Ilona Rodgers
Ilona Rodgers has battled hairy monsters on Doctor Who, mastered the bitchy putdown on Gloss, appeared on longrunning Kiwi soaps Shortland Street and Close to Home, and acted alongside Kiwi legends Bruno Lawrence and Billy T James.
Her own life has also not lacked for drama. Born in North Yorkshire, she was speaking French and Dutch by the age of five. Her father was killed after his plane was shot down over France during World War 2. Later her mother spent time in Switzerland, remarried, moved to Wales, and sent Ilona to a boarding school when she was only three. Ilona went on to train at an Anglican school for ballerinas and actors, then did two years at Bristol's highly competitive Old Vic Drama School.
Rodgers began her career on stage. She caught a lucky break when a Russian play starring Spike Milligan was transformed from a drama into a comedy, after Milligan began improvising wildly. On television, she'd already won an ongoing role in medical soap Emergency Ward 10 — plus bigger roles in an adaptation of Charles Dickens' Martin Chuzzlewit (playing girlfriend of the main character), and Doctor Who (in early six-parter The Sensorites). In those days television dramas were often shot live, and Rodgers recalls tense moments when William Hartnel, the original Dr Who, had to be steered back onto the right script.
The 60s saw Rodgers learning on the job, via appearances in The Avengers and The Saint. In 1968 she played the Scottish romantic interest on an episode of The Beverly Hillbillies, and got her first movie role: Sammy Davis Jr spy comedy Salt and Pepper.
Following a stint in New Caledonia with her family, Rodgers moved to New Zealand in 1973 to support her ailing mother. The plan was to stay for "a few years", but within months she was married. She alternated stints at Auckland's Mercury Theatre with television work: long-running soap Close to Home, a "heart of gold" Irishwoman in 1800s goldrush hit Hunter's Gold, and an adaptation of Katherine Mansfield story The Woman at the Store (read about that here). Rodgers won Feltex Awards for the latter two latter titles. She also appeared in two Ngaio Marsh Theatre murder mysteries (1978), which screened in the United States.
Between gigs, Rodgers was farming in the Waikato. The next phase of her career — a run of Australian roles, which began in 1979 — was motivated by simple economics. "We desperately needed a tractor so I went to Australia to get the money and joined The Sullivans."
During those seven years, she appeared in varied soap operas and miniseries on Australian TV, including an award-winning turn on rags to riches convict tale Sara Dane, and 200 plus episodes of soap Sons and Daughters. In the longrunning Prisoner, she played supposed clairvoyant Zara Moonbeam, who agrees to impersonate the ghost of another characters' daughter.
Although Rodgers returned to New Zealand in 1984, more Trans-Tasman tooing and froing was to come: a big role in Australian miniseries Anzacs (co-written by John Clarke), and Kiwi Western Utu, in which she played unfortunate wife to a shotgun-toting Bruno Lawrence.
In 1989 Rodgers played Australian wife to comic legend Billy T, in sitcom The Billy T James Show. As Rodgers mentions in this video interview, she became good friends with Billy T and his wife, giving them a kunekune pig which they called Ilona. The show had been born from the desire to develop a Cosby Show-style sitcom involving a mixed race marrriage.
Although her CV runs to more than 60 credits, many Kiwis still remember her most for a single role: iconic 80s soap Gloss. Producer Janice Finn was a friend and ex-flatmate, and had seen her play a string of "nice" parts. Initially Finn turned Rodgers' agent away, thinking she was a bad fit for the role of the conniving editor Maxine Redfern. "I remember how pissed off I used to get about producers who did that when I was acting. Here I was, slotting Ilona in the nice role because that's the role she had always done." Rodger's audition quickly changed Finn's mind.
"She turned up dressed to the nines. She looked a million bucks and her audition was just perfect . . .she is always on time, always does her homework, always knows her lines. In soaps there is no room for prima donnas, because the pace is so fast and it's such a hard slog. Part of the reason we've had such a good time with Gloss is because of Ilona's attitude and her team spirit."
Originally created by Listener writer Rosemary McLeod, the part of high fashion magazine editor Maxine Redfern would go on to garner Rodgers two consecutive best actor awards. Rodgers loved the role, and recalls the cast being "hooked on" each new script like it was a weekly comic. She argues that Maxine was more than just a bitch. "She can be ruthless and dogmatic, but she has a very maternal side, particularly to her own children, which as a mother I can relate to very easily."
In 1992 Rodgers reteamed with Gloss producer Janice Finn and costume designer Liz Mitchell for Marlin Bay, which managed to equal the three season run of Gloss. Rodgers played Charlotte Kincaid, who manages a casino at a coastal resort (New Zealand's first casino opened during the show's final season). Marlin Bay's mixture of visiting tourists and Kiwi scenery made it an impressive seller overseas. At home, it performed solidly in the face of a number of changes in scheduling and cast, from one season to the next.
Rodgers' TV resume also includes a Kiwi retooling of Black Beauty, fantasies Hercules and Maddigan's Quest, vaudeville drama Gather Your Dreams, soap satire Spin Doctors, and a stint hosting magazine show Good Morning. In 1991 she joined Andy Anderson in Gold, her second show set in goldmining times.
Throughout the 1990s, Rodgers continued to act on stage and small screen. In 2011 she was part of the talent heavy cast of rest home murder tale Rest for the Wicked. That decade she starred in 2013 short film Chloe — playing a widow who discovers her daughter in the cupboard under the stairs.
Rodgers went on to 2016 series Dirty Laundry. As the grandmother who moves in to look after the family when mum is jailed for money laundering, Rodgers enjoyed the chance to wear minimal makeup, play at being "grumpy all day, and then I shuffle off home". In 2024 she guested on Lucy Lawless show My Life is Murder.
Rodgers did six years on the board of the Auckland Arts Festival, and two years assessing grants for the Aotea Performing Arts Trust. She has also chaired the advisory committee for Unitech's School of Performing and Screen Arts, and directed three of their student productions — plus a show where Jennifer Ward-Lealand performed the songs of Marlene Dietrich.
She has also worn other hats — casting for Charity Queens, made as part of an anthology of TV comedies in the late 90s, researching and presenting a documentary on cancer, and leading the publicity team on Shortland Street.
As an active member of the Bahá'í faith, Rodgers has shared her drama skills at Bahá'í summer schools, and acted as a spokesperson for the Bahá'í community.
Profile updated on 8 September 2025
Sources include
Ilona Rodgers
'Ilona Rodgers - Close to Home, Gloss and more...' (Video Interview) NZ On Screen website. Director Andrew Whiteside. Loaded 27 October 2019. Accessed 8 September 2025
Trisha Dunleavy, Ourselves in Primetime - A History of New Zealand Television Drama (Auckland University Press, 2005)
Elizabeth Easther, 'War, loss & finding faith: 'The events that shaped me' (Interview) New Zealand Woman's Weekly, 17 April 2025
Matt Elliott, Billy T