Prudence Leigh Acton was born in Benalla, Victoria and educated at Firbank Anglican Girls' Grammar School in Melbourne.
Between 1958 and 1962 she completed a Diploma of Art majoring in Printed Textiles[2] at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.
Acton also designed the Australian Olympic uniforms for 1980, Lake Placid, US); 1984, Los Angeles; and 1988, Seoul.
[5] She attended life drawing classes at Swinburne College, and studied painting with Clifton Pugh and Mervyn Moriarty.
[4] In 2005, Acton was honoured on a commemorative Australian postage stamp, along with other Australian fashion designers, Collette Dinnigan, Akira Isogawa, Joe Saba, Carla Zampatti and fellow RMIT alum Jenny Bannister.