Cornelia Frances was an English actress popular for her role of Morag Bellingham in Home and Away.
Career[]
Frances' acting career flourished after she had emigrated to Australia. After taking a lead role in the film version of sex-comedy soap opera The Box in 1975 she became known across Australia for her long running role of the strict and acidic Sister Grace Scott in daily soap opera The Young Doctors. After leaving that series to move to Melbourne with her husband who had been transferred there, she worked as a television reporter on "light" stories for a current affairs program hosted by Peter Couchman.
During this period she also made a brief appearance in Prisoner which was taped in the same studio as the Couchman show. Later she acted in guest starring television roles, before taking another well-remembered role, that of Barbara Armstrong in Sons and Daughters, a role she played from 1982 until 1986. She also hosted the Australian version of quiz show The Weakest Link (2001–2002) and provided the voice of the tortoise on children's series, Magic Mountain. In the early 2000s Frances worked for a winery in the Hunter Valley when she could not get acting work. Her autobiography And what have you done lately? was published in 2003.
In 1988, Frances made her first appearance in Home and Away as Morag Bellingham, a judge, and sister of Alf Stewart. Frances has played the recurring role of Morag for twenty three years. She has expressed a desire to play Morag full-time on the show and admitted that she does not like the coming and going as it is "very unsettling."