Abigail Rogan biography
Sunday, August 10th, 2008 |
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Abigail Rogan
Date of Birth :
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Location :
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Abigail became Australia’s undisputed number 1 female sex symbol through her role as virginal blonde Bev Houghton in “Number 96″ (1972). English born Abigail was educated in France. Came to Australia in 1971 (comm: other sources mention 1968 as year of migration) and played female lead in “There’s a Girl in My Soup” in Perth. Moved to Sydney and got noticed in a TV commercial in which she played a Marilyn Monroe type bombshell opposite Phil Silvers.
Landed the role of Bev in Number 96. Was an original cast member and one of the most popular stars of the series, though Abigail quickly tired of the monotonous storylines for Bev (she was a shy virgin and the scriptwriters conspired to simply throw her into bed with a series of men) and after several public disagreements with the show’s producers left suddenly in June 1973. The role of Bev was hastily recast, with the new actress taking over mid-episode. Abigail was the only major star of the series not to appear in the movie version released in 1974. Abigail had difficulty gaining many serious roles after leaving the series, and appeared in several bit-parts closely following the contours of her sex-symbol image in various sex-comedy films of the mid 1970s. Later appeared in several comedy roles on the stage, played a prim French teacher in school based drama “Class of ‘75″ (1975) and a super-efficient secretary in the early episodes of hospital soap “Young Doctors, The” (1976). Was finally lured back to Number 96 in 1976 briefly playing a new character called Eve who was to appear in a proposed spin-off series with Elaine Lee though the new series was never picked-up. Retired from acting and lived on a banana plantation in Queensland. Publicly criticized the increasingly overt sex-scenes and violence featured in the later episodes of Number 96. In 1984 after a long absence from the limelight was cast as comic heroine Caroline Morrell in television soap “Sons and Daughters” (1981) by producers desperate to revamp the show after the departure of the series most famous character Patricia “Pat the Rat” Hamilton portrayed by Rowena Wallace. Abigail’s character was a great success and the show survived a further three years with Caroline quickly becoming one of the central characters. She continued with the series until its demise in 1987. Later appeared in guest roles on TV shows such as the long-running series “Neighbours” (1985), and was added to the cast of floundering series “Chances” (1991) in a last ditch attempt to spice up its quickly fading popularity. In return to her sex-comedy roots, Abigail’s Chances character was a sex-therapist named Bambi Chute.
Source: Abigail Rogan biography
“I was naked…” It was late December 1971 and a prim and pert young blonde named Abigail was in a long queue at the North Sydney offices of TV Producers Cash Harmon. Out of work and desperate, the pretty, English-born young actress was at the casting session for a new series to be set in a block of flats.
“I was pretty nervous - which is unlike me - when I walked into Bill Harmon’s office but he was such a dear man. He put me straight at ease. I read the part of Bev for him and he told me to report to the TEN studios at North Ryde for a screen test. I was over the moon. The next day he told me I was in.”
An overjoyed Abigail and her lover-manager Mark Hashfield celebrated with a bottle of Bodega. After “Number 96″ hit the screens Abigail quickly emerged as Australia’s hottest new star with her delicate blond beauty and teasing portrayal of the scantily-clad virginal sex-kitten.
Mark Hashfield himself would soon be cast in “Number 96″ as well, playing Alan Cotterell, boyfriend of Bev’s flatmate Janie. A fairly dull character, Alan had a triumphant departure when it was finally discovered that he was in fact the dreaded knicker snipper who had raided Bev’s underwear drawer, and who had hid under Georgina Carter’s bed in order to reach out and snatch the freshly discarded panties the undressing hippie had just wriggled out of.
“Incredible as it may seem, Bev Houghton never had a … sorry, took a lover … in ‘96′.” Explained Abigail. “She got into some incredible scrapes, but when she left the series she was virgo intacta.”
“I received heaps of letters condemning me for being a wicked woman, yet I displayed nothing more than a brief glimpse of my boobs or a flash of my naked backside in the two-and-a-half [sic] years I was with the show.”
Published at the height of her fame, her 1973 autobiography Call Me Abigail sold 15,000 copies in two weeks. Setting the tone for the literary triumph was the text’s opening line “I was naked”… but never in “Number 96″, right Abigail?
As well as detailing the intimate aspects of her personal life, the book also featured authentic poetry by Abigail, along with a pictorial centre-spread of snap-shots variously captioned “stripping for Number 96″, “stripped for Number 96″, “who left the door open?”, and the squeaky clean “rub-a-dub-dub”.
Poetry by Abigail:
When I was a child I used to see
Mindless faces watching me.
But I am a child no more, nor they,
For all I see
Have knowledge burned within,
And erupting still, when opening their mouths
To speak;
Their ears ever waiting to snatch and savage
Scraps of knowledge passing too close
Dragging them down deep into the mire
Choking, twisting, turning, bending,
Till yielding they come to rest
With other decaying matter.
Their eyes poke and prod and probe:
Greedy instruments of their eternal darkness
And now with knowledge, all I see,
Are faceless minds watching me.
After her sudden departure from “Number 96″ in June 1973 Abigail found herself severely typecast. She played a sexy pre-credits cameo in 1973 sex-comedy hit “Alvin Purple”, and returned in its 1974 sequel, “Alvin Rides Again”. In this second film she tackled the challenging role of a fag-smoking, northern English tart in charge of the road-side diner where Alvin calls in for a cup of tea. Her brief scene calls for her to literally bust out of her poorly-constructed apparel, and to then engage in sexual intercourse with Alvin as a stream of Jaffas cascade onto their bodies. Kinky.
In the dud 1976 comedy “The Rollicking Adventures of Eliza Fraser” Abigail provides another brief cameo; a bedroom scene where the sheet is whipped off the bed to reveal the star’s famed breasts. This, her single scene in the film, features just a handful of lines and is played as the opening credits are flashed over the top.
Abigail then enacted a brief cameo in the Phil Avalon surfer-flick “Summer City” (1977), in which she played “Woman in Pub”. In a dramatic departure, Abigail remained clothed throughout her brief scene in this film - albeit in a very low-cut asset-revealing yellow dress. Her character was intended as a rough sort who has led a very hard life, so they put her in an unflattering black wig and did a very hard make-up job on her.
Around this time Abigail also turned to singing, recording an album - which flopped. Unleashed were such singles as J’Taime, and the curiously titled Biting My Nails.
Abigail seems to have had more success in the genre in which she first found fame - television soapies. Though her roles in Class of ‘74 and The Young Doctors were hardly long-running dramatic triumphs but rather guest roles designed to capitalise of her sexy image, they were at least meatier than her quick-flash-of-breast movie bit-parts in dismal sex comedies. Finally, in the mid-1980s, Abigail enjoyed perhaps her greatest role, that of Caroline in Sons and Daughters. Though that rather overblown soapie was arguably past its peak by the time of Caroline’s arrival in 1985, the character remains perhaps the show’s greatest asset during its final few years.
Source: Abigail Rogan biography
