Philippa Baker (actress)

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Philippa Baker, credited also as Phillippa Baker (born 1932)^[3][1] is an Australian retired actress of radio, theatre and television in series and teleplays and telefilms (although appeared in a couple of features)

Baker started her career in theatre and in the early 1950s, before spending five years appearing in the Gwen Meredith radio series Blue Hills, moving to the new medium of television she featured in televised plays, before taking several cameos in a few TV soap operas, primarily for Crawford Productions,

However, she is best known for in the soap opera Number 96, in the 1970s as a comedy duo with Johnny Lockwood, as Russian deli worker Roma Lubinski, she later marries his character Aldo, but due to the series falling ratings, both characters were subsequently killed off in a bomb blast storyline. Baker and Lockwood also featured in the film version in 1974.

She played Dame Enid Lyons in the miniseries True Believers, in 1988.

Baker post-96 had several small role's in telmovies and miniseries, but did however appear in the Yahoo Serious film Young Einstein in 1988, in a cameo as Freud's mum. She left the acting industry the following year in 1989, after more than 35 years of performing, returning to her regular day work as a librarian until officially retiring.^[1][2]

Baker was born in Sydney in 1932^[3] and attended the Independent Theatre, alongside Number 96 co-star Sheila Kennelly training under Doris Fitton.

Baker acted in the long-running radio serial Blue Hills^[when?], spending five years playing a Scottish nurse.^[4]

Baker appeared in television plays by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation from 1958 onwards, and then featured in a few different roles in early Crawford Productions police procedurals Homicide and Division Four.

Baker however became best known for playing Roma in top-rated soap opera Number 96. She joined as Russian emigrant Roma Lubinski early in the show's run in 1972, becoming a comedy double-act with Johnny Lockwood, who played her character's soon-to-be husband Aldo, the deli proprietor, Roma works in the deli and owns her own restaurant, it is reviewed she is a concentration camp survivor.^[5]

Aldo and Roma reprised their roles in the 1974 feature film version of Number 96. They were written out of the serial in late 1974 with all the attached publicity, but returned several weeks later: it was always planned as a temporary absence and revealed the media stories where a publicity stunt.

By August 1975 however, the program's ratings had entered a slump and a drastic revamp of the show was planned. The writers decided to write out several high-profile characters, so in early September 1975 the show's famous bomb blast killed four residents including Roma and Aldo. The couples where extremely popular and there was much campaigning by fans to bring back there favourite characters. In 1976 Baker and co-star Lockwood appeared in a retrospective documentary special, titled ...And They Said It Wouldn't Last, commemorating the 1000th episode of Number 96.

In 1976 Baker joined comedy series The Norman Gunston Show in a recurring sketch The Checkout Chicks, a parody of melodramatic soap operas set in a supermarket. The Checkout Chicks featured other former Number 96 actors Abigail, Vivienne Garrett, Candy Raymond, Judy Lynne and Anne Louise Lambert.

In 1977, she appeared in the guest role of Mrs. Jamieson (Dennis Jameison's mother) in the soap opera The Young Doctors.

Through the 1980s Baker made various appearances in theatre, television and film. She had small roles in the films Annie's Coming Out (1984) and Young Einstein (1988).

Baker also worked in theatre between 1953 and 1989, including productions of The Glass Menagerie, The Cherry Orchard, Hedda Gabler and A Streetcar Named Desire ^[2]

• Philippa Baker at IMDb