Wendy Hughes - Career

Career

Wendy Hughes was born in Melbourne to parents who had migrated from England (her father from Lancashire and her mother from London). She began her career on television in the early 1970s with appearances in Homicide, Number 96, Matlock Police and in 1976, ABC Mini-Series, Power Without Glory. Her big screen debut was in 1974 in the film Petersen in which she appeared naked in several scenes.

She then spent the rest of the 1970s and 1980s as one of the leading actresses in Australian cinema, with roles in Newsfront, Kostas, My Brilliant Career, Lucinda Brayford, Touch and Go, Hoodwink, Lonely Hearts, Careful, He Might Hear You, My First Wife, I Can't Get Started, An Indecent Obsession, Echoes of Paradise, Boundaries of the Heart, Warm Nights on a Slow Moving Train (1988), and Luigi's Ladies.

Hughes made her American debut in John G. Avildsen's film Happy New Year opposite Peter Falk and Charles Durning. In 1989 she starred opposite Pierce Brosnan in an HBO made for TV movie, The Heist.

She also continued to make occasional appearances on television, such as playing Jilly Stewart in the mini-series Return to Eden.

During the early 1990s, she spent time in the United States, where she played medical examiner Dr. Carol Blythe in the critically acclaimed television series Homicide: Life on the Street. She also played a major role in the miniseries Amerika, and made a significant guest appearance as Lieutenant Commander Nella Daren on Star Trek: The Next Generation as one of Captain Picard's very few love interests on the show.

Back in Australia, she played lead roles on television in The Man From Snowy River ("Snowy River: The McGregor Saga"), and State Coroner. Film appearances around this time include Princess Caraboo and Paradise Road.