{{Short description|Australian actor, producer (1909–1951)}} {{Use Australian English|date=March 2024}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2024}} '''Helen Dorothy "Nell" Stirling''' (nee '''Mamgron''', 22 August 1909 – 10 November 1951) was an Australian radio actor, singer, dancer and radio producer best known for her association with George Edwards in the Sydney radio industry.<ref>Martha Rutledge, 'Stirling, Helen Dorothy (Nell) (1909–1951)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/stirling-helen-dorothy-nell-11772/text21055, published first in hardcopy 2002, accessed online 19 March 2024.</ref>
==Biography== Stirling was born in Summer Hill, New South Wales to New Zealand-born father Henry James Mamgron, a sharebroker's clerk who was of Danish-German descent and Mary Rose Lawrie. She studied classical dance before joining the Tivoli circuit at the age of sixteen, where she then performed as a soubrette and tap dancer, before joining the Fullers Theatre in the chorus line.
In 1932 she started working in radio for George Edwards as his assistant, in his production "The Ghost Train" and eventually became his business and romantic partner.<ref>{{Citation | title=Nell Stirling | journal=The Wireless Weekly: The Hundred per Cent Australian Radio Journal | volume=28 | issue=19 | date=6 November 1936 | location=Sydney | publisher=Wireless Press | url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-675115783 | id=nla.obj-675115783 | access-date=19 March 2024 | via=Trove }}</ref>
The duo began working on radio at 2UE and were very successful, forming their own company, "The George Edwards Players". This became one of the largest producers of radio shows in Australia, many of which starred Stirling herself, the couple later moved to radio network 2GB in 1934.<ref>{{Citation | title=GEORGE EDWARDS & Co. AT 2UW | journal=The Wireless Weekly: The Hundred per Cent Australian Radio Journal | volume=27 | issue=21 | date=22 May 1936 | location=Sydney | publisher=Wireless Press | url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-712046132 | id=nla.obj-712046132 | access-date=19 March 2024 | via=Trove }}</ref>
Their scriptwriters included Lynne Foster, Lorna Bingham, Sumner Locke Elliott, Maurice Francis and Anthony Scott Veitch.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article247630527 |title=PICTORIAL PROFILE |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph |volume=X |issue=132 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=23 August 1945 |accessdate=19 March 2024 |page=14 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> Key shows included ''Dad and Dave from Snake Gully''.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article191021050 |title=RADIO SUCCESS |newspaper=The Inverell Times |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=15 July 1942 |accessdate=19 March 2024 |page=6 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
Stirling became Australia's highest paid female actress.<ref>{{Citation | title=Radio Mourns Versatile Actress | journal=ABC Weekly | volume = 13 | issue= 48 | date=1 December 1951 | location=Sydney | publisher=ABC | url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1552017392 | id=nla.obj-1552017392 | access-date=19 March 2024 | via=Trove }}</ref>
==Personal life== Stirling and Edwards married on 9 November 1934 and they had a daughter together, born in April 1941. Stirling divorced Edwards in 1948, and later that year married Alexander Atwill, her accountant. She died of an accidental overdose of carbitral capsules on 10 November 1951 at home.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18238980 |title=NELL STIRLING |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |issue=35,535 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=12 November 1951 |accessdate=19 March 2024 |page=4 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article167977425 |title=Curtain Falls On Nell Stirling |newspaper=Truth |issue=3233 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=13 January 1952 |accessdate=19 March 2024 |page=40 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Stirling, Nell}} Category:Australian actresses Category:1909 births Category:1951 deaths