Marie Lorraine

Biography

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).