Bev Houghton was a fictional character in the 1970s Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n soap opera

Soap opera

A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...

 Number 96

Number 96 (TV series)

Number 96 was a popular Australian soap opera set in a Sydney apartment block. Don Cash and Bill Harmon produced the series for Network Ten, which requested a Coronation Street-type serial, and specifically one that explored adult subjects...

. She was the daughter of wealthy socialite Claire Houghton (Thelma Scott

Thelma Scott

Thelma Scott was an Australian actress whose 70-year career in theatre, radio, film and television made her one of her country's most recognisable personalities....

), and despite her beauty and revealing costumes was revealed to be a virgin afraid of sex. She later had an affair with Jack Sellars (Tom Oliver

Tom Oliver

Tom Oliver is an English television, film and theatre actor best known today for playing the role of Lou Carpenter in the Australian soap opera Neighbours.-Career:...

) which ended when Jack learned of Bev's incestuous love affair with her brother.

Bev was played by Abigail

Abigail (actress)

Abigail is an actress who emigrated to Australia in 1968 and via the media of television became one of that country's significant sex symbols of the mid-1970s. Although born in England, she was educated in France. Her mother was a Ceylonese of Dutch Burgher/Eurasian ethnicity...

 starting with episode one of the serial in March 1972, and she became a major star and sex symbol

Sex symbol

A sex symbol is a celebrity of either gender, typically an actor, musician, supermodel, teen idol, or sports star, noted for their sex appeal. The term was first used in the mid 1950s in relation to the popularity of certain Hollywood stars, especially Marilyn Monroe and Brigitte...

 through the role. After several public disputes with the show's producers Abigail suddenly left the series in June 1973, and the part was recast, with Victoria Raymond, (née Resch, a.k.a. Vicki Raymond), stepping into the role with no on-screen explanation for Bev's change in appearance.

The character of Bev was killed in December 1973.