Doreen Warburton (OBE)[1] (also known as Evelyn Ward) actress, director, theatre co-founder[1]
Family
Ethel Florence Gabriel (McConnell) (1888–1967) actress, costume designer and maker[2]
Ben Gabriel (25 February 1918 – 25 April 2012) was an English Australian character actor, director, voice artist and theatre founder.[3] Gabriel had numerous appearances in stage and radio roles and in film and television.[3][4][5]
Gabriel grew up in Sydney and Wollongong and saw war service as a lance-sergeant for six years with the 9th division during World War II.[4][7] He officially changed his stage name to Ben Gabriel, a name he had always used on a personal basis.[4]
His career began in theatre in the late 1930s and he appeared with his mum in touring productions of Summer of the Seventeenth Doll in 1959 and 1960, continuing roles with the Sydney Theatre Company in Three Sisters and The Lower Depths and also the Ensemble Theatre as a holocaust survivor in a A Shayna Maidel. Gabriel founded the Q Theatre with his wife and others originally operating at Circular Quay and then in Penrith.
In 1949, he married opera singer Rhonney Webber. Together they had one daughter but soon divorced less than ten years later. He later married actress and director Doreen Warburton (OBE), who was also born in London, England, but had emigrated to Australia in 1953 and awarded the OBE in 1972.[6] His wife and his daughter, Laura, both survived him after his death on 25 April 2012.[4]
Australian actor Noel Hodda, during his eulogy, described Ben Gabriel as "an old school actor – there to serve the writer, the story and the director and by doing that, serving the audience."[5]
