Kerry Armstrong

Kerry Michelle Armstrong (born 12 September 1958)^[1] is an Australian actress and author. She is one of only two actresses to win two Australian Film Institute Awards in the same year, winning Best Actress in a Leading Role for Lantana and Best Actress in a Leading Role in a Television Drama for SeaChange in 2001.

After early television roles in Australia including Prisoner (1979) and Skyways (1980), Armstrong moved to the United States in 1981, where she played Ophelia in Hamlet and Isabella in Measure for Measure at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., and had a role in the soap opera Dynasty (1985–1986). She returned to Australia in 1987. Her other television roles include MDA (2002–2003) and Bed of Roses (2008–2011).

Kerry Michelle Armstrong was born in Melbourne, Victoria, to parents Bev and Norm Armstrong and grew up in the beachside suburb of Beaumaris alongside sister Kim.^[2]

At the age of eleven, Armstrong performed in a school production of The Little Prince, as the narrator. Soon after, her father's engineering career saw the family relocate to Barcelona for two years.^[2] Back in Melbourne, Armstrong attended St Leonard’s College, in Brighton, where her high school drama teacher considered her a standout amongst the other students.^[2]

When she was 15, Armstrong attended a cattle call for theatre company J. C. Williamson's in Melbourne. British comedian Sid James was there and offered her a role in an Australian touring production of The Mating Season, believing her to be 21. Her parents forbade her to accept the role at first, but eventually relented, Armstrong travelling for nine months with the production. She continued her studies by correspondence, before returning to school in year 11. Then, in 1977, she left once more, to perform in a production of Doctor in Love.^[2]

Armstrong's first appearance on television in the early 1970s was as a weather presenter on GTV-9 in Melbourne, succeeding Delvene Delaney in the position. When she applied for the role she was still a teenage schoolgirl, but led them to believe she was 22.^[3] The first publicly-aired word she ever spoke was "Goodnight!"^[4]

After this, Armstrong took on dramatic acting roles, including the Network Ten women's prison drama Prisoner, drama series Skyways, and soap opera The Sullivans.^[4] In 1981 she co-hosted the Network Ten series Together Tonight, with Greg Evans.

Armstrong moved to the United States in 1981, where she studied under Herbert Berghof and Uta Hagen at the HB Studio^[5] in New York City on an acting scholarship.^[6][7][8]

While studying, Armstrong worked as maitre d’ at Central Park restaurant Tavern on the Green before scoring acting work. With the studio's Playwrights Foundation, she played Juliet in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Ophelia in Hamlet, and Isabella in Measure for Measure at the Arena Stage in Washington, DC.^[8] She also starred as Christine in Tom Stoppard's Dalliance at the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut.^[9]

On television, Armstrong landed an ongoing role in daytime serial One Life to Live, and became part of The Actors' Gang along with John Cusack and Tim Robbins.^[6][10] Cusack, Robbins, and Armstrong auditioned for Saturday Night Live, but only Armstrong was offered a part, which she declined.^[6] She also appeared in several episodes of Dynasty^[6] as Elena, Duchess of Branagh. and guest starred in the 1984 Murder, She Wrote episode "Death Takes a Curtain Call".^[11]

In 1987, Armstrong returned to Australia upon the death of her grandmother.^[6][10] In the early 1990s, she resumed acting in Australian television series, including Police Rescue, Ocean Girl, Come In Spinner, All Together Now and Halfway Across the Galaxy and Turn Left. In 1991 Armstrong was nominated for an AFI award for Best Actress for her role in the film Hunting which was released by Paramount in the U.S.

In 1998, Armstrong was offered the role of Heather Jelly in the television series SeaChange, the ever-devoted but long-suffering wife of corrupt local mayor Bob (John Howard). The role won her critical acclaim and garnered several awards.

