Lily Dampier


Lily Dampier was an Australian actor of stage and screen. She was the daughter of Alfred Dampier and married to Alfred Rolfe.
Her best known stage parts were Sylvia in For the Term of His Natural Life and Kate in Robbery Under Arms. She also performed many roles from Shakespeare and worked in England.
A contemporary described her as a better actress than her sister Rose:
Certainly she was the more forceful, physically, and vocally, but she was disqualified for high tragic roles by the fact that she had ridiculously small feet for a well developed woman, and used to walk in mincing and tottering steps in moments when rhythmic striding was needed.

An earlier secret marriage in 1889 had ended in divorce and her sister also died young. She married Rolfe in 1893.

Death

Lily was staying in Williams St, West Melbourne when she took ill. Her husband was filming in Sydney and was going to take her to a private hospital when she died. According to contemporary reports, "her death occurred rather suddenly'.
Her mother died shortly after Lily died.

Select filmography