Trisha Noble began her show business career as a singer Patsy Ann Noble in her native Australia. She was born in 1944 in New South Wales. In the 1970’s she moved to California and guest starred in such TV series as “Colombo” and “Baretta”. In 1986 she returned to Australia and continued her career there.
IMDB entry:
Dick Clark, immediately signed her as a regular on his series “Bandstand”.
Around that time, Patsy Ann signed a deal with the HMV record label and issued her debut single “I Love You So Much It Hurts” in November 1960. She released three more singles on HMV, of which “Good Looking Boy” became her biggest hit when it reached #6 in Melbourne and #16 in Sydney. In 1961, she was the winner of the first Logie Award for the Best Female Singer on Australian Television. She followed that with a successful acting debut at the Independent Theatre, Sydney, playing the lead role of Carmel in “The Grotto”. Shortly thereafter, Patsy Ann and her mother left for London to further her career. She launched her British career in 1963 and shared her first BBC radio show withThe Beatles, with whom she also appeared on British television. During this period, she recorded for EMI (England and France) with some chart success and performed at the London Palladium and at the Olympia Theatre in Paris.
By 1965, she had turned to acting, taking the role of Francesca in the British thriller Love Is a Woman (1966). She toured England with Cliff Richard and began to work on English television in dramatic and variety shows. In 1967, she married law student Allan Sharpe. During that year, she changed her stage name from Patsy Ann to Trisha and continued to work in British television and film. In her early 20s, she appeared on an Engelbert Humperdinck musical special and was seen by an American producer, who signed her to star in revue at the Las Vegas Sands Hotel. After a six-month engagement, she moved to Los Angeles and made her home there, making guest appearances on various television series. Trisha returned to Australia briefly in the early 1970s and starred in the stage musical “Sweet Charity”. After seven years of marriage, she and Allan divorced and she threw herself into her work. Upon her return to the United States, she worked extensively in television series, miniseries and feature films.
In 1976, she wed American fashion model Scott MacKenzie and the following year gave birth to their son, Patrick. However, after four years of marriage, the couple divorced in 1980. Despite personal setbacks, Trisha’s acting career continued to thrive as she co-starred with Don Knotts and Tim Conway in The Private Eyes (1980) and she landed the role of Detective Rosie Johnson in the Aaron Spelling / Robert Stack police drama Strike Force (1981). In 1983, her father, Buster, had a heart attack and was not expected to live long. At that point, Trisha made a difficult and life-changing decision. She decided to leave her successful acting career in Hollywood to return home to Australia to be with her family. She enjoyed seven years with her father before his death in July 1990. In 1985, Trisha married pharmaceutical scientist Peter Field and started a mineral-water business, Noble Beverages. Several years later, though, her third marriage ended in divorce and the business fell on hard times. At that point, Trisha decided to sell the business and get back to her first love — show business.
In 1997, a 25-song CD collection of her early 1960s recordings was released: “The Story of Patsy Ann Noble: Hits & Rarities”. In August, she filmed a small role in the CBS miniseries Blonde (2001) and was cast in a secret role in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002). Shortly thereafter, Trisha was cast to co-star with David Campbell in the musical “Shout!” in the role of Thelma O’Keefe, mother of Australian rock ‘n’ roll star, Johnny O’Keefe. The musical opened on January 4, 2001 in Melbourne, Australia, and a cast recording followed in March. To top it all, she was nominated in May for an Australian Entertainment MO Award in the category: Female Musical Theatre Performer of the Year for her role in “Shout!”.
– IMDb Mini Biography By: Tina Carwile
The above IMDB entry can also be accessed online here.
The Times obituary in 2021.
In 1962, when Patsy Ann Noble arrived in a wintry London, she was little known as a singer outside her native Australia. She expected she would face a hard slog if she wanted to make her name as a performer. Instead she soon found herself on tour with Cliff Richard and the Shadows, then one of the biggest bands in the country.
She released several singles, including Sour Grapes and Accidents Will Happen, and then featured on a radio programme with the Beatles, and a television show, Thank Your Lucky Stars, with the Rolling Stones. Appearances followed on such primetime variety programmes as Sunday Night at the London Palladium, Juke Box Jury, Ready, Steady, Go! and The Morecambe & Wise Show — all within her first 18 months in the UK.
Having something of a flair for self-projection, she then decided it was time the world saw that she could also act. “I was raised in a show business family as an all-round performer, not just a pop singer,” she explained. She was soon appearing in all-star revues such as the popular Five Past Eight Show at the Glasgow Alhambra in 1965 and in the 1966 production Night is for Delight, alongside Prunella Scales, Lance Percival and Elisabeth Welch, with sketches written by the likes of Harold Pinter and John Mortimer, at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford.
She also landed a role on television, playing a different comic character every week on The Dick Emery Show. After that, her ambition undimmed, she decided she wanted to be in the movies. In 1966 she made her acting debut as a sexy villainess in the lacklustre British spy film Death Is a Woman. Posters for the film showed her posing in her bikini in the manner of Raquel Welch.
After marrying Allan Sharpe, a law student, in 1967, she changed her professional name to Trisha Noble and relaunched herself with blonde hair but she continued to be offered the same mix of roles. Her part in Carry on Camping (1969) was cut back but she made an impression as the high priestess of the Vestal Virgins in the opening episodes of the Frankie Howerd comedy series Up Pompeii (1970).
During a visit back to Australia she complained about the British film industry’s attitude towards women. “A lot of wonderful actresses are out of work because they won’t strip,” she said. “I have turned down so many offers because I won’t degrade myself.”
Her change of direction may have paid off artistically, but there was still something missing. “For one full year,” she later said, “I didn’t see the sun at all. It was driving me crazy, waking up every morning and looking out at all that grey. I need sunshine to feel good inside.”
While singing in an Engelbert Humperdinck television special, she was spotted by an American producer and invited to star in a revue at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas. She went like a shot. “When I first saw LA it was as though I had come home, like I was immediately wrapped in a blanket that was home. It was amazing how I fell in love with it from the first moment I saw it,” she said.
From 1971 she notched up parts in a steady stream of American television shows, notably The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Columbo and The Rockford Files.
