Gerard Maguire

Gerard Maguire (born 25 September 1945)[1] also credited as Gerard McGuire, is an Australian actor, producer and screenwriter best known for his role in Prisoner as Deputy Governor, Jim Fletcher. Often appearing on Australian television police dramas and soap operas throughout the 1970s and 80s, he is also one of Australia's top voice actors, voicing numerous commercials and narrations during the 1990s and early 2000s.

Gerard Maguire
Born (1945-09-25) 25 September 1945[1]
Australia
Occupations
  • Actor
  • producer
  • screenwriter
Years active1969โ€“2008
SpouseJane Alsobrook (1980โ€“2022; her death)

Biography

Early life

Maguire was born in 1945[1] and began acting during the late 1960s, shortly after graduating from the National Institute of Dramatic Art with a Diploma of Dramatic Art. Out of 3,000 applicants, he was one of 15 students to complete the program.[2]

Early career

After minor one-time roles on the television series Riptide and The Link Men, Maguire made his feature film debut in The Demonstrator with Joe James and Irene Inescort. In the film, he portrayed university student Steve Slater whose political differences with his father Joe Slater, a Federal cabinet minister, result in his leading a series of protests disrupting his father's activities in organising an international conference. The film was considered a commercial failure. Following this he starred in the film Country Town (1971)[3] Country Town was a feature film spin-off from Australian Broadcasting Corporation soap opera Bellbird.

In the late 1960s and the 1970s, he was a guest actor on drama series Dynasty, Ryan, and on police procedural series Matlock Police, Homicide, Division 4 and Cop Shop. Joining the Melbourne Theatre Company, he also performed in Going Home at St. Martin's Theatre on 11 March 1976. That same year, he starred with Tom Oliver and Kate Sheil in David Williamson's A Handful of Friends at the Russell Street Theatre in Melbourne.[4][5] Maguire went on to supporting roles in the television miniseries Luke's Kingdom and the film Mad Dog Morgan. In 1978 he was part of the cast in the first public performance of Kenneth G. Ross's important Australian play Breaker Morant: A Play in Two Acts, presented by the Melbourne Theatre Company at the Athenaeum Theatre, in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, on 2 February 1978. A late arrival during the first season of Prisoner, Maguire joined the cast in mid 1979 as Deputy Governor Jim Fletcher and eventually became the only main male character during his three years on the series. Maguire eventually left "Prisoner" during the show's 4th season in early 1982. During his last year with the series, he appeared with Prisoner co-stars Colette Mann and Val Lehman in Kitty and the Bagman (1982).

During 1983, Maguire starred as Dr. John Rivers in the television series Starting Out. As one of the school's tutors and the father of the disfigured Michelle (Rowena Mohr), his time on the series dealt with his guilt over his daughter's accident while dealing with his unhappily married wife Yvonne (Suzy Gashler).[6]

After the series cancellation, Maguire made a guest appearance on Special Squad and had supporting roles in The Surfer and Alice to Nowhere before returning to the stage in 1986 to perform in David Williamson's Sons of Cain which ran for five-months in London's West End. In 1987, was a television presenter for Ground Zero and appeared in one episode of The Flying Doctors during the next two years. Maguire also appeared during the final season of the soap opera The Power, The Passion as a police investigator and ex-boyfriend of one of the central characters, Ellen Byrne Edmonds (Olivia Hamnett).[7]

Producing and writing

While producing a film adaptation of a novel during the mid-1980s, he replaced the screenwriter originally working on the screenplay. Contacted by Columbia Pictures, he flew to California to discuss the project, he met producer and then Senior Vice-President Jane Alsobrook. He soon began a romantic relationship and Maguire ended up staying in Los Angeles for the next several years. In 1993, he and Lance Peters co-wrote Gross Misconduct later directed by George T. Miller and, the following year, wrote Seduce Me: Pamela Principle 2 and was the script supervisor for Tunnel Vision. He was also involved in acting workshops with actors such as Jon Voight among others.

Return to Australia

In 1995, he moved back to Australia with Alsobrook when she accepted a position as president of Australia's largest independent film production and distribution company, REP. During the mid-to-late 1990s, Maguire appeared in the television movies Heart of Fire, The Fury Within and The Finder as well as the guest appearances on the television series Water Rats, Murder Call and All Saints. He became a voice actor, eventually narrating hundreds of commercials and, in 1995, was the voice of Titanium Man in the cartoon Iron Man. During the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, he was the announcer during the diving events.

Following the September 11 attacks, he moved to the United States allowing his wife to be closer to her family in Sedona, Arizona. Although continuing to be involved in a number of film projects with his wife, he also became involved in local theatre agreeing to appear in theatrical performances with the Canyon Moon Theatre Company and, in April 2002, appeared as the narrator in Side By Side By Sondheim at the Old Marketplace in West Sedona.[2]

Internet film

Maguire continued working as a voice actor during the next several years via the internet. After a five-year absence, Maguire made an appearance in the 2007 independent film Brothel.

