Marie Lorraine(1899-1982)
- Actress
- Producer
Isabel McDonagh, or Marie Lorraine as she was professionally known, was
one of three sisters who formed one of the most successful production
teams in early Australian cinema. Her sister Paulette McDonagh directed her in
four movies, her other sister Phyllis McDonagh managed art direction and
production, leading contemporaries to call them as "The most remarkable
women in the history of Australian cinema." Isabel starred in several
very successful silent films, her naturalistic acting style praised as
matching the best performances of Hollywood. In the early 1930s she
married a wealthy banker and former soldier and then spread her time
evenly between Australia and London, to which she eventually moved. She
continued to study acting and was instrumental in the formation of
Sydney's Ensemble Theatre, though never appeared on-screen after her
first and only sound film Two Minutes Silence (1933).