When SeaChange ended in 2000, Armstrong continued on with her theatre work and also appeared in the film Lantana, directed by Ray Lawrence amd also starring Anthony LaPaglia, Barbara Hershey, Geoffrey Rush, Glenn Robbins, and Vince Colosimo. Armstrong won the Inside Film (IF) Award, Film Critics Circle of Australia Award, and the AFI Award for her Lantana performance. In the same year she won another AFI award, for the final season of SeaChange, making her the second actress to win two AFI awards in one year.

In 2002, Armstrong joined the cast of medico-legal drama MDA on ABC alongside Jason Donovan and Shane Bourne. However, she left the series at the end of its second season. In the series her character, Dr Ella Davis, left the firm that was the focus of the show. After MDA, Armstrong appeared in films One Perfect Day, Oyster Farmer,^[4] Virus, Car Pool and Razzle Dazzle. On 10 May 2008 ABC TV started screening a six-part series called Bed of Roses, with Armstrong in the lead role as Louisa Atherton.^[12][13] In 2008 she appeared in the film Reservations. In 2010, Bed of Roses returned for a second season on the ABC, followed by a third and final season in 2011. In the same year she starred in the short film The Forgotten Men, alongside Jack Thompson and Gyton Grantley.

2016 saw Armstrong return to Australian screens in the series The Wrong Girl for Network Ten.

In 2024, Armstrong was announced as part of the cast for the Stan Christmas movie Nugget Is Dead?: A Christmas Story.^[14]

Armstrong wrote a self-help book, The Circles, published on 1 November 2003.^[15] She described the book as a practical exercise in empowering people.^[16]

Her second book, Fool on the Hill, published in March 2006,^[17] is about the nature of personality.^[10]

A travel guide, Newcomer's Handbook for New York City was co-edited with Belden Merims in 1996.^[18]

Armstrong has worked with several charitable organisations including Childwise,^[10] Big hART,^[19] and Cure for Life Foundation, which sponsors research into brain tumour treatments.^[10][20] In 2006, she represented Cure for Life in season five of Dancing with the Stars. Armstrong and dance partner, Christopher Ryan, were the third couple eliminated from the show.^[21]

Armstrong publicly opposed the War in Iraq, and in protest, sat on the steps of the Victorian Parliament in a purple bra to draw attention to her cause.^[10]

In October 2008 Armstrong appeared as the face of a "myth-busting" advertising campaign for Coca-Cola Amatil, created by the agency Singleton Ogilvy & Mather.^[22] Titled "Kerry Armstrong on Motherhood and Myth Busting", the print advertisement purported to correct "myths and conjecture" about Coca-Cola drink products, rejecting suggestions that Coca-Cola "rots your teeth", "makes you fat", and is "packed with caffeine".^[23] In April 2009, the Australian Competition & Consumer Commissioner ruled that the Coca-Cola advertisements in which Armstrong appeared were misleading.^[24]

In 1981, Armstrong was briefly married to Australian Crawl rhythm guitarist Brad Robinson.^[25] Armstrong and Robinson co-wrote "Easy on Your Own",^[26] a track on Australian Crawl's second album Sirocco and B-side to the single "Errol".^[27]

On the advice of her US agent and with Robinson's consent, she divorced and married a friend, Alexander Bernstein (son of Leonard Bernstein), in order to resolve visa issues and allow her to live and work in the United States.^[6] Armstrong only had a professional arrangement with Bernstein, but her long distance from Robinson dissolved their relationship.^[6] While in the US, Armstrong became romantically involved with actor Tim Robbins.^[6]

In 1990, she married writer-producer Mac Gudgeon^[6] when their son was three months old. The marriage to Gudgeon ended, and in 1996 she married builder Mark Croft, with whom she has twin sons.^[6][10] Armstrong and Croft separated in 2001.^[6] As of 2008, she lived with her three sons in the Yarra Valley.^[6]

Source: ^[28]

• Kerry Armstrong at IMDb
• Profile, Marquee Management