Cirrus@Austlit

Actor, writer, manager, director.

Born at Lismore, County Waterford, Ireland, son of Dennis Duggan, farmer, and his wife Mary Ann (nee Walsh), Duggan operated his own country touring company in the 1890s and was later an actor and stage-manager with the Charles Holloway-William Anderson (q.v.) company (ca. 1900).

In September 1912 Anderson handed over the King's theatre to Bert Bailey (q.v.) with Duggan as manager. The two men soon formed a creative partnership, writing and adapting a number of works under the combined name 'Albert Edmunds.' The new company opened with the famous dramatisation of On Our Selection, with Duggan playing the Irishman, Maloney. Another 'Albert Edmunds' play, The Native Born, followed in 1913. Duggan remained with the Bailey-Grant management at the King's, touring Australia and New Zealand in his own and other melodramas, and producing a revival of On Our Selection in Melbourne in 1920. He persuaded Steele Rudd (q.v.) to write The Rudd Family which he produced in 1928, starring as 'Dad'.

Duggan's two daughters, Eugene and Louie, became established stage actors and entertainers in their own right. Eugenie, who specialised in dramatic character roles, became Mrs William Anderson. Louie, was well-known as both an actress and variety entertainer during the late 1910s and 1920s.