By Jenny Noyes
Doris Goddard, the legendary publican known for putting the Hollywood in Sydney's beloved Hollywood Hotel, has died at the age of 89.
Goddard purchased the Surry Hills pub in 1977 with her husband Charlie Bishop and moved in upstairs. In the decades since, she cemented herself as a Sydney icon, famous for pulling out her guitar and serenading fellow drinkers at the bar.
Doris Goddard at the Hollywood Hotel in Surry Hills.Credit: Tamara Dean
Goddard, who was born in Forest Lodge in 1930 but went on to travel the world as a cabaret singer and actress playing bit-parts opposite the likes of Katharine Hepburn, Mel Gibson, Piper Laurie, Bob Hope and Sid James, would also regale patrons with her colourful showbiz stories.
She played a Danish shot-putter opposite Bill Travers in Geordie (1955), and had small roles in The Iron Petticoat (1956) as well as Australian classics like Caddie (1976) and Tim (1979).
Doris Goddard outside the Hollywood Hotel.
Many of those enthralled by Goddard's sparkling presence at the bar, her performances, her tales of travel and Old Hollywood celebrity gossip, would have had little idea she had been living with dementia for the past 10 years, said Hollywood Hotel licensee and manager Mark Symons.
Mr Symons, who took over management of the pub in 1998 and became like family to Goddard, said the "great raconteur" was also "the ultimate actress".
"Some of the stories were a bit stretched, but people loved it," he said. "She would just call everyone 'darling', so she didn’t need to know their names. She hid it so well."
Goddard's ultimate wish was to be "carried out in a pine box" from the hotel she had called home for more than 40 years, Mr Symons said, but she had spent her final 18 months in full-time care.
That didn't stop her getting out to join the Keep Sydney Open lockout protests in February, or to see herself cast in light on the facade of the hotel during this year's Vivid festival, when the Hollywood was made a canvas for visual effects house Heckler's 50 Iconic Women projection.
In a bespoke projection for the show, Goddard was inducted as the 51st iconic woman, her image gracing the facade of the hotel alongside the likes of Kate Moss, Brigitte Bardot, Amy Winehouse and Queen Elizabeth II.
Hollywood Hotel owner Doris Goddard attends the anti-lockout Keep Sydney Open protest in February 2019.
Mr Symons said the festival was a fitting "salute to Doris" and "her courageousness as a woman running a pub".
While she always had the support of her husband Charlie, who died in 2004, Mr Symons said Goddard was the heart and soul of the bar.
"She was a diva. I said, 'you don’t need to be behind the bar, Doris. You need to be out here, to look after the punters'.
But she was more than a diva – she was also profoundly driven by a sense of community and an affinity with the underdog, he said.
Doris Goddard plays guitar behind the bar at the Hollywood Hotel.
"She recognised people who were in trouble or had troubles and she would reach out to them. That would come back three-fold for her. She had wonderful relationships with different artists around town."
Goddard would annoy the neighbours by opening her doors to the homeless when the hostels of Surry Hills were overflowing, Mr Symons recalled.
"Doris would open the stairwell to upstairs and let them sleep on the steps," he said. "She was just reaching out to people, giving people some sort of lift up. That was Doris’ spirit."
Her final hours on Sunday were spent doing her favourite thing: listening to her old-time music and singing.