"Dorothy Harriette Dunckley (1890-1972), actress and make-up artist, was born on 27 February 1890 at Bacchus Marsh, Victoria.

She appeared in two films made in Sydney for Ken Hall's Cinesound Productions in 1932-33,On Our Selection and The Squatter's Daughter, as well as in Two Minutes Silence (1933). She spent eighteen months in 1933-34 in the United States of America, mainly at Hollywood, investigating make-up, interior decoration, lighting and clothes for Cinesound ... In May 1939 she appeared in Robert Sherwood's satire, Idiot's Delight, the opening production at (the) new Minerva Theatre, Kings Cross. Kathleen Robinson acquired the Minerva in 1941 and began Whitehall Productions; Dunckley was a regular player—from Mrs Eynsford Hill in Pygmalion to Amanda Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie. As an older woman, she worked consistently in character roles and in radio farce, but she was fast acquiring a reputation for her skills as a make-up artist.

 ... Dunckley advertised 'Glamour by appointment ... Creative makeup for- Social engagements, day or night, screen tests, stage, still photography, hairstyling, manicure', and virtually quit the stage in 1949 to concentrate on her business.

Aware of the discomfort of using commercially available greasepaint, Dunckley made (and marketed) her own creams, rouges, eye-shadows and eye-lashes in her Macleay Street home. It was 'more like an alchemist's den than a flat', and generally in turmoil, the telephone ringing constantly. Her advice ranged from the impact of lighting on body-paint to the best way of changing hair colour ....

A warm and lovable eccentric, Dunckley was said to walk down Macleay Street—fair-haired, blue-eyed, often wearing a beret-style hat—with her mind preoccupied by her cosmetic business. When she received greeting cards, she returned them unopened and endorsed 'And the same to you'. She died on 7 March 1972 in the Sacred Heart Hospice, Darlinghurst; her body was bequeathed to the University of Sydney for medical research."