As of 2013 Gerard lives in Arizona

Filmography

Production Year Role
You Can't See 'Round Corners1969Terry (uncredited)
Riptide (TV series)1969Tractor Driver (episode: North of the Headland)
The Link Men (TV series)1970Terry (Somebody's Kid Is Missing)
Demonstrator1971Steven Slater
Country Town (film)1971Phillip Henderson
Dynsasty (TV series)1970-19712 roles
-Whatever Happened to Jamie Brooks
-Second Pressure - Jamie Brooks
Crisis (TV movie)1972
Ryan (TV series)19732 episodes
-A Man with a Mission - Jack Baker
-The Far Away Girl - Rollo
Matlock Police (TV series)1971-19746 episode
-Heroe's Day - Ted Brewer
-The Foreigners - Keith Evans
-One of the Day's - Mick Johnson
-Violent Thursday = Terry Harris
-Leave 'Em for Dead- Nick Rogers
-Prosperity Breeds Contempt - Walt Rogers
Homicide (TV series)1969-19735 roles
-episode: George as Wilson
-Johnny Deadfella - Bruce Foster
-Two Down, One to Go - Lyell Revell
-Chain Gang - Gecko
-Short Cut - Riley
Division 4 (TV series)1969-19759 roles
-The Web - Vince Jordon
-The Return of John Kelso - George Flack
-They Walk the Night - Jerry Thompson
-Now One with the Bridge - Martin Roche
-Small Fry - Mike Turner
-All Women Are Liars - Donald West
-When in Rome - Phillip Reid
-My Pretty Maid - Brent Campbell
-When Pride Takes Precedence - Cookson
Shannon's Mob (TV series)1975Fraser (episode: When Collier Came)
Secret Doors (TV movie)1976 ?
Luke's Kingdom (TV series)197613 episodes
-A Sort of Gentleman
-The Land Lovers
-The Bait
-The Man From Home
-A Man Worse Than Cormac
-A Woman Waiting
-The Surveyor
-The King's Gentlemen
-The Hypocrites
-The Dam and the Damned
-Devil's Man
-An Enemy Too Many
-The Prisoner
Mad Dog Morgan1976Rutherford
Power Without Glory (TV miniseries)19762 episodes as Colin Lassiter
-Lest We Forget
-War Damage
Bluey (TV series)1977Larry Davis (episode: The Pick Up)
Burn the Butterflies (TV movie)1979 ?
Cop Shop (TV series)1978-19794 roles
-Peter Galbraith (3 episodes)
-Phillip Kline (2 episodes)
-Frank Garde
-Eddy Marshall (2 episodes)
Lawson's Mate (TV series)1980Jock (episode: Joe Wilson)
Prisoner in Concert (TV movie)1981Jim Fletcher
The Daryl Somers Show (TV series)Man with parked car (uncredited)
Prisoner: Cell Block H (TV series)Jim Fletcher (209 episodes)
Kitty and the Bagman1982Cyril
Starting Out (TV series)1983Dr. John Rivers
The Bodyguard (film short)1994Lawyer
Special Squad (TV series)1984Hansen
The Fast Lane (TV series)1985Bill Martin (episode: Irreconcilable Differences)
The Lancaster Miller Affair (TV miniseries)1986Frank Upton
Alice to Nowhere (TV miniseries)1986Tim Sanderson
Neighbours (TV series)1987Parnell
Death Ware1987Jack (credited as Gerard McGuire)
Ground Zero1987TV presenter
The Flying Doctors (TV series)1988Harry McDonald (episode:Johnnie Come Home)
Vicious!1988Brian Kennedy
The Power, The Passion (TV series)1989David
Mull1989Dr. Graham
Bodysurfer (TV mini-series)1989Gordon
The Bradys (TV series)Australian Envoy (episode:The Party Girls)
Embassy (TV series)1990Freddie in 3 episodes
-Pilot
-Foreign Affairs
-First ComesMarriage, Then Comes Love
Gross Misconduct1993Vice Chancellor
Iron Man (TV series)1965Titanium Man (episode: Distant Boundaries)
Heart of Fire (TV movie)1997Scott Dodd
Heartbreak High (TV series)1997Tom Harding
Water Rats (TV series)1998Lloyd Venables (episode: Old Bones)
The Fury Within (TV movie)Dr. Daryl Levine
Murder Call (TV series) | 1999Donald Cook
The Finder (TV movie)2001Sgt. Jack Matthews (credited as Gerard McGuire)
Bloodsports (TV movie)2002Barry Kelly
Alll Saints (TV-series)Peter Maloney in 2 episodes
-Opening Night
-The Show Must Go On
Code 11-14 ( TV movie)2003Captain Copeland
Brothel2008Curtis

References

  1. Bourke, Terry. Prisoner Cell Block H: Behind the Scenes. London: Angus and Robertson (UK).
  2. Gorman, Ben (3 April 2002). "Star from "Down Under" rises on Canyon Moon stage". Red Rock Review.
  3. Reade, Eric. History and Heartburn: The Saga of Australian Film, 1896โ€“1978. Rutherford, New Jersey: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1979. (pg. 171, 174) ISBN 0-8386-3082-0
  4. Perkins, Elizabeth. The Plays of Alma de Groen. Amsterdam: Rodopi B.V., 1994. ISBN 90-5183-764-X
  5. Williamson, David and Ortrun Zuber-Skerritt. Australian Playwrights: David Williamson. Amsterdam: Rodopi B.V., 1988. ISBN 90-5183-029-7
  6. Mercado, Andrew. Super Aussie Soaps: Behind the Scenes of Australia's Best Loved TV Shows. Melbourne: Pluto Press Australia, 2004. (pg. 199) ISBN 1-86403-191-3
  7. Mercado, Andrew. Super Aussie Soaps: Behind the Scenes of Australia's Best Loved TV Shows. Melbourne: Pluto Press Australia, 2004. (pg. 284) ISBN 1-86403-191-3
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