Amanda Muggleton

Amanda Lillian Muggleton (born 12 October 1951) is an English Australian theatre, television and film actress. She is best known for her supporting television role in soap opera Prisoner as inmate Chrissie Latham, with appearances between 1979 and 1983.

Her stage work in Australia includes the title roles in both Shirley Valentine and Educating Rita, and as Maria Callas in Master Class, for which she won the 2002 Helpmann Award for Best Actress in a Play. She won a second Helpmann Award in 2005, for her role as Mercedes Cortez in the musical Eureka!.

Early life and education Amanda Lillian Muggleton was born on 12 October 1951 in Stepney, London, England, and emigrated to Australia in 1974.

She attended Sydenham School and left just before taking A-levels to go to drama school. She trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the Royal Academy of Dance in London.

Career

Television and film Muggleton's most widely known television role is perhaps that of Chrissie Latham in the Australian soap opera Prisoner. She also played the lead role of Connie Ryan in short lives soap opera Richmond Hill, and has had guest roles in television series including A Country Practice, Cop Shop, HeadLand, City Homicide as well as British series Hollyoaks and the telemovie Sara Dane. Her film credits include Mad Max, Thirst, Street Hero, Queen of the Road, Mr. Reliable, Feeling Sexy, Idiot Box and Matching Jack.

In 2008, Muggleton's role of Kathy Booth in drama series City Homicide earned her a nomination for the AACTA Award for Best Guest or Supporting Actress in a Television Drama. In 2010, she appeared in two episodes of the ABC comedy series The Librarians. In March 2012, Muggleton went to Queensland for a role in Fatal Honeymoon, a made-for-television film based on the death of Alabama woman Tina Watson on her Great Barrier Reef diving trip in 2003, shot for the American cable channel Lifetime.

In 2016, Muggleton featured in the second episode of Channel 7’s The Secret Daughter, followed by a brief appearance in the UK Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks as Dr. Barton, which she filmed in October whilst she was in London performing The Book Club at King's Head Theatre.

In June 2019, it was announced that Muggleton would begin appearing in the Seven Network soap opera Home and Away as recurring character Wendy Shaw, the mother of Ryan ‘Robbo’ Shaw (Jake Ryan). She made her first appearance on 27 June 2019 and her final appearance on 30 July 2020.

Theatre Muggleton has appeared with all the state and commercial theatre companies. On stage, her performances with state theatre companies include Privates on Parade, The Matchmaker, The Seagull and Shirley Valentine (with MTC), Master Class, Nicholas Nickleby, The Rise and Fall of Little Voice and Soulmates (with STC), Duet for One, The Winter's Tale, Gigi and We Were Dancing (with QTC), Twelfth Night and Blithe Spirit (with SATC), Educating Rita, Medea and Shirley Valentine (with Hole in the Wall, Perth).

Muggleton's commercial credits include HMS Pinafore and Eureka! (with Essgee), Hello Dolly (with The Production Company), The Book Club and Master Class (with ICA), Annie (with GFO/SEL/Macks), the original Steaming (with Morley, Davis) and Losing Louis (with Ensemble Theatre).

Muggleton has won several very significant awards, for Shirley Valentine and The Rise and Fall of Little Voice (the Norman Kessell Award) and for Miss Hannigan in Annie (the Colleen Clifford Award). For her role as Maria Callas in Master Class, she won both a Green Room Award and a Helpmann Award for Best Actress in a Play. She won a second Helpmann Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Musical for her role as Mercedes Cortez in the Australian musical, Eureka!

In 2003, Muggleton completed a highly successful national tour of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, playing the White Witch, with Dennis Olsen as The Professor. Together, Muggleton and Olsen also devised and co-produced Marvellous Party!, a production that celebrates the words and music of Noël Coward, and which had two sell-out shows at the Victorian Arts Centre, a highly successful Victorian tour and toured Melbourne, Perth, Mandurah and Canberra, from 2003 to 2004. She also appeared in her own solo cabaret show.

Out of Marvellous Party! came Darling It's Noel, produced by International Concert Attractions and directed by Rodney Fisher at the Sydney Opera House and His Majesty's Theatre, Perth in 2004.

Muggleton returned to the stage in 2016 to play Velma Von Tussle in Hairspray in Brisbane (April) and Newcastle (July) just before The Book Club returned to Melbourne's Southbank Theatre in July.

In 2017, Muggleton played the role of Helena Rubinstein in Lip Service for Ensemble Theatre in Sydney, and reprised her award-winning role as Maria Callas in Master Class in Perth, which continued in Melbourne in January 2018.

Other In 2009, Muggleton and her business partner Bernadette Eichner founded Scene & Heard, a new acting school based in Sydney's Lane Cove. Within its first year, the business became so successful that they had to relocate it to new, bigger premises.

Muggleton is qualified as a speech and drama teacher. She is also a public speaker and can pilot single-engine planes.

Awards & nominations Year Work Award Category Result 1993 Amanda Muggleton Glugs Theatrical Awards Norman Kessell Memorial Award for Contribution to Theatre Shirley Valentine Glugs Theatrical Awards Norman Kessell Memorial Award for Best Actor (female) The Rise and Fall of Little Voice Glugs Theatrical Awards Norman Kessell Memorial Award for Best Actor (female) 2000 Annie Glugs Theatrical Awards Colleen Clifford Memorial Award for Outstanding Performance in a Musical or Special Comedy Satire 2002 Master Class Helpmann Awards Best Actress in a Play 2002 Master Class Green Room Awards Best Actress in a Play 2002 Master Class Mo Awards 2004 The Red Peppers Mo Awards Soulmates Mo Awards 2005 Eureka! Helpmann Awards Best Supporting Actress in a Musical 2008 City Homicide (S1E3: "Lie Down with Dogs") AFI Awards Best Guest or Supporting Actress in a Television Drama 2015 The Book Club Glugs Theatrical Awards Norman Kessell Memorial Award for Best Actor (female)