Monica Cresswell Maughan (née Wood, 15 September 1933[1] – 8 January 2010[2]) was an Australian actor with roles in theatre, radio, television, film and ballet over a career spanning 52 years.
The family moved to Sydney, Australia, in 1937 – Monica was three-and-a-half and spoke no English – and shortly afterwards to Melbourne, where her father became principal of Methodist Ladies' College (MLC) and her mother his unofficial deputy.
Monica attended MLC, where she received her only formal drama training with speech teacher Dorothy Dwyer, and went on to study French at the University of Melbourne, graduating in 1959 with a BA.
She made her stage debut opposite Barry Humphries in Ben Hecht's fast-paced satire The Front Page in April 1954.
In 1971, she won the Melbourne Theatre Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of pregnant spinster Anna Bowers in Donald Howarth's Three Months Gone.
The production, co-starring Frank Thring, Ruth Cracknell and Geoffrey Rush, was so popular that it toured Australia between 1988 and 1992, and was televised by the ABC.
[citation needed] She did not live to play the title role in Belvoir Company B's Gwen in Purgatory in 2010, a part written for her by Tommy Murphy and directed by Neil Armfield.