Ray Lawler

Lawler was the second child of eight of a Melbourne council worker. When he was 13 he left school to work in a factory, though he continued to attend evening classes. He wrote his first play when he was 19 years old, but didn't attract much attention until he presented Cradle of Thunder at a theatre competition in 1952. The premiere of Summer of the Seventeenth Doll three years later catapulted him to fame as an Australian playwright, and he played the role of Barney in the premiere and in the London production. After that, he lived in various European countries and married his wife, actress Jacklyn Kelleher, in 1956. They had three children together. In 1975, Lawler returned to Australia to fill the role of associate director at the Melbourne Theatre Company. He agreed to complete a trilogy centered on Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, which resulted in Kid Stakes and Other Times. In 1980, he was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, and a small theater in the Melbourne Theater Company's theater is named for him.