Shirley Barrett passed away at 61 on August 4, 2022. Unfortunately, she left her loved ones the day MIFF 2022 will begin a festival showing LOVE SERENADE, her Cannes-winning debut, as part of its retrospective of Melbourne on Film.
This unbearable loss saddened the whole Australian Entertainment industry. Barrett was diagnosed with cancer, and it is suspected as the cause of her death.
Barrett was born in Melbourne in 1961. She relocated to Sydney in 1985 and enrolled at the Australian Film, Television, and Radio School to study screenwriting.
Cherith, a short film she created in 1988 while enrolled in her last year at the AFTRS, won the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Short Fiction.
Obituary: Shirley Barrett Had Cancer – Illness And Health Before Death
Shirley Barrett was fighting breast cancer for more than four years. So when Barrett was identified as having metastatic breast cancer in October 2017, with a median survival time of five years, Barrett’s fiction became a reality.
Shirley joked that she was at least glad she was still editing her book because it allowed her to add more specifics about her experiences. This is a display of the dark humor she shares with her character.
The 57-year-old was initially reluctant to discuss having cancer in public. But she didn’t want to be pitied or become “one of those people always banging on about cancer.”
She endured chemotherapy while working on the book, “I just kind of carried on as usual except bald,” and she is still taking medications to control her disease. After beating cancer, Eleanor reluctantly feels compelled to “make the most of it,” and Barrett agreed that the stress could be exhausting.
According to The Guardian, She was given just five years, and her health was degrading daily; the chemotherapy and medications were not helping that much. And before her death, her condition was worse.
Shirley Barrett Cause Of Death: What Happened To Her?
Shirley Barrett allegedly died of the breast cancer she had since 2017. Her condition worsened daily, and she wanted to utilize her limited time fully.
The patient with this terminal cancer has an expected life of five years, and sadly, it did not last that long for our beloved director.
Social media has been flooded with sad condolences and obituaries after the irreplaceable loss. Unfortunately, we don’t know if we will ever see someone talented as she is.
Shirley Barrett Husband Chris Norris: Where Is He Now?
Shirley Barrett was married to her long-time partner Chris Norris. He worked on the special effects for Mad Max: Fury Road.
The Lovely couple had two children, both daughters. Before her death, the whole family used to live in Sydney.
Chris was furious about his wife’s fake death rumors on Twitter in May.
Mad Max: Fury Road is a 2015 Australian post-apocalyptic action film co-produced and directed by George Miller. On the screenplay, Miller worked with Brendan McCarthy and Nico Lathouris.
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Shirley Barrett Net Worth 2022: How Rich Was She?
Shirley Barrett had an estimated $3 million before her death. Her career as a film director, novelist, and screenwriter helped her immensely to amass this fortune.
As a Screenwriter and a novelist, the Australian has also created more masterpieces; She also co-wrote and directed two other full-length movies, South Solitary (2010) and Walked the Talk (2000).
Barrett was given several awards for the script for South Solitary, including the Queensland Premier’s and West Australian Premier’s prizes.
Her debut book Rush Oh! was published in 2016 and made the shortlists for the Nita May Dobbie Award, the Indie Awards for Debut Fiction, and the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction. The Bus on Thursday, her second book, was published in 2018.