Pat McDonald Born "Patricia Ethell McDonald" (1 August, 1922-10 March, 1990) was an Australian actress and the daughter of one of Australia's most prominent radio engineers, blank">Arthur McDonald. She was best known for two long-running soap opera roles. She played comical gossip Dorrie Evans in _Number 96 in the 1970s and the wise Fiona Thompson in Sons and Daughters in the 1980s. In both series she was featured throughout the show's entire run: about five and a half years in both cases.
McDonald acted in the 1939 film Seven Little Australians as the twenty year-old stepmother "Esther". She much later appeared in an episode of 1971 police drama The Long Arm. The role in Number 96 followed. McDonald won several Logie Awards as Best Actress for playing Dorrie, and a Gold Logie for Australia's most popular female personality in 1974. After Number 96 she played a regular role in short-lived Australian situation comedy series The Tea Ladies (1978).
During the 1970s she was involved in a live-in lesbian relationship with Number 96 co-star Bunney Brooke. The two actors openly appeared in magazine article spreads that toured the suburban Sydney home they shared, and they freely discussed their international summer holidays together in press articles, although the true nature of the relationship was not explicitly stated.
Pat McDonald's final public performance was at the 1989 Logie Awards (March 17, 1989) when she took part in a production number called "Golden Girls" which celebrated female Gold Logie winners of years past. She performed the song with Lorrae Desmond, Hazel Phillips, Denise Drysdale, Jeanne Little and Rowena Wallace.
McDonald died from cancer.
