Candy Raymond


Candida Raymond was an Australian actress, most prominent in film and television during the 1970s and early 1980s.

Early life and career

Raymond was born in Sydney in 1950 and attended St Ives High School.
As a teenager she played small guest roles in Australian television soap operas and TV series including Skippy and Riptide. She also appeared in stage revues.
She attended NIDA in a class that included John Hargreaves, Wendy Hughes and Grigor Taylor.
In mid-1973, she played Jill Sheridan in Number 96. Her character was presented as a sex symbol in what was considered an adults only TV show, ultimately involving her in several controversial nude sequences. She then played a regular character in Class of '74.
In 1975, Raymond was a regular in a comic skit segment titled "The Checkout Chicks" which in turn was part of The Norman Gunston Show.
She also appeared in a number of feature films, including Alvin Rides Again, the attractive artist Kerry in Don's Party, A Viennese school teacher in The Getting of Wisdom, Money Movers, The Journalist, Freedom and Monkey Grip.
In 1977 she appeared on The Zodiac Girls, a talk show about astrology.
She was also in stage productions of The Rocky Horror Show and Play It Again, Sam.
As both actress and storyline writer, she played a Jewish escapee of Europe in the WWII based TV series The Sullivans.
In 1981, she played imprisoned journalist Sandra Hamilton in the TV series Prisoner. That year she said she hoped to write and produce a feature.
In 1985, Raymond was involved in filming two television mini-series simultaneously in two different cities. In Sydney she filmed Shout! The Story of Johnny O'Keefe and in Melbourne she was involved in The Great Bookie Robbery which was released in 1986.. She also starred in the ABC telefilm Breaking Up, playing a 30-something mother-of-two going through a marriage break-up. For this role, she later won an Australian Film Institute Award as best actress in a tele-movie or mini-series.
Through the 1980s and 1990s, Raymond was active as a voice artist for radio and television and occasionally appeared in dramatised educational films.

Later career

Her last feature film role was as a French / Vietnamese brothel madam in the action film A Case of Honor, which was filmed on location in the Philippines.
She appeared as herself in the feature documentary Not Quite Hollywood: [The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation!], where she was interviewed about women in Australian films of the 1970s.

Personal life and death

Raymond lived near Bowral. She was the sister of actress Victoria Raymond also of Number 96 fame as the second actress to play Bev Houghton after Abigail left the role. Raymond was active in animal rights, writing and occasionally participating in local theatre and music events.
On 1 January 2026, it was announced that Raymond had died at the age of 75.

Filmography

Film

Television

Theatre