Maggie Kirkpatrick
Encyclopedia
Maggie Kirkpatrick is an Australian actress, who is best known for her portrayal of the iconic character Joan Ferguson, a sadistic and corrupt lesbian prison officer known to the prisoners as "The Freak" in the popular Australian television soap opera, Prisoner
Prisoner (TV series)
Prisoner is an Australian television soap opera which was set in the Wentworth Detention Centre, a fictional women's prison. The series was produced by the Reg Grundy Organisation and ran on Network Ten for 692 episodes from 27 February 1979 to 11 December 1986.The series was inspired by the 1970s...

. She is currently performing as Madame Morrible in the Australian production of the musical Wicked
Wicked (musical)
Wicked is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and a book by Winnie Holzman. It is based on the Gregory Maguire novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West , a parallel novel of the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz and L. Frank Baum's classic story The Wonderful Wizard...

.

Early years

She was born in Albury
Albury, New South Wales
Albury is a major regional city in New South Wales, Australia, located on the Hume Highway on the northern side of the Murray River. It is located wholly within the boundaries of the City of Albury Local Government Area...

, a rural city on the border between New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

 and Victoria
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....

, Australia to James and Chrissie Downs. When she was six months old her father was killed whilst on active service as a soldier in North Africa. Chrissie thus brought up Maggie and her older brother Adrian alone.

The family moved to Newcastle
Newcastle, New South Wales
The Newcastle metropolitan area is the second most populated area in the Australian state of New South Wales and includes most of the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie Local Government Areas...

, on the east coast of Australia, where Kirkpatrick grew up. She had had an interest in acting from an early age and appeared in several school plays. By November 1955 Kirkpatrick became fed up with school and left. Her mother sent her to drama lessons.

In 1960, at the age of 19, Kirkpatrick took her first professional acting job, with John Alden's Shakespeare Company. After this initial production she promptly gave up acting.

Kirkpatrick subsequently took various jobs, working in dress shop, as a medical receptionist, compere of fashion parades, and had jobs in bars, restaurants and hotels.

Personal life

She married Norman Kirkpatrick, a merchant seaman born in Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...

, in September 1963.

Five years later they moved to Sydney where Maggie decided to resume her acting career. After appearing in two plays she put her acting career on hold once again, this time due to the arrival of her daughter Caitlin. Kirkpatrick resumed theatre work as Caitlin got older, and eventually moved on to television and cinema.

She appeared in the music video for "Anthem for the Year 2000" by rock band Silverchair
Silverchair
Silverchair were an Australian rock band, which formed in 1992 as Innocent Criminals in Merewether, Newcastle with the line-up of Ben Gillies on drums, Chris Joannou on bass guitar and Daniel Johns on vocals and guitars. The group got their big break in mid-1994 when they won a national demo...

.

She is a strong supporter of gay rights, having made numerous appearances at "Fair Day", as part of the annual Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras
Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras
The Sydney Mardi Gras is an annual LGBTQI pride parade and festival in Sydney, Australia, and draws in thousands of visitors from around Australia and overseas...

 Festival.

Filmography

  • The F.J. Holden (1977) – Betty Armstead
  • The Getting of Wisdom
    The Getting of Wisdom
    The Getting of Wisdom is a novel by Australian novelist Henry Handel Richardson. It was first published in 1910, and has almost always been in print ever since.-Plot introduction:...

     (1977) – Sarah
  • The Night, The Prowler
    The Night the Prowler
    The Night the Prowler is a 1978 Australian film directed by Jim Sharman and written by Patrick White...

     (1978) – Madge Hopkirk
  • The Pirate Movie
    The Pirate Movie
    The Pirate Movie is a 1982 musical and comedy film directed by Ken Annakin and starring Christopher Atkins and Kristy McNichol. The film is loosely based on Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera The Pirates of Penzance. The original music score is composed by Mike Brady and Peter Sullivan...

    (1982) – Ruth
  • Jonah
    Jonah
    Jonah is the name given in the Hebrew Bible to a prophet of the northern kingdom of Israel in about the 8th century BC, the eponymous central character in the Book of Jonah, famous for being swallowed by a fish or a whale, depending on translation...

    (1982) (mini) TV Series
  • Prisoner
    Prisoner (TV series)
    Prisoner is an Australian television soap opera which was set in the Wentworth Detention Centre, a fictional women's prison. The series was produced by the Reg Grundy Organisation and ran on Network Ten for 692 episodes from 27 February 1979 to 11 December 1986.The series was inspired by the 1970s...

    (1979) TV Series – Joan 'The Freak' Ferguson (1982–1986)
  • Richmond Hill
    Richmond Hill (TV series)
    Richmond Hill was an Australian television soap opera made in 1988 by the Reg Grundy Organisation for the Ten Network. It was devised by Reg Watson who also created Neighbours...

    (1988) TV Series – Ivy Hackett
  • Betty's Bunch
    Betty's Bunch
    Betty's Bunch was a short TV drama/adventure series from New Zealand, produced in 1989. Aimed at a young audience, the story revolved around four foster kids living with Betty. Though things are not always easy financially for the family, they keep the spirit up...

    (1990) TV Series – Betty
  • The Ham Funeral (1990) (TV)
  • Home and Away
    Home and Away
    Home and Away is an Australian soap opera that has been produced in Sydney since July 1987 and is airing on the Seven Network since 17 January 1988. It is the second-longest-running drama and most popular soap opera on Australian television...

    (1988) TV Series – Jean Chambers (1991)/Viv "The Guv" Standish (2003, 2004)
  • Encounters
    Encounters
    Encounters is the fourth short story anthology published by the Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild. Printed in 2004 and edited by Maxine McArthur and Donna Maree Hanson, it contains stories from several Australian speculative fiction authors.-Stories:...

     (1993) – Aunt Helen
  • Billy's Holiday (1995) – Maureen O'Hara
  • Welcome to Woop Woop
    Welcome to Woop Woop
    Welcome to Woop Woop is a 1997 Australian-British comedy film, directed by Stephan Elliott starring Johnathon Schaech and Rod Taylor. The film was based on the novel The Dead Heart by Douglas Kennedy...

    (1997) – Ginger
  • Hetty (2002) – Thelma

External links

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