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Pamela Rabe

Pamela Rabe (born Pamela June Koropatnick; 30 April 1959) is a Canadian–Australian actress and theatre director. A graduate of the Playhouse Acting School in Vancouver, Rabe is best known for her appearances in the Australian films Sirens, Cosi and Paradise Road, and for starring as Joan Ferguson in the television drama series Wentworth.

Early life

Rabe was born in Oakville, Ontario, Canada in 1959. The seventh of eight children, she graduated from the Playhouse Acting School in Vancouver. Rabe relocated to Australia in 1983 with Australian director, Roger Hodgman. They were married in 1984.

Career

Theatre

Rabe is a prolific contributor to theatrical life in her adopted country in acting and directing, across a wide range of genres - musicals, comedy and drama. She is a long-standing collaborator with the Sydney Theatre Company and the Melbourne Theatre Company. Rabe was once described by Melbourne theatre critic Alison Croggon as having the sort of presence that "makes shy people swallow hard and lesser mortals involuntarily bow".

Some of her other high-profile acting roles include Amanda Wingfield in Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie at Belvoir, for which she won a Helpmann Award, Nora Boyle in Patrick White's The Season at Sarsaparilla, for which she won a Green Room Award for Best Actress, Richard III in the Sydney Theatre Company production of The War Of The Roses, which co-starred Cate Blanchett as Richard II. and Marquise Isabelle de Merteuil in Les Liaisons Dangereuses alongside Hugo Weaving.

In 2005, she performed an experimental play called Woman-Bomb, in which she inhabited the body and mind of a suicide bomber.

In 2010, she starred in the Melbourne stage production of David Mamet's play Boston Marriage.

In 2012, Rabe received a Helpmann Award for Best Female Actor in a Musical for her performance in Grey Gardens for The Production Company. In July 2015, she won a second Helpmann Award, this time for Best Female Actor in a Play, for her performance in The Glass Menagerie.

In late 2017, Rabe played the roles of Helene Alving in Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts for Sydney's Belvoir St Theatre, Mrs. Higgins in the Julie Andrews-directed revival of My Fair Lady (replacing Robyn Nevin), and the role of Mary in Colm Tóibín's The Testament of Mary, at the Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne. In 2018, she starred in Lucy Kirkwood's The Children at the Melbourne Theatre Company.

Rabe turned her hand to theatre directing in 2009, and has directed several high-profile plays for Australian theatre companies, including the Australian premiere of In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play), and Elling for the Melbourne Theatre Company. Rabe was nominated for a Green Room Award for best direction on both occasions. In 2012, Rabe was invited to be a member of the guest triumvirate who programmed the Melbourne Theatre Company season for that year.

In 2023 Rabe joined the international tour of The Confessions.

Film

In 1989, Rabe made her film debut with a minor role in Against the Innocent. Her second role came in 1993 when she was cast in John Duigan's romantic comedy Sirens (with Hugh Grant and Sam Neill). Rabe's first leading role was in the 1995 film Vacant Possession. Following this, she appeared in 1996's Cosi (with Ben Mendelsohn, Barry Otto, and Toni Collette), Lust and Revenge (directed by Paul Cox).

In 1997, she appeared in Paradise Road (starring Glenn Close and set during World War II) as well as playing Hester in The Well (an adaptation of Elizabeth Jolley's novel of the same name), for which she received an Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actress. More recently, she appeared in the Jasmila Žbanić film For Those Who Can Tell No Tales, and narrated the film Symphony of the Wild.

Television

Rabe's Australian television credits include an early guest role on the soap opera A Country Practice, recurring roles on the family series Ocean Girl and The Secret Life of Us, and a lead role in the short lived series Mercury.

In September 2013, it was announced that Rabe would join the cast of the Australian prison drama series Wentworth, a reimagining of the classic Network Ten soap opera Prisoner. She joined Wentworth in Season Two as sadistic prison governor Joan "The Freak" Ferguson, a role originally played by Maggie Kirkpatrick in Prisoner. Her character was initially killed off at the end of the fifth season, when she is buried alive by Will Jackson (Robbie Magasiva), and she made her then final appearances in two episodes of the sixth season as a figment of Will's imagination. The seventh season of Wentworth was intended to be the last, however, it was once again renewed and the ending of Season Seven was rewritten to include Joan, who is revealed to be alive. Rabe reprised her role for the 20-episode eighth and final season, which aired its first part in 2020, while the final part was aired in 2021. Rabe has been nominated for multiple awards for her performance, winning the 2015 AACTA Award for Best Lead Actress in a Television Drama and the 2018 Logie Award for Most Outstanding Actress.

In 2017, Rabe played the role of Maude in the 6-part TV series Fucking Adelaide, which premiered at the Adelaide Film Festival in October 2017.

In 2018 Rabe would guest appear in Wentworth in Series 6, film mini series 'The Hunting' and continue performing in theatre.

Rabe would return to theatre in 2020 for the play 'Monster' but the performances where put on hold due to COVID restrictions, it was finally announced that Monster would go ahead in 2022 but Rabe would withdraw from the play and the role went to Alison Whyte, Rabe also performed a vocal performance of Shakespeare works in 2021 with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

Rabe joined the cast of Deadloch and Bay of Fires in 2022.

Other work

Rabe served on the board of the Australian Film Institute from 1999–2002 and is a former member of the Board of Directors of NIDA. Rabe also serves on the board of the Malthouse Theatre in Melbourne.

Filmography

Film

Television

Stage (selected partial credits)

Honours

Rabe was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in the 2023 King's Birthday Honours for "significant service to the performing arts as a performer and director".