Rebecca Gibney

Rebecca Gibney
Rebecca Gibney, February 2013
Born	Rebecca Catherine Gibney (1964-12-14) 14 December 1964 Levin, Manawatu-Wanganui, New Zealand
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1980–present
Notable work	The Flying Doctors All Together Now Halifax f.p. Packed to the Rafters
Spouse(s)	Irwin Thomas (1992–1995) Richard Bell (2001–present)

Rebecca Catherine Gibney (born 14 December 1964) is a New Zealand actress. She has appeared regularly in Australian film and television since the mid-1980s. She won the Gold Logie in 2009 for her role in Packed to the Rafters.

Biography

Gibney was born the youngest of six children, and brought up in Wellington. She recounted that she was a "bit odd" as a child, stating "I was a bit like Wednesday Addams in The Addams Family. I walked around with this headless doll that I took everywhere." Gibney moved to Australia at the age of 19 after graduating from high school.

Performance career

Gibney worked as a model, then appeared on television in the New Zealand kidult series Sea Urchins from 1980 to 1984. She broke into Australian television with the role of Julie Davis in the children's series Zoo Family in 1985. She went on to play mechanic Emma Plimpton in the popular drama series The Flying Doctors, and in 1990 starred in the mini-series Come In Spinner. In 1991 she starred in the Channel Nine sitcom All Together Now, leaving the series in 1993. After her departure, she starred in Snowy.

The title character of Dr. Jane Halifax in Halifax f.p. was created especially for her by the producers of her previous show Snowy. Halifax f.p. debuted in 1994 with the episode "Acts Of Betrayal", and continued with a further 20 telemovies leading up until 2002. The series was an immense success and cemented Gibney's status as a household name within Australia. She has also appeared in other mini-series, like Kangaroo Palace (1997), and in The Day of the Roses (in 1998).

In 2002 and 2003, Gibney had a role in Stingers, and from 2003 until 2006, she had a role in the telemovie trilogy Small Claims as Chrissy, co-starring with Claudia Karvan.

She appeared in the movie adaptation of Stephen King's novel Salem's Lot, released in 2004, and then followed up in 2006 with King's Nightmares and Dreamscapes TV mini-series.

In 2006, she played the role of Lydia, a hippie restaurant owner and operator in the Network Ten drama series Tripping Over. In 2007, she had a small role in the film Clubland, starring Brenda Blethyn, and directed by Cherie Nowlan. The film is known as Introducing the Dwights in the United States.

A series of Australian television adverts for Advil in 2006/07 have featured Gibney and her family. A new television advert with only Gibney appeared in October 2007.

Gibney was executive producer and also starred in New Zealand feature film The Map Reader as Amelia alongside Michael Hurst and played the mother of Michael, the map reader of the title portrayed by Jordan Selwyn. The film was released in 2008.

She hosted a documentary series produced by Television New Zealand called Sensing Murder in which unsolved New Zealand murder or missing person cases are probed by psychic investigators from both New Zealand and Australia.

From August 2008 until its conclusion in 2013, Rebecca Gibney played the female lead of Julie Rafter on the Seven Network's Packed to the Rafters. Her role in the show proved popular for Gibney, and she won the Gold Logie in 2009 for the show.

In 2010, she played the lead role on Channel Ten's telemovie Wicked Love: The Maria Korp Story.

Rebecca starred in the 2012 movie Mental alongside Toni Collette.

On 23 October 2013, the Seven Network announced that Gibney will star in and produce a new crime drama, The Killing Field, which was released in 2014. Gibney plays a detective tasked with solving the murder of a teenage girl in a small town. Winter, a follow-up series to her 2014 tele-movie The Killing Field screened in 2015.

