Neighbours icon Joan Sydney has died at the age of 83.
After a seven-decade long career, the actress was best known for playing Valda Sheergold in the Australian soap. The much-loved TV veteran died peacefully on December 28 in Sydney, according to her long-time friend, Sally-Anne Upton.
Sally-Anne spoke beautifully about the late actress during an appearance on TV, reported The Mirror. The friend opened up about Joan's pure heart as she spoke about a charity benefit that her friend had organised.
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She said: "I asked Joan if she would appear as Matron Sloane and at first she was very reluctant. She thought it wouldn’t work as Wandin Valley had been a long time off our screen.
"And I said, 'Are you kidding me? Everyone will know who you are. And it will be the highlight of the show'.
"And sure enough, as I’m MC-ing the second half she appeared through the curtain in her white nurses uniform and 70s nurses cap, no words spoken, and brought the house down. Later in the green room she was still in shock of the response. 'Well, I never'."
Joan's first appeared on Neighbours as Valda Sheergold - a role which was initially supposed to be a casual stint for the actress. However, after soap fans fell in love with the character, Joan was given a full-time role in 2007 and 2008.
Valda played Lyn Scully's mother, but it was revealed that she had given Lyn to her sister Connie O'Rourke and her husband Henry O'Rourke when she was a baby. She was also the grandmother to Stephanie, Felicity, Michelle, Jack and Oscar.
During her stint on Neighbours, Joan's character tried to form romances with both Harold Bishop and Lou Carpenter, but she married Charlie Cassidy instead. Joan also notably playing Matron Sloane in over 450 episodes of A Country Practice between 1983 and 1990.
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