Tributes are flowing for Australian actress Wendy Hughes, who has died aged 61.

Actor Bryan Brown announced Hughes’s death to an audience at Sydney Theatre Company’s Travelling North on Saturday afternoon – just a few hours after she lost her battle with cancer.

The audience gave a standing ovation in memory of the award-winning television, film and stage actress whose best-known movie credits include My Brilliant Career and Return To Eden.

Hughes will also be remembered for her work on the long-running Network Ten series State Coroner, in which she played Kate Ferrari.

“Vale my dear friend, Wendy Hughes,” fellow actor Colette Mann wrote on Twitter.

“We had such fun as kids in drama class and I loved working with you on Just Desserts. Goodbye dear one x.”

A fan commented: “Luminous woman – our screens and lives will be a lot less vivid without you.”

Melbourne-born Hughes became one of Australia’s best-recognised actresses.

Her television credits also include recent appearances on the ABC’s Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries.

She won the Australian Film Institute (AFI) award for best actress in 1983 for her leading role in Careful, He Might Hear You.

Hughes also played Mrs Higgins in the Sydney Theatre Company’s 2012 production of Pygmalion.