Neighbours star Joan Sydney has died at the age of 83.
The veteran TV actress Joan Sydney, best known to UK audiences for playing Valda Sheergold in the long-running Aussie soap, died peacefully according to a former colleague and friend, Sally-Anne Upton, as quoted in TV Tonight.
Joan Sydney had a celebrated career in TV, theatre and radio, with her biggest role being that of Matron Sloane in A Country Practice, appearing in over 450 episodes of the serial between 1983 and 1990.
For her work in the soap, she was awarded Most Popular Actress at the Logie Awards, picking up the honour in 1989
Joan joined Neighbours in 2002 as Valda Sheergold, who was Lynn Scully’s aunt. Valda featured as a recurring character, initially making appearances over a three period between 2002 and 2005.
The character famously tried to forge relationships with mainstays Harold Bishop and Lou Carpenter, but her efforts were mostly unsuccessful, and thus she ended up marrying Charlie Cassidy, who she had previously had a relationship with.
Valda temporarily departed in 2005, but Joan would reprise her role two years later, returning to Ramsay Street in 2007.
This time around she was made a series regular, featuring heavily during the aforementioned year, before once again departing in March 2008.
Fans have been paying tribute to Joan and her iconic work, with one writing: ‘RIP Joan Sydney. A wonderful actress who went from playing the stern Matron on A Country Practice to the hilariously over-the-top Valda on #Neighbours.
‘The surname said everything you needed to know about the character. She was Sheer-Gold.
Another added: ‘R.I.P Joan. Such a great actor who provided so much humour to her role of Valda on #Neighbours.’
Neighbours was thought to have ended for good last year after a historic 37-year run, after channel 5 controversially axed the show.
Amazon Freevee, however, came to the rescue, reviving the popular soap, which will return to screens with new episodes later this year.