Lillian Crombie Obituary, Actress And Performer Lillian Crombie Passes Away

Elaine, Lillian Crombie’s daughter, announced her death on social media. Her age was sixty-six.

In South Australia’s Port Pirie, Aunty Lillian was raised. She studied drama, dance, and acting.

She was the only Aboriginal girl in her class when she was a young student at the Port Pirie Ballet School, where she received her classical ballet training. Before pursuing acting, she took mime classes, and when she was sixteen, she traveled to Sydney on a dance scholarship.

In the 1980s, she trained with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre and at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) in New York.

A renowned performer, she traveled abroad to perform in plays and participated in numerous national productions.

Leading parts were hers in a number of films, including Rainbow’s End, Capricornia, Conversations with the Dead, Black Mary – Festival of Dreaming, Gunjies, and Rainbow the Peacemaker. Back home, she made appearances on television in shows like Mystery Road and The Secret Life of Us, as well as in the Baz Luhrmann-directed film Australia.

Faraway Downs is a new TV miniseries that is based on the movie.
For her services to the arts, Crombie received a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019 from the Equity Foundation. She was hailed as a forerunner for the telling of First Nations stories at the time by playwright and creative director Wesley Enoch.

“Her amazing comic timing is legendary. Who could ever resist the way she winks an eye and flashes her smile and has you laughing while she delivers a huge life lesson,” he said.