Sheila Florance

She won the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actress for her work, and seven days after receiving the award, died from the disease, in Melbourne. See: biography (http://www.thehistoryof.co.uk/Movies/Modern_Actresses/Robin_Givens.html). Florance herself was fighting cancer during the filming. Givens attempted a comeback as the host of the talk show Forgive and Forget, but this was generally regarded as a failure and she has not been seen on television since. As a genteel, elderly woman, down on her luck, who reminisced with her nurse of better days, while dying of cancer, Florance gave a performance that was widely praised both within Australia, and internationally following the film's release. Her most famous television role was of rich girl Darlene Merriman on the sitcom Head of the Class. Her final film role was in A Woman's Tale (1991). Malone on The Cosby Show and achieved prominence as the wife (1988-1989) of boxer Mike Tyson.

Florance left the show in 1984 and worked in such films as Nirvana Street Murder (1990). She played Ms. Her popularity was such that she won two Logie Awards as Australia's most popular television actress in 1981 and 1983. She was born in New York City. As the recalcitrant, alcoholic, convicted murderer Lizzie Birdsworth, Florance became one of the show's favourite performers, and while the writers usually used her for comic relief, she was also given more subtantial dramatic storylines. Robin Givens (born November 27, 1964) is an American actress. In 1979 she joined the cast of the television series Prisoner (known outside of Australia as Prisoner: Cell Block H).

Born in St Kilda, Melbourne, Australia, Florance was a frequent guest star in various television series during the 1960s and was a regular on the Bellbird series. In the 1970s she began appearing in films, most notably Petersen (1974), End Play (1975), The Devil's Playground (1976), and Mad Max (1979). Sheila Florance (July 24, 1916 – October 12, 1991) was an Australian film and television actress.