Carmen Duncan


Carmen Joan Duncan was an Australian actress and activist, with a career that spanned over 50 years. She was nominated for the AFI Award for Best Actress for the 1980 film Harlequin, and was also known for the film Don't Let It Get You. Her other film appearances include Touch and Go and Turkey Shoot. She played Iris Wheeler in the American soap opera Another World from 1988 to 1994.

Early life and career

Duncan was born in Cooma, New South Wales, in 1942. She graduated in 1961 from the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney. Duncan was known to Australian audiences as a character actress in television, stage and films, as well as having appeared in television commercials. Her television roles included the series Hunter and she appeared in the evening soap opera Number 96 playing Helen Sheridan in 1973. A role on the soap Certain Women followed. She later had an ongoing role in Skyways, and guest starred in several episodes of A Country Practice as Terence Elliott's wife, Rowena. Her film roles included Turkey Shoot and its 2014 reboot.
Duncan emigrated to the United States in the 1980s, where she acted on television. From October 1988 to September 1994, she portrayed Iris Carrington Wheeler on the daytime soap opera Another World.
Duncan became a member of Actor's Equity in 1962 and the federal council of the Media and Entertainment Arts Alliance.

Activism

Duncan retired from acting in 2006 and became a fundraising manager for the GO Fund, a New South Wales charity associated with gynaecological cancer. She served as an ambassador for the Breast Care Centre at the Royal Hospital for Women.

Personal life

Duncan lived in Sydney. She had two children. Her younger sister is actress Paula Duncan.
She died on 3 February 2019 from breast cancer, aged 76.

Filmography

Feature films