Joanne Dru

She died from lymphedema in Los Angeles, California. She won the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actress for her work, and seven days after receiving the award, died from the disease, in Melbourne. Although regarded as a capable and popular film actress, it was for her contributions to television that Dru was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Florance herself was fighting cancer during the filming. Her film career began to fade by the end of the 1950s but she continued working frequently in television. As a genteel, elderly woman, down on her luck, who reminisced with her nurse of better days, while dying of cancer, Florance gave a performance that was widely praised both within Australia, and internationally following the film's release. She later lamented that she had been typecast in western films, commenting that once an actress became typecast, that was the end, and adding that she had never liked horses. Her final film role was in A Woman's Tale (1991).

She also gave a well received performance in the drama film All the King's Men (1949). Florance left the show in 1984 and worked in such films as Nirvana Street Murder (1990). Over the next decade she appeared frequently in films, most often cast in westerns such as the John Wayne films Red River (1948) and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949). Her popularity was such that she won two Logie Awards as Australia's most popular television actress in 1981 and 1983. Dru was spotted by a talent scout and made her first film appearance in Abie's Irish Rose in 1946. As the recalcitrant, alcoholic, convicted murderer Lizzie Birdsworth, Florance became one of the show's favourite performers, and while the writers usually used her for comic relief, she was also given more subtantial dramatic storylines. During this time Dru met and married the popular singer Dick Haymes and when they moved to Hollywood she found work in theater. In 1979 she joined the cast of the television series Prisoner (known outside of Australia as Prisoner: Cell Block H).

Born Joanne Letitia LaCock in Logan, West Virginia, Dru came to New York City in 1940, and after finding employment as a model, was chosen by Al Jolson to appear in the cast of his Broadway show Hold Onto Your Hats. Born in St Kilda, Melbourne, Australia, Florance was a frequent guest star in various television series during the 1960s and was a regular on the Bellbird series. In the 1970s she began appearing in films, most notably Petersen (1974), End Play (1975), The Devil's Playground (1976), and Mad Max (1979). Joanne Dru (January 31, 1922 – September 10, 1996) was an American film actress. Sheila Florance (July 24, 1916 – October 12, 1991) was an Australian film and television actress.