Early life
Lee was born on 20 June 1923 in the Sydney suburb of Leichhardt, to Margaret Clara (née Draper, formerly Watts) and John Llewellin Hogg. Her father was a dentist in Strathfield, followed by Gloucester.
Lee went to school at the local convent, where she received piano lessons from one of the nuns. From the age of 12, she boarded with an aunt at Strathfield and in 1937 attended high school at the New South Wales State Conservatorium of Music. She studied under Frank Hutchens, keen on becoming a concert pianist, and won the under-18 piano championship at the City of Sydney Eisteddfod in 1939.
Career
Lee abandoned her career as a pianist, to workman actress in radio with George Edwards before joining 'The Youth Show' on the Macquarie Network in 1941, alongside Joy Nichols and Michael Pate, in which she was known as the 'Golden Girl'. Adopting the stage name 'Margo Lee', she sang and played comedy roles with Colin Croft. During World War II, she acted in radio serials, including anthology series Lux Radio Theatre.
Lee began performing in theatre, appearing at Sydney's Minerva Theatre from 1943. She also had a role in the 1949 racecourse film Into the Straight.
From 1952, Lee was a panellist for eight years on Leave It to the Girls, beginning on Sydney radio station 2GB before moving to the television version. She also appeared on stage in a 1954 production of Top of the Bill at Sydney's Phillip Street Theatre, in their very first revue.
Lee played leading roles in ABC radio plays including Major Barbara (1953), The Merchant of Venice (1954), Kind Hearts and Coronets (1959) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1964), as well as Noël Coward comedies.
Her performance alongside American actor Vincent Price in 1984, earned her the 1955 Lux Radio Theatre Award for Best Actress of the Year. The win was accompanied by a trip to Hollywood, to star in a TV play with Lux Video Theatre. While there for a period of four weeks, she was offered television parts and two film offers, but turned them down, not wanting to be away from her husband and sons for a great deal of time.
On her return to Australia, Lee appeared in Australia's first live television drama, the ABC play J. M. Barrie's The Twelve-Pound Look in 1956. She then starred in Stormy Petrel (1960), playing Elizabeth Macarthur. Roles followed in Boney and the Devil's Steps (1972) and Ride on Stranger (1979).
Lee continued working for stage, with a tap dancing role in a 1971 Melbourne production of musical comedy Charlie Girl, alongside a young John Farnham. She also performed as Gertrude opposite John Bell in a 1973 production of Hamlet at Sydney's Nimrod Theatre and played the Queen of Hearts in an Alice in Wonderland pantomime in 1976.
In 1978, Lee appeared in the films The Journalist and Tim, the latter alongside Mel Gibson in an early role. She also featured in Now and Then. Her television credits from the era included short-lived soap opera Catwalk and Crawford Productions police procedural series Division 4, as well as Cop Shop, Patrol Boat and Mismatch. From 1982 to 1985, Lee portrayed Caroline Smithers in long-running television series A Country Practice.
Lee had a role in a 1980 stage production of The Old Country, and in 1982, performed in a STC production of You Can't Take It With You at the Sydney Opera House, playing the Russian Grand Duchess. She playing lead in the Phillip Street revue Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You, the following year.
In 1985, Lee won a Green Room Award for her supporting role in a stage production of Stepping Out.
Lee appeared posthumously as Miss Dawson in 1988 miniseries Melba.
Personal life and death
On 1 November 1945, Lee married Joseph Francis (Frank) Sidney Brooks (d.1984), an advertising agent, at the Vaucluse Congregational Church. Together the couple had two sons, Derek and Richard. In 1956, the family moved into a house that they had built at Seaforth. In 1978, her sons still lived at home.
Lee died of breast cancer on 16 October 1987 in St Leonards, Sydney. She was survived by her sons.
