Maggie Millar
{{short description|Australian actress (born 1941)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2020}}
{{Use Australian English|date=February 2014}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Maggie Millar
| imagesize =
| caption =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|df=yes|6 January 1941}}
| birth_place = Strathfield, New South Wales, Australia
| othername = Maggie Miller
| education = Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
| occupation = Actress
| known_for = {{hlist|Prisoner|Neighbours
Bellbird||The Sullivans}}
| yearsactive = 1961–2018
| spouse =
| domesticpartner =
| children = 1
}}
Maggie Millar (born 6 January 1941) is an Australian actress, artist and writer. She has a distinguished acting career in theatre – appearing onstage with the Old Vic Company, the Melbourne Theatre Company and others – and in television, with roles in Bellbird, Prisoner and Neighbours, among many.{{cite web |url=https://www.vic.gov.au/maggie-millar |title=Maggie Millar |author= |date=2007 |website=Victoria State Government |access-date=25 September 2024}}{{cite web |url=https://globalartscollective.org/acf/maggie_pop-up.htm |title=Maggie Millar |author= |date=2024 |website=globalartscollective.org |access-date=6 December 2024}}
Early life and career
Millar was born in Strathfield, New South Wales, Australia. She was an adopted child,{{cite news |last=Dempsey |first=Dianne |date=15 November 2009 |title=Pity third world orphans, but they're not a commodity |url=https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/pity-third-world-orphans-but-theyre-not-a-commodity-20091114-ifie.html |work=The Sydney Morning Herald |location= |access-date=9 December 2024}} though not aware of the fact until she was 17.{{cite magazine |last=Flynn |first=Greg |date=25 February 1981 |title=Some fresh faces and old favourites for '81 Soapies |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/55463998/4401834 |magazine=The Australian Women's Weekly |page=42 |location=Sydney |access-date=11 December 2024}}
After winning a scholarship to a small drama school in Sydney, Millar toured Australia with a professional theatre company. In 1961, she joined the English Old Vic Company when they toured Australia with Vivien Leigh.{{cite web |url=http://perfectblend.net/features/interview-millar.htm |title=Interviews: Maggie Millar |author= |date=2003 |website=Neighbours: The Perfect Blend |access-date=6 December 2024}}{{cite web |url=https://www.oldvictheatre.com/stories/vivien-leigh-and-the-old-vic/ |title=Vivien Leigh and the Old Vic |last=Charlesworth |first=Elizabeth |date=2017 |website=oldvictheatre.com |access-date=8 December 2024}} Moving to London, England, Millar won a scholarship to train at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.{{cite magazine |last=Herbison |first=Jason |author-link=Jason Herbison |date=27 April - 10 May 2002 |title=Accidental soap star |magazine=Inside Soap |location=London |publisher=Attic Futura (UK) |issue=204 |page=9}} She won the Gertrude Lawrence award in her graduation year at RADA, and the Erik Award (an annual drama critics' award for professional theatre in Melbourne) for Best Actress in 1967.{{cite web |url=https://www.nli.org.il/ar/newspapers/?a=d&d=ajnm19680705-01.1.8&l=ar |title=The Australian Jewish News (Melbourne), 5 July 1968 |author= |date=2024 |website=National Library of Israel |access-date=10 December 2024}}
TV roles
Millar is best-known for playing tough, long-term inmate Marie Winter in Prisoner (1981–84), and Reverend Rosie Hoyland in Neighbours (2002–03). Other long-term roles are Dr Georgia Moorhouse in Bellbird (1972–77), and Elizabeth Bradley in The Sullivans (1981).{{cite web |url=http://perfectblend.net/features/connect-sullivans.htm |title=The Sullivans connection |author= |date=2024 |website=perfectblend.net |access-date=25 September 2024}} She has appeared in numerous Australian television dramas; among them: Hunter (1968–69), Matlock Police (1972–75), Division 4 (1973), Cop Shop (1978–80), A Country Practice (1991), and Blue Heelers (2003).
Millar won the 1976 Logie Award for Best Individual Performance by an Actress{{cite web |url=http://www.australiantelevision.net/awards/logie1974_77.html |title=Logie Awards (1976 Logie Award Winners) |author= |date=2024 |website=australiantelevision.net |access-date=26 January 2023}} for Homicide episode "The Life and Times of Tina Kennedy".{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0604204/ |title=The Life and Times of Tina Kennedy |author= |date=2024 |website=IMDb |access-date=7 December 2024}} The same performance earned her the 1976 Sammy Award for Best Actress in a Single Television Performance.
The BBC reported in 2002 that more than 700 people backed a campaign to keep Millar's character Rosie Hoyland in Neighbours after producers announced the character was to be written out.{{cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/tv_film/newsid_2329000/2329441.stm |title=Neighbours fans fight to keep Rev Rosie |author= |date=15 October 2002 |website=BBC Newsround |access-date=25 September 2024}}
In addition to her TV work, Millar has been a part of many ABC Radio programmes.
Film roles
Millar appears in several Australian feature films. Her first, in 1977, was The Mango Tree, with Geraldine Fitzgerald and Robert Helpmann.{{cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lHXArZjbJ8 |title=The Mango Tree |author= |date=2024 |website=Throwback TV Australia |access-date=8 December 2024}} Others include racehorse biopic Phar Lap (1983),{{cite web |url=https://www.thoroughbredracing.com/articles/6073/phar-lap-how-melbourne-cup-icon-became-hero-silver-screen/ |title=Phar Lap: how a Melbourne Cup icon became a hero of the silver screen |last=Hovdey |first=Jay |date=2023 |website=thoroughbredracing.com |access-date=8 December 2024}} and Evil Angels (1988; a.k.a. A Cry in the Dark),{{cite web |url=https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0094924/fullcredits/cast |title=Full Cast & Crew: A Cry in the Dark (1988) |author= |date=2024 |website=IMDb |access-date=8 December 2024}} the story of Lindy Chamberlain starring Meryl Streep.
TV films include unconventional murder drama Pieta (1987),{{cite web |url=https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/the-screen-guide/t/pieta-1987/558/ |title=Pieta, 1987 |author= |date=2024 |website=Screen Australia |access-date=8 December 2024}} and Nicole Kidman comedy The Bit Part (1988).{{cite web |url=https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/the-screen-guide/t/the-bit-part-1988/1623/ |title=The Bit Part, 1988 |author= |date=2024 |website=Screen Australia |access-date=8 December 2024}}
Personal life
Millar has been married twice. Her first husband was from Germany. Together they had a son, Benjamin. After divorcing in 1976, Millar met theatre critic-turned-primary school teacher Ian Robinson,{{cite web |url=https://www.basscoastpost.com/arts/happy-bloomsday-cowes |title=Happy Bloomsday, Cowes |author= |date=2018 |website=basscoastpost.com |access-date=6 December 2024}} and they married in 1984.{{cite magazine |last=Johnson |first=Jacqui |date=10 March 1984 |title=Prisoner Star Ties the Knot |magazine=TV Week |location=Sydney |publisher=Are Media |issue= |page=74}}
A 1981 magazine article reported that Millar at one stage quit showbusiness to work for Jigsaw – an organisation that aims to reunite natural parents with their adopted offspring{{cite web |url=https://www.jigsawqueensland.com/ |title=Jigsaw: Post Adoption Support |author= |date=2024 |website=jigsawqueensland.com/ |access-date=11 December 2024}} – the organisation having enabled her to make contact with her own birth mother.
In 2000, Millar held a first art exhibition of her pastel works at Chapel Off Chapel, Melbourne.
In 2001, Millar was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. The diagnosis prompted her to approach writer and actor Alan Hopgood (her on-screen husband in Bellbird) with a storyline about diabetes, which Hopgood turned into a play titled A Pill, A Pump and A Needle.{{cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qi4A1D_VM90 |title=Maggie Millar - The Prisoner Connection (Marie Winter) |author= |date=2024 |website=YouTube |access-date=6 December 2024}}{{cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJHy4b8P6s4 |title=A Pill, A Pump and A Needle |author= |date=2014 |website=YouTube |access-date=6 December 2024}}
Millar was inducted into the Victorian Honour Roll of Women in 2007. Alongside her acting career, Millar's community and campaigning contributions were recognised. Her experience of being an adopted child led her in adult life to take an active part in a long campaign to change the law in Australia to give adoptees access to their birth records. She did volunteer work at a support system for young drug addicts, and she served for several years on advisory committees in NSW and Victoria with the aim of helping women experiencing difficulties with body image and ageing. Millar has published articles about issues connected with her community work.{{cite magazine |last=Millar |first=Maggie |title=Beauty in Whose Eyes? Images of Women |url=https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/beauty-whose-eyes-images-women |magazine=Green Left |issue=11 |page= |date=May 1991 |access-date=11 December 2024}}{{cite news |last=Millar |first=Maggie |date=9 November 2012 |title=Our selfish creation of human life |url=https://www.theleader.com.au/story/89119/our-selfish-creation-of-human-life/ |work=St George and Sutherland Shire Leader |location=Sydney |access-date=10 December 2024}}
Credits
=Television=
=Film=
=Theatre (selected)=
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101102122703/http://www.maggiemillar.com/ |date=2 November 2010 |title=Official Website }}
- {{IMDb name|id=0587682|name=Maggie Millar}}
- [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTsZJZsShYw Talking Prisoner: interview with Maggie Millar (Marie Winter)]
- [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ikk9wL9JY14 Acting highlights 1]
- [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29vXuboWl2Y Acting highlights 2]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Millar, Maggie}}
Category:Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
Category:Australian film actresses
Category:Australian soap opera actresses
Category:Australian stage actresses