Dorothy came from interesting roots. Born Jessie Hope Robinson, her mother Ivy was very young when she gave birth to her in August 1912 and, unable to support her child, she arranged for her employer Catherine Powell, who ran a boarding house in Hay Street, East Perth, to adopt Jessie in March 1913. At this time her name was changed to Dorothy Hope Powell after a good friend of Catherine’s, barmaid Dolly Dempsey. Life with Catherine and her jockey husband Bill, and later her next husband, bookmaker Tom Hickey, was colourful and entertaining, set amongst Perth’s horse racing fraternity.

Dorothy’s natural father, smooth-talking Cyril Maddocks, was a snappy dressing wheeler and dealer. Interested in engineering from a young age, Cyril had built a motor launch by the age of 17, imported American cars at the age of 19, and at 23, was an electrical engineer and manager of the Carnarvon Electric Light and Power Company. In August 1915 he enlisted as a private in the 16th Battalion AIF. He served as a driver in Egypt and France before being selected to train as a pilot for the Royal Flying Corps in November 1916. He completed his instruction in England but, due to a training accident which caused life-threatening head injuries, he had to re-train as an aeroplane maintenance engineer. It was at this time that Cyril befriended Charles Kingsford Smith. After the war the pair hatched schemes to fly together to win prize money but it never came off. Maddocks returned to Perth and, in 1924, was spruiking cars for Associated Motors Limited when he contracted influenza. Shortly after, he died of meningitis, aged just 32 years. Dorothy was just 12 years old and never knew her father.

Dorothy undertook dancing lessons from a very young age and was taught poems by rote by Lionel Logue who went on to give elocution lessons to King George VI. With her angelic cherubic face and fashionable corkscrew curls, Catherine loved to dress Dorothy in stunning costumes and have her perform. She entertained as a child during World War One performing in vaudeville acts, dancing and doing recitations, even winning two gold medals at the age of eight. During her schooling she continued acting in various productions. In 1929, having just received the highest marks in the State in an elocution diploma examination, Dorothy joined the Perth Repertory Club, and she enjoyed success as an amateur actress until marriage and family life intervened.

Dorothy was introduced to Harold by family friends in the early 1930s. The pair shared a passion for the arts and after a short romance they married in a Registry Office ceremony in December 1933. They set up home together in a modern two-storey house with built in furniture, all designed by Harold, at 5 The Avenue, Crawley. They also bought a rambling house in Darlington which became a much-loved family home while their children David and Toby were young. It was later used as a holiday home and frequently as temporary free housing for many of the European architects Harold employed.

In later years Dorothy was able to refocus on her love for acting when Harold helped set up the Company of Four which provided regular paid employment for its actors, staging its first performance in February 1950. Harold’s next move was to provide a venue for the acting company. He was instrumental in bringing about the construction of the Playhouse Theatre in 1956. He designed the building, helped raise the £65,000 to build it, and negotiated the 40 year lease of land from the Anglican Diocese to which the 3 Pier Street site belonged. The repertory club moved to the Playhouse and became a fully professional company called the National Theatre.

Dorothy’s final performance was playing ‘Big Momma’ in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in June 1963. She had spent almost 50 years on the stage with Harold supporting her through much of it. Dorothy and Harold enjoyed twenty more years of happy married life, celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary in 1993, the year before Dorothy died. Harold’s contribution to the arts was acknowledged in 1999 when he was posthumously awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia for his contribution to architecture and the arts in Western Australia. In May 2014 the Anglican Dean of Perth dedicated thirty plaques in Theatre Corner, St George’s Cathedral, to honour artists who had contributed to theatre in Western Australia, including Dorothy and Harold Krantz.