Draft:Nuala Fitzgerald

Nuala Fitzgerald (born Nuala Mary Cassidy) (September 16, 1935 - July 31, 2023) is a Canadian actress and model. She is known for The Brood and Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel.

Early life
She was born in Dublin, Irish Free State to Patrick and Eileen (née Curtis) Cassidy, their third child, but first daughter. Her father was the nation's receiver-general, collecting the customs and excise taxes.

In Dublin, Nuala Cassidy, as she was known, attended Loreto Abbey School, a girls' school taught by nuns. After graduating, she became a top model in the city.

Career
She was attracted to the acting world and found a small production company that was making a children's program called Randy Dandy. She created the character for the series called the Magic Lady. When the production moved to central Canada she took her two sons, first to Montreal, then to Toronto. She retained her married name.

Fitzgerald earned an ACTRA award nomination for her role on the soap opera, High Hopes.

Her film roles included Obsession, Deadly Harvest, The Brood and The Silent Partner.

She played the role of the snobby Mrs. Tom Pringle on the television mini series, Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel who looked down on the orphan Anne Shirley.

She was a regular on the television quiz show, What's My Line where she became friends with Larry Solway, a fellow panelist. They teamed up to produce a series of lighthearted productions, mostly of Neil Simon two-handers such as Plaza Suite at the Teller's Cage in Toronto and other dinner theatre venues. They opened up the Marigold Dinner Theatre in Whitby with Ms. Fitzgerald overseeing the menu as well as acting the female parts with Mr. Solway. They mounted 17 productions in three and a half years.

Nuala had a very successful stage and film career in her second homeland, Canada, in the city of Toronto.

Personal life
While working as a model, the teenage Nuala met Michael Penrose-Fitzgerald, a member of the Royal Canadian Navy. They married in 1954 before leaving for Halifax, Nova Scotia. The couple soon had two boys, Brian and Timothy.

Her second marriage was to Edgar Cowan, a talented young adman for McLaren Advertising who shared a house with Ian Tyson. They have one son, Noah. He talked his way into a job at the Toronto International Film Festival becoming a much respected programmer who died of brain cancer earlier in 2023.

Nuala Fitzgerald Cowan died on July 31, 2023 while in the care of Kensington Hospice. She has been married to her husband Edgar for 57 years. She also leaves behind her two sons, Tim and Brian.

Her son Noah Cowan, a former co-director of the TIFF, died on January 25, 2023 of glioblastoma, a type of brain cancer.