Monica Maughan

Monica Maughan (née Wood, 15 September 1933^[1] – 8 January 2010^[2]) was an Australian actor with roles in theatre, radio, television, film and ballet over a career spanning 52 years. She is probably best known for her stint in TV series Prisoner as Pat O'Connell.^[1]

Maughan was born Monica Cresswell Wood in Tonga to Australian missionaries Rev. Dr A. Harold Wood and medical doctor Olive Wood (née O'Reilly).^[3] She had 5 brothers and sisters, including Dr Elizabeth Wood-Ellem and Rev. Dr H. D'Arcy Wood.

The family moved to Sydney, Australia, in 1937 – Monica was three-and-a-half and spoke only Tongan – and shortly afterwards to Melbourne, where her father became principal of Methodist Ladies' College (MLC)^[3] and her mother his unofficial deputy.

Maughan attended MLC, where she received her only formal drama training with speech teacher Dorothy Dwyer, and went on to study French at the University of Melbourne, graduating in 1959 with a BA.^[3]

Maughan was a member of the Melbourne University Dramatic Club, where she adopted the stage name Maughan. She made her stage debut opposite Barry Humphries in Ben Hecht's fast-paced satire The Front Page in April 1954.^[4]

While studying part-time, Maughan worked as a secretary at St Ives Hospital in Melbourne.^[5] In 1960, she returned to MLC to teach speech.^[6]

Maughan launched her professional career with the Union Theatre Repertory Company (UTRC) in 1957 playing Capulet in Jean Anouilh's romantic comedy Ring Round the Moon at Union Theatre, Parkville. Her first lead role came that same year in Beauty and the Beast.

The UTRC, Australia's first professional theatre company, became the Melbourne Theatre Company (MTC) in 1968. It is believed that Maughan appeared in more plays for the company than any other actor.^[7] She also directed 2 plays for the MTC.^[8] Her last MTC performance was in the premiere production of David Williamson's Scarlett O'Hara at the Crimson Parrot in 2008.^[8]

Cast in J. C. Williamson productions in the early 1960s,^[8] Maughan spent 1963 to 1966 working in the UK, where she appeared in nine stage productions,^[3] including stepping in for Moira Lister when the latter was ill.

Maughan appeared in at least seven plays in her first year back in Australia^[8] – most of them lead roles, and throughout the late sixties was hailed for her stage performances, such as the title role in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1968),^[3] directed by MTC founder, John Sumner. In 1971, she won the Melbourne Theatre Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of pregnant spinster Anna Bowers in Donald Howarth's Three Months Gone.^[9] Coincidentally, Maughan was three months pregnant at the end of the play's run.^[10]

She worked with almost every major theatre company in Australia,^[11] including Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard and Alan Bennett's Habeas Corpus for the Queensland Theatre Company in 1978, and the role of Aggie in A Hard God produced by the State Theatre Company of South Australia and Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Sydney Theatre Company, both in 1981.^[8]

Her best-known stage role may have been as Miss Prism in the MTC's The Importance of Being Earnest. The production, co-starring Frank Thring, Ruth Cracknell and Geoffrey Rush, was so popular that it toured Australia between 1988 and 1992,^[3] and was televised by the ABC.^[12]

In 1999, she created the role of Suzanne Beckett in Justin Fleming's Burnt Piano at Belvoir Company B, and demonstrated a command of classical piano played live in each performance.^[3] In 2003, she starred in Inheritance by Hannie Rayson.^[13]

Maughan extended her repertoire to include non-dancing roles with the Australian Ballet, namely Doreen's mother in The Sentimental Bloke (2002) and Effie's mother in La Sylphide (2005).^[14]

She did not live to play the title role in Belvoir Company B's Gwen in Purgatory in 2010, a part written for her by Tommy Murphy and directed by Neil Armfield.

Early television roles in Crawford's dramas including Homicide,^[11] Matlock Police^[11] and Cop Shop^[15] led to ongoing television parts that made Maughan a recognisable face around Australia, including as prim secretary Jean Ford in the first year of The Box from 1974 to 1975^[16] and downtrodden prisoner Pat O'Connell for five months in women's-prison drama Prisoner^[16] from 1979 to 1980.

Further television credits included Glenview High,^[16] soap opera Skyways,^[16] The Flying Doctors, The Gillies Republic,^[16] comedy series Col'n Carpenter,^[16] medical soap opera A Country Practice,^[16] children's series The Genie from Down Under,^[16] police drama Blue Heelers^[16] and legal drama MDA.^[16] She also appeared in several miniseries' including Loss of Innocence (1978) and Come in Spinner (1990).^[16] She also played Graham Kennedy's grandmother in the 2007 biographical telemovie, The King.^[16] Her final television appearance was in The Librarians.^[16]

Maughan received an AFI Award and a Silver Logie Award for her performance as Monica McHugh in the ABC’s black comedy miniseries, The Damnation of Harvey McHugh (1994).^[16]

Her twenty or so feature films include A City's Child (1971),^[15] Road to Nhill (1997),^[3] Crackerjack (2002)^[16] and Strange Bedfellows (2004),^[16] plus a number of films by Dutch-Australian director Paul Cox. Her last film role was in Blessed,^[16] directed by Ana Kokkinos in 2009, and described by 3RRR film critic Brian MacFarlane as "Maughan's best ever".

Maughan's first marriage was to Brian Essex, then a medical student, in December 1954, with her father officiating at the wedding. They divorced in 1957.^[17]

Her second marriage, in January 1968, was to Melbourne solicitor Rowland Ball.^[1][10] The couple had three daughters.^[18]

Maughan was always coy about her age and many sources gave her year of birth as 1938. When celebrating 50 years of professional acting in 2007, Maughan said she was "20 or 21" in 1954 and admitted she "always lied about my age".^[19]

Maughan died of complications from cancer at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne on 8 January 2010.^[20]

^[8]

• Monica Maughan at IMDb
• Monica Maughan – Stage acting credits
• "The Importance of Being Earnest" – (information and photos):

[1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8]