Magdalene Mary Therese Szubanski was born in Liverpool on the 12th of April 1961 although technically she was born in Ormskirk Hospital but lived in Great Crosby. Her mother Margaret (née McCarthy) is Scottish-Irish and came from a poor family and her father Zbigniew 'Peter' Szubanski came from a well off Polish family. A Polish Catholic, he joined the Polish execution squad, Unit 993/W Revenge Company, aged just 19, killing Gestapo officers and Polish collaborators in Warsaw. His story is a series of incredible close calls: hiding Jews in the family home, escaping the Warsaw Uprising through a sewer, fleeing from the infamous Lamsdorf Death March and finally being liberated by Russian soldiers from a POW camp. When the war ended, 'Peter' as he was known, wanted to become an Englishman and in the POW camp he had learned English. He then made his way to the UK and attended Edinburgh’s Polish School of Medicine, but three years into his degree, Scotland became frustrated that there were now so many Polish people competing with Scottish people for jobs, and the government closed the school. Disappointed but not bitter, Peter went to Bradford to study textile chemistry; his mathematics and fashion notebooks show meticulous and artistic flair. After earning his degree, he worked in several textile factories before taking a job in Liverpool. He had met Szubanski’s mother in Scotland and they moved to Liverpool, where they had three children with the youngest Magda being born in 1961. The couple had firstly a daughter and a son, Barb and Chris, and after a gap of eight years, a third child: Magdalene Mary Therese. While pregnant Margaret had toxemia, a disease that saps nutrients from the fetus, so Magda was born two weeks early. Peter and Margaret’s first son, John, was stillborn due to toxemia.They had settled in Great Crosby and every summer the family went to Dunfermline to stay with her grandmother Meg, Magda remembers the windy roads, and the smell of her grandmother’s floors. Then, Meg moved to Liverpool and she and Magda shared a room and were best friends before the family migrated to Australia in 1965, without Meg, when Magda was five. Magda can remember back of a neighbor who gave her cherry tomatoes, learning to read from a blackboard in the kitchen, and finding a gas mask (that looks like an alien’s face) in the attic.
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| Her first performance in 'Why Not Theatre' 1983 |
In Australia she attended Siena College, Melbourne where in 1976, as a Year 10 student, she captained a team on the television quiz show 'It's Academic'. Magda then studied fine arts and philosophy at the University of Melbourne and, decades later, in 2016, she attained a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Arts (degree with honours). In 1985, while performing at the Uni in a revue of 'Too Cool for Sandals', she was one of several talent-spotted by Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) producers which led to 'The D-Generation' television sketch comedy show. Magda was aware from her debut appearance in a school musical that she was completely at home centre-stage. The warm glow of a spotlight made her feel fully alive. Her career having started as a writer and performer of sketch comedy would progress to production of TV, film acting, and musical theatre. In 1995, she and friends Gina Riley and Jane Turner wrote, performed and produced the first all-female Australian sketch comedy television program, 'Big Girl's Blouse'. The most poignant of all the characters she created is Sharon Strzelecki, the unlucky-in-love netball enthusiast with the pudding-bowl haircut who shot to fame in the hit television series 'Kath & Kim' which ran for six years to 2007. In 2007 she ventured into musical comedy, taking on the role of William Barfee in the Melbourne Theatre Company production of the hit Broadway musical 'The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee'. 'Variety' described her performance as "sensationally good" and 'Australian Stage' said, "Magda Szubanski as the Eric Cartman-esque William Barfee steals the show. Film work saw her perform in the 1995 film 'Babe' as Esme Hoggett and she reprised her role in the 1998 sequel, 'Babe: Pig in the City' before teaming up again with director/producer George Miller to voice the role of Miss Viola in the animated films 'Happy Feet' (2006) and 'Happy Feet Two' (2011).
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| With her parents, Peter and Margaret on 'This is Your Life' 1996 |
In 1999 she created, wrote, co-produced and played Margaret O'Halloran in the 'Dogwoman' series of TV films, a detective style show based on the idea an expert 'dog-whisperer' who, by treating problem dogs, inadvertently stumbles upon and solves human crimes. In 2003 and 2004 surveys, she polled as the most recognised and well-liked Australian television personality. From the 3rd of September 2018, she recurred as Jemima Davies-Smythe on 'Neighbours' where her character officiated the first same-sex wedding on Australian television. Magda had come out publicly in 2012, making the announcement that she was gay on the Ten Network talk show, 'The Project'. In the summer of 1978 having finished school, Magda broke the news that she was gay to her sister, Barb. The unfazed response from her adored older sibling was a huge relief, but she couldn’t summon the courage to tell anyone else.
see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2024/08/a-history-of-liverpool-thespians-victor.html
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