Personal life

Gibney has been married twice, first to Irwin Thomas (former lead singer of Southern Sons, aka Jack Jones) in 1992, which ended in divorce. She married production designer Richard Bell in November 2001.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1984	Among the Cinders	Sally
1986	Mr. Wrong	Clive's Secretary
1990	Jigsaw	Virginia York
1994	Lucky Break	Gloria Wrightman	AKA, Paperback Romance
1997	Joey	Penny McGregor
2006	Lost and Found	Mac's Mum
2007	Clubland	Lana	AKA, Introducing the Dwights
2008	The Map Reader	Amelia
2009	In Her Skin	Gail
2011	Seek	Mummy	Short film
2012	Mental	Shirley
2015	The Dressmaker	Muriel Pratt

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1980	Sea Urchins		TV film
1985	I Live with Me Dad	Jill Harkness	TV film
1985	Zoo Family	Julie Davis	Main role
1986	The Great Bookie Robbery	Bonnie	TV miniseries
1986–91	The Flying Doctors	Emma Plimpton Patterson	Main role
1990	Come in Spinner	Guinea Malone	TV miniseries
1990	Acropolis Now	Mrs. Spiro Strangulator	"Cappuccino Catastrophe"
1991	Ring of Scorpio	Judith	TV film
1991–93	All Together Now	Tracy Lawson	Main role
1993	Snowy	Lilian Anderson	Main role
1994	Time Trax	Dr. Maria Mills	"The Cure"
1994–2002	Halifax f.p.	Jane Halifax	Recurring role
1995	G.P.	Larissa Schuller	"Still Life"
1997	Kangaroo Palace	Heather Randall	TV film
1998	The Silver Brumby	Boon Boon (voice)	"Getting Together"
1998	The Day of the Roses	Margaret Warby	TV miniseries
1998	13 Gantry Row	Julie	TV film
1999	Sabrina, Down Under	Hilary Hexton	TV film
1999	The Lost World	Lady Cassandra Yorkton	"Cave of Fear"
1999	Die Millennium-Katastrophe - Computer-Crash 2000	Nicole	TV film
2001	Finding Hope	Hope Fox	TV film
2001	Farscape	Rinic Sarova	"Thanks for Sharing"
2001	Ihaka: Blunt Instrument	Kirsty Finn	TV film
2002–03	Stingers	Ingrid Burton	Recurring role
2003	Sensing Murder: Easy Street	Host	TV film
2004	Small Claims	Chrissy Hindmarsh	TV film
2004	Salem's Lot	Marjorie Glick	TV miniseries
2005	Small Claims: White Wedding	Chrissy Hindmarsh	TV film
2006	Small Claims: The Reunion	Chrissy Hindmarsh	TV film
2006	Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King	India Fornoy	"The End of the Whole Mess"
2006	Tripping Over	Lydia	TV miniseries
2008–13	Packed to the Rafters	Julie Rafter	Main role
2010	Wicked Love: The Maria Korp Story	Maria Korp	TV film
2014	The Killing Field	Det. Serg. Eve Winter	TV film
2015	Peter Allen: Not the Boy Next Door	Marion Woolnough	TV miniseries
2015	Winter	Eve Winter	Main role
2016	Wanted	Lola	Main role

Awards

Gibney has won, and has been nominated, for several television awards at the AFIs and the Logies on numerous occasions in her acting career.

She won her first award in 1990, winning the AFI (Australian Film Institute) Award for Best Actress for her role in Come In Spinner. She also won a peer-nominated Most Outstanding Actress Logie award in 1991 for her role in the show.

In 1992, she was nominated at the Logies for her role in the sitcom All Together Now in two categories: Most Popular Actress and Most Popular Light Entertainment / Comedy Female Performer.

Her role as the lead in Halifax f.p. had Gibney nominated for three different awards – Most Popular Actress at the Logies (in 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2001); Most Outstanding Actress at the Logies (in 1998, 1999 and 2000) and Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Television Drama at the AFI's (in 1998 and 2000).

Gibney's role in the telemovie Small Claims led her to another nomination at the 2005 Logies in the Most Outstanding Actress category.

A popular role for Gibney has been on Packed to the Rafters. Her role in this has led her to win the 2009 Gold Logie and the 2009 Most Popular Actress award. She also been nominated at the Logies for the Gold Logie in 2010 and 2011, Most Popular Actress in 2010, 2011, and 2012, and Most Outstanding Actress in 2009. At the AFI Awards she was nominated in 2009, in the Best Lead Actress in a Drama award.

External links

• Rebecca Gibney at the Internet Movie Database