Actress, writer, and businesswoman Joy Chambers-Grundy has died aged 76.
Known for her roles in Neighbours and The Restless Years, Chambers-Grundy was the wife of media mogul Reg Grundy, whom she married in 1971.
According to a statement from her family, she died in her sleep on Saturday morning.
“Joy will be remembered as a Logie award-winning actress, a best-selling author, a poet, a philanthropist, and an exceptional businesswoman who worked alongside her husband to build one of the largest independent production companies in the world,” the statement read.
Born in Ipswich in 1946, Chambers-Grundy began her acting career in the 1970s with the role of Rita Merrick on The Restless Years, going to appear on The Young Doctors and eventually Neighbours, where she played Rosemary Daniels. She was awarded the Logie for Best Female Personality in 1969 and 1970.
It was during a prior casting for the game show I’ve Got a Secret that the young actress and writer would meet Grundy, whose legacy includes the local production of formats such as Sale of the Century, Blankety Blanks, Wheel of Fortune, Family Feud, The Price Is Right and Perfect Match, as well as the creation of drama series Sons & Daughters, Prisoner, and Neighbours.
She would go on to write for a number of her husband’s programs and, in 1985 was elected to the board of Grundy Worldwide, at that time the largest independent television production and distribution company in the world.
Nearly 10 years later, the pair would create RG Capital, a private group of entities with principal interests in media, the entertainment sector, and advertising, of which Chambers Grundy would become chairman.
An accomplished writer, she has published five books, predominantly in historical fact-based fiction, while also serving as patron of the Ipswich Poetry Feast.
Following Grundy’s death in 2016 aged 92, Chambers-Grundy was involved in a three-year court battle with her late husband’s estranged daughter Kim, who now goes by the name Viola La Valette, over his $900 million fortune, with the parties reaching a confidential settlement in 2020.
She has continued to carry on her late husband’s legacy in recent years, helping to establish the AACTA Reg Grundy TV Award, as well as the Reg Grundy Innovation Award.