[1] Lamond, who comes from a family involved in the performing arts, started her career as a child actor vaudeville/variety entertainment aged ten and was the first woman in the world to host a midday show.

[2] Alongside her showbiz contemporaries Jill Perryman and Nancye Hayes, Lamond has been called one of the three grand dames of Australian musical theatre, and in her prime a talent that could rival Doris Day.

She learned to tap dance at 8 and began her professional career aged 10 when she sang on the radio while touring with her vaudevillian parents in variety shows.

[9] Lamond travelled to the United Kingdom, where in a similar vein to entertainer Lorrae Desmond, she appeared in the British night club and cabaret, circuit and on BBC-TV and BBC Radio.

In April–May 2008, she appeared in an autobiographical one-woman show, Times of My Life (co-written with her son Tony Sheldon), at the Seymour Centre in Sydney.

[13][14] [15] [17] [7][18]"[6][19] [20] Actors Equity president Simon Burke says: "Toni is a truly legendary Australian performer whose phenomenal career has spanned vaudeville, musical theatre, television, and cabaret.

Her parents divorced when she was seven and Stella remarried Max Reddy (Homicide), whilst Lawman married soubrette Joy Robbins.