Dangerous Corner Minerva Theatre, Sydney with Whitehall Productions The Third Visitor 1947 Clutterbuck 1948 I Have Been Here Before Independent Theatre, Sydney 1950 The Merchant of Venice Portia Independent Theatre, Sydney, St James' Hall, Sydney with John Alden Company 1961 The Merchant of Venice NSW Conservatorium of Music, Elizabethan Theatre, Newtown, Cremorne Orpheum, Sydney with John Alden Company & AETT 1964 Heartbreak House Mrs Hushabye UNSW Old Tote Theatre, Sydney
References
External links
Muriel Steinbeck Australian theatre credits at AusStage Muriel Steinbeck at the National Film and Sound Archive Sally O'Neill, 'Steinbeck, Muriel Myee (1913–1982)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/steinbeck-muriel-myee-15546/text26758, published first in hardcopy 2012, accessed online 30 April 2018.