Lillian Crombie was a dancer and actor from the Pitjintjara/Yungkuntjara Nation.
She studied acting, dance and drama at the Port Pirie Ballet School, NIDA, NAISDA, the EORA Centre and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, NY, and was trained in classical, modern, jazz ballet and traditional Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island dance.
She worked in films (including Baz Luhrmann’s Australia), in television (including The Secret Life of Us and children’s drama series Double Trouble), and in theatre (including Mereki the Peacemaker, Conversations with The Dead, Black Mary — Festival of Dreaming, Gunjies, Capricornia, and Rainbow’s End).
In 2019, she was honoured with the Equity Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award for her contribution to the Arts. In 2015, she founded the Lilliam Crombie Foundation, which aids Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families who need to travel for sorry business.
She was the mother of Elaine Crombie.
Sources include The Lillian Crombie Foundation (http://thelilliancrombiefoundation.org.au/who.html) and South Australian Film Corporation (https://www.safilm.com.au/latest-news/vale-lillian-crombie/).
