Melissa Jaffer

Accomplished, extremely versatile Australian character actress, who has appeared mainly on stage and TV. Despite her relatively few roles on the big screen, Jaffer has won an AFI Award as Best Supporting Actress (tied with Jacki Weaver) for her performance as a barmaid in Caddie (1976). Other noteworthy roles have included Vi, a woman with a dark past, in Weekend of Shadows (1978); the ballet teacher in The Gold and the Glory (1984); and the ‘Keeper of the Seeds’, eldest of the warrior women in Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) (amazingly, she also did her own stunt work!).

Melissa Jaffer was one of two siblings, born in the rural town of Gladstone in South Australia. Her father served in the RAAF during the Second World War. After his demobilization, he bought a hotel and became a publican in Kyneton, Victoria. Her mother provided financial support for the family during the war, holding down a senior clerical position in a munitions factory. Both Melissa and her sister Juanita were brought up in the Catholic faith and attended Loreto College in Ballarat from 1948 to 1950. Upon leaving school, Jaffer was able to obtain her first role on the stage as Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream following an introduction to William Carr, head of the National Theatre School and Company in Melbourne. In the course of her lengthy theatrical career she has appeared in numerous classic plays, including Pygmalion, As You Like It, Oliver!, Uncle Vanya, Richard III, Hedda Gabler and The Glass Menagerie.

Jaffer made her screen debut in 1967 on the early Australian soap opera Bellbird (1967). Her subsequent guest appearances in iconic shows have included Homicide (1964), Division 4 (1969) and Matlock Police (1971). She starred opposite Ed Devereaux as the matriarch of a Sydney working-class family in the TV drama Kings (1983). In a 1985 miniseries, Jaffer played Thelma O’Keefe, the mother of Aussie rock’n’roll legend Johnny O’Keefe. The Harp in the South (1987) saw her as a woman struggling with the stigma of having an illegitimate, mentally handicapped son in late 1940s Sydney. Jaffer has made repeat appearances as different characters in A Country Practice (1981), in the highly acclaimed sitcom Mother and Son (1984) (as Maggie’s sister Aunty Lorna), G.P. (1989) (as Dr. Maureen Riordan), Grass Roots (2000) and All Saints (1998).

Internationally, she is probably best known as Utu-Noranti Pralatong, the ancient, idiosyncratic mystic who joined the crew of Moya during seasons three and four of Rockne S. O’Bannon’s groundbreaking sci-fi series Farscape (1999). Though Jaffer’s character could be described as loopy at the best of times, she proved well-intentioned, her knowledge of alchemy and botany getting Crichton and Co. out of trouble on more than one occasion.

A splendid actress, often memorable, even in smaller supporting roles.