Rowena Wallace is an English-born Australian actress most notable for being the first soap star to receive the Gold Logie for her performance as Patricia "Pas the Rat" Hamilton/Morrell/Palmer in Sons and Daughters.
At age fifteen, having left school and attended a business college at the insistence of her parents, Wallace decided to become an actress. She joined an advertising agency while still performing in the theatre at night. Her first television role was in Brisbane as an entertainer on the variety show Theatre Royal (hosted by George Wallace Jr., no relation). She also hosted the afternoon news and weather and a children's show. At the age of nineteen, Wallace was diagnosed with scoliosis. She has required painkillers almost continuously since then.
Wallace left Sons and Daughters after three years, with her final scenes airing early in 1985 just after her Gold Logie win. Wallace claimed in a reunion documentary that she left due to exhaustion from playing such an intense character. She also claimed she regretted walking away from the role as she did not get the later acting offers she had anticipated. The popularity of her character led to it being recast, with Belinda Giblin assuming the role of a returning Patricia after extensive cosmetic surgery had altered her facial features. Late in the show's run, with ratings in decline, Wallace was returned to the series in an attempt to boost the show's popularity. With Giblin remaining in the show, Wallace now played a new character, that of Patricia's long-lost identical twin sister Pamela. Her return lasted ten weeks but did little to halt the show's dwindling ratings, and the show was cancelled shortly afterwards.
In Prisoner Cell Block H she played the mentally disturbed Anne Griffin in 1980.
Personal Life[]
In August 2010, Wallace was the subject of a Today Tonight special feature on the Seven Network, where she was reportedly nearly broke and on the verge of becoming homeless. The following week, an outpouring of offers to take her in came from Australians around the country.
In March 2011, she was the subject of more media coverage, this time because the unit she occupies at subsidised rent in Wonthaggi, Victoria was due for demolition in August 2011 and she feared she would have nowhere to live. The rents in Wonthaggi had doubled or even tripled due to the Wonthaggi Desalination Plant being constructed nearby, but her pension would not even cover her rent.
Wallace in 2022 was put on Channel 7's "SPOTLIGHT" after fame show, were it was revealed she sold two of her logies. With hosts of the episode Cameron Daddo and Ada Nicodemou returning one of the Wallace's logies to her at the dinner.