Margaret Christensen

Margaret Christensen (8 January 1921 – 30 November 2009) was an Australian actress and radio host.

She started her radio career in the 1940s, hosting both comedy and dramas, and began with movie acting in the 1950s. She has appeared in several TV series like Skippy, Division 4, Homicide, A Country Practice and All Saints.^[1][2]

Christensen was one of the last great stars of the halcyon days of Australian radio. A casual listen around the radio dial during the 1940s and 1950s would have found Christensen (Peg to her friends) in all sorts of comedy, variety and drama shows. She was one of the industry's most versatile and in-demand performers.

The sheer longevity of her career is noteworthy of itself, while the list of performers with whom she appeared runs from Peter Finch, Rod Taylor and Bud Tingwell through to Jack Davey, 'Mo' and, more recently, Shaun Micallef.

Born in Adelaide in 1921, Christensen moved to Sydney with her family and began lessons in speech and drama at age six. Her teacher, Doris Patterson, guided her through the Trinity College examinations and, at just sixteen, she gained a teacher's diploma, with honours in voice production and literature. Two years later, she won a scholarship for further training at Trinity College, London, but was unable to take it due to the outbreak of the Second World War.

To gain radio experience, Christensen moved to Brisbane where her brother, Chris Christensen, worked as an announcer. Over the next three years she presented many shows on 4BH. She also met and married Dan Scully, leader of the Will Quintrell Theatre Orchestra and gave birth to a daughter Wendy, who, at an early age, displayed a prodigious musical talent appearing as a Quiz Kid and as a guest in various other shows. Wendy today remains a pianist of concert standard.

In 1943 the family moved back to Sydney, where Christensen decided to do some leg work around the studios. Gradually she picked up small roles, most notable as Jane in the serial of Pride and Prejudice where she worked alongside her idol Lyndall Barbour. Her big break came when she was auditioned by producer E. Mason Wood, gaining the lead role in another serial, Josephine, Empress of Sorrows.

In 1947 she gave birth to a second child, a son, Sean.

From 1949 to 1954 she was Lois Lane to Leonard Teale's 'Superman' and was also a regular presenter of commercials and sketches in the big variety shows like Calling the Stars.

The pinnacle of her radio career was winning the 1953 Macquarie Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, for her portrayal of Gabby in The Petrified Forest.

In 1956 she moved into film, playing the mother of the young hero in the now iconic Australian movie Smiley, a role she repeated in the 1958 sequel, Smiley Gets a Gun. She was also probably Australia's first female disc jockey, 'The Side Saddle DJ' introducing popular music to 2UE listeners.

In 1959, with radio rapidly losing ground to television, Christensen decided to try her luck in London, taking her now eleven-year-old son Sean with her. She stayed for seven years, working in radio and on stage, notably in the premiere production of Noël Coward's Sail Away on the West End, directed by Coward himself and starring Elaine Stritch.

Returning to Sydney in 1966, Christensen went straight into a number of stage productions, including Funny Girl with Jill Perryman. Christensen was also The Matchmaker in the Australian production of Fiddler on the Roof with Hayes Gordon.

In the early 1970s she spent time in Japan, where Wendy was raising a young family. There she taught English to Japanese businessmen and over-dubbed the voice tracks to Japanese films.

Almost to the end she continued as a voice-over artist: appearing occasionally in television shows such as Stingers, All Saints, and Blue Heelers.

In more recent years she moved from Sydney to Melbourne to be nearer to Wendy, Sean and her extended family.

In 2008 she was awarded an OAM for her services to radio, television, film and the arts and for community service.

It was in Melbourne that she died, after a short illness.

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