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Norman coburn 2022

Norman Coburn (2022)

Norman Coburn (born 6th March 1937) is a retired actor who played the role of schoolmaster Donald Fisher in the early years of Home and Away. He first appeared in the show's pilot episode and continued as a member of the main cast until 2003. He made further guest appearances until 2007. He is now retired and lives on Bruny Island, Tasmania.[1]

Pre Home And Away career[]

Norman Coburn was born on the 6th March 1937 in Earlwood, Sydney, NSW, Australia.[2] He trained as an actor and moved to England in the late 1950s. He began his professional acting career in the UK and had minor roles on early British TV programmes such as Dixon Of Dock Green, Compact and possibly Coronation Street.[3] He had an uncredited role as a radio operator in Carry on Cruising (1962). Unfortunately, the recordings from many of these old TV shows have been long since lost.

Norman was also a businessman who owned two restaurants in London[4]. More unusually, he bought some land in Cornwall and planted a vineyard there [5]. It isn't known how well his attempts to grow grapes in the notoriously idiosyncratic English climate went. He eventually sold up and returned to Australia. In the early 1980s Norman began to appear on Australian TV screens. Like many other jobbing actors, he popped up on A Country Practice and Sons and Daughters. He also had a minor role in an Australian mini-series called 1915.

Home And Away 1988-2003[]

Donald

Donald considers a career change

In 1987, Norman was cast as Donald Fisher in upcoming soap, Home And Away. Like the other veteran actors in the cast, he believed the soap wouldn't last for long but would keep him in work for a few months. Filming on the pilot episode began in July 1987. The regular series began filming in October. Originally, the character of Donald was going to be a greedy town politician but the writers changed his occupation. Home And Away proved to be Norman's big break at the ripe old age of 51. His face became known worldwide, especially in the UK where the show was getting 14 million viewers an episode at one point.

In 2003 Norman decided to leave H&A after 15 years. One of the things that prompted him to leave was the death of his dog from old age. He had got it as a puppy when Home and Away began and its demise made him stop and think. His character (who, incidentally, was 8 years younger than Norman) decided to retire too. Donald moved away to the Whitsundays with his new lady friend June Reynolds (Rowena Wallace). Norman retired to Bruny Island in Tasmania.

Home and Away 2004, 2005, 2007[]

Norman returned for brief guest appearances in 2004 and 2005. In 2004 it was to collect Fisher's grandson Seb who had been paralysed in an accident. In 2005 he returned for Alf's birthday party. In 2007 Norman returned for a longer stretch. Over the course of 20 episodes, Fisher returned to teaching then decided to retire again.

After Home And Away[]

Norman coburn rosehaven

Norman and Debra Lawrance in a 2019 episode of Rosehaven

Norman appeared in just two more TV roles after Home and Away. One was 2008's The Hollowmen. In 2019, he had a guest role in an episode of the Tasmanian-based sitcom Rosehaven alongside former Home and Away co-star Debra Lawrance. [6]

In 2022, the now 85 years old Norman appeared via Zoom during Ray Meagher's 'This is Your Life' episode. During his tribute to Ray, he revealed that the pair had shared a dressing room for 16 years.

Trivia[]

It is widely reported that Norman Coburn played a labourer in the long running British soap opera Coronation Street sometime in the 1960s. It is unclear if this actually happened or even if the episodes in question are still in existence. Sadly, destroying or over-writing tapes was commonplace in those days.

Coburn's daughter Nana Coburn has also appeared on Home and Away, playing two completely different roles. She first appeared in 1989-1990 as school bully Vicki Baxter. She returned in 1995 as Lisa Matthews.

Although Norman hasn't been on Home and Away since 2007, he is still one of the actors who has made the most appearances on the show. He appeared in over 1,500 episodes.

In a Twitter Q&A in March 2022, former H&A script editor Dan Bennett revealed that the writers and production team had planned out a dementia storyline for Donald. Alf would travel to visit Donald and he would ultimately pass away. This storyline didn't see the light of day, due to the production team 'not looking back at old legacy characters'. Arguably, long-term fans of the show wouldn't have liked to have seen Donald bow out like this either.

Refs[]

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