MovieChat Forums > Prisoner (1979) Discussion > The Australian Actors' Pool...

The Australian Actors' Pool...

posted 12 years ago by trip2themoon
9 replies | jump to latest

Is the pool of actors in Oz really as Prisoner would suggest as deep as a puddle?

I recently downloaded the lot and started from the beginning and I'm now at around the 320th episode and so far I've noticed:

Stephan Denis has had about 3 parts.
The old farm boy Wonky Warner went to work for has re-appeared as a judge.
Madge from Neighbours has been Mum's daughter and a cop.
That ex screw who suffocated in a dryer is back as Quinn's sister.
And I'm sure when I first started watching Prisoner back in the '80s that Bryant's murdered girlfriend was The Freak's girlfriend at one point too.

May have missed a few but surely they could have gotten more actors in, especially if what Val Leman says is true that at the time Prisoner was the one that all the top Aussie actors wanted to be in.

[–] luv80s 12 years ago

Yeah I noticed that too , Alf from Home & Away has been in it twice once as Jim's old war mate & governor at Blackmour,
Also Merv the cook played Doreen's pen pal.

[–] SheilaCarterLives 12 years ago

I actually like the recasts, I think it adds to the fun.

I remember Gerda Nicolson playing an evil, corrupt officer at Barnhurst before taking the part of Ann Reynolds.

And Julia Blake's had three different roles, first as the herbal poisoner Evelyn Randall, then Alice Dodds - Judy's replacement at Driscoll House - and finally as inmate Nancy McCormack in the final season. And like the above poster said, Ray Meagher appeared on it more than once, first Geoff Butler, then Kurt Renner and finally the governor of Blackmoor, Ernest Craven.

Like I said, I love the recasts, I think it adds to Prisoner's charm, although it can get a bit confusing at times. I know Louise Siversen played a background prisoner named Tammy not long before she was Lou Kelly. I know a lot of people mistake Tammy for Lou, the former being the complete opposite of the latter.

[–] oranges99 12 years ago

I seem to recall Louise Siversen also played a camera shop assistant in an ep where Nola McKenzie first turned up.

[–] trip2themoon 12 years ago

A couple more:

Margo's man who got killed in a police shoot out has come back as a maintenance man and one of the kidnappers of Powell's daughter came back as a wife beating scumbag who got a knife in the back.

[–] oranges99 12 years ago

I think that 'wife beating scumbag who got a knife in the back' comes back yet again as an inmate in the mens prison

[–] trip2themoon 12 years ago

This one really surprised me: Monnie coming back as the big biker who looked after Maxine when she escaped.

[–] PhoneyBaloney1970 11 years ago

I've just watched another all-time classic Aussie Drama series; The Sullivans (1976-1983). There would have to be TWENTY actors who appeared in this show who then also went on to subsequently appear in Prisoner.

[–] Lothar_Quint 11 years ago

Alf Stewart played 3 parts.

[–] michael_mulligan 10 years ago

I remember Liddy Clark played baby killer Bella Albrecht and Helen Smart's supposedly younger sister Sharon. Billie Hammerberg in early episodes played Val (Bea's mate on the outside) and May (One of the feeble Barnhurst women). Margot Knight was Judy Bryant's ghastly girlfriend Sharon Gilmore (Jock Stewart wasn't all bad) and the Freak's squeeze Terri Malone.