Australian soaps have undeniably produced some international superstars over the years. Two of the biggest successes are clearly Neighbours alumni Kylie Minogue (who played Charlene) – the highest-selling Australian recording artist of all time, with more than 80 million albums sold worldwide – and Margot Robbie (Donna), star of the runaway movie success Barbie, that’s broken 17 box office records to date.
But other notable stars who’ve gone from Aussie soapland to bigger things include Home and Away’s Ryan Kwanten (who played Vinnie), Isla Fisher (Shannon) and Chris Hemsworth (Kim) as well as Neighbours’ Jason Donovan (Scott), Guy Pearce (Mike) and Jesse Spencer (Billy). Other actors have plodded along successfully in their original soap roles for years, including Home and Away’s Ray Meagher (Alf) – who holds the record for the longest-serving actor in an Australian drama series – and Lynne McGranger (Irene) as well as Neighbours’ Stefan Dennis (Paul) and Ian Smith (Harold).
Yet sadly both Aussie soaps have also seen some of their stars be far less lucky, including actor Ben Unwin, who played bad boy Jesse McGregor in Home and Away from 1996 to 2000 and again from 2002 to 2005.
The role was written specifically for Ben, and secured him a nomination for Most Popular New Talent at the 1997 Australian TV Logie Awards.
He later went on to work in the music industry, directing videos for Culture Club, including I Just Wanna Be Loved and Chumbawamba’s huge smash hit, Tubthumping.
He later complete a law degree and became a solicitor in Newcastle, New South Wales. But in 2019, Ben was sadly found dead at the bottom of a ‘cursed’ waterfall – he was just 41 years old.
Aboriginal tribes in Australia believe the isolated 300ft Minon Falls in Whian Whian are “cursed” and have “bad spirits”, having claimed many lives.
At the time of his sad death, co-star Ada Nicodemou, who plays Leah, wrote: “I just woke up to the tragic news of Ben’s passing, my heart goes out to his family.”
Just two years later, tragedy struck the Home and Away cast again when Dieter Brummer, who played the soap’s hunky Shane Parrish in the early 1990s, was found dead at his parents’ Sydney home.
Meanwhile, Neighbours’ original Scott Robinson, played by Darius Perkins before Jason Donovan took the role, sadly died in 2019 after a battle with cancer.
Home and Away has now been on our TV screens for 36 years, while Neighbours ran for 37 years before being axed last summer – its final episode saw a host of former stars return to Ramsay Street for one last time.
In November 2022 it was announced that Neighbours would return on Amazon Freevee, with soap fans eagerly-awaiting new episodes from mid-September 2023.