Maggie Kirkpatrick

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Maggie Kirkpatrick

Born Margaret Ann Downs
29 January 1941 (1941-01-29) (age 67)
Albury, New South Wales

Maggie Kirkpatrick (born 29 January 1941, Albury, New South Wales) 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.

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[edit] Early years

She was born in Albury, a rural city on the border between New South Wales and Victoria, Australia to James and Chrissie Downs. Only six months after she was born, Maggie's father, James, was killed whilst he was on active service as a soldier in North Africa. Because of the tragedy, Chrissie had to bring up Maggie and her older brother Adrian all by herself.

The family moved to Newcastle, on the East coast of Australia, where Maggie grew up. From an early age, Maggie had a keen interest in acting and she appeared in several school plays. By November 1955, Maggie was so fed up with school that she left it. Her mother then sent her to drama lessons after Maggie left school.

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

After giving up acting, Maggie worked in lots of different places like a dress shop, a doctor's receptionist, comparing fashion parades, and had different jobs in bars, restaurants and hotels.

[edit] Marriage

Sometime in the early 1960s, Maggie met her future husband Norman Kirkpatrick, a merchant seaman, born in Northern Ireland, who she married on September 1963.

Some five years later, Maggie and Norman moved to Sydney, where Maggie decided to resume her acting career. After appearing in two plays, Maggie put her acting career on hold once again, only this time it was because of the arrival of her daughter Caitlin. Maggie continued her theatre work as Caitlin got a bit older, and eventually moved on to TV and movies.

Her career has spanned theatre, film, television and cabaret both in the United Kingdom and Australia over more than 40 years. She appeared in the music video for "Anthem for the Year 2000" by rock band Silverchair.

[edit] Filmography

[edit] External links