Obituary: Alice Fraser

* Alice Fraser, actress. Died aged 70.

Alice Fraser, best-known for her work in the TV series Close to Home, has died in Wellington.

Miss Fraser, born Alice Kemp, left New Zealand in 1955 to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.

She went on to work with the Royal Shakespeare Company and repertory groups, touring Britain in plays such as Twelfth Night.

In 1966, she won a role in long-running British soap opera Crossroads, in which she appeared as a glamorous Australian crook.

Fraser returned to New Zealand in the late 1980s, and she appeared in many plays at Wellington theatres.

One of these, Bert and Maisy, written by Robert Lord, was later made into a television series starring Fraser and her stage co-star, Grant Tilly.

The series was a finalist in the 1989 Listener Film and Television Awards.

Fraser, a granddaughter of wartime Prime Minister Peter Fraser, was created a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 1999.

She is survived by her daughter Suzanne, son-in-law John and grandson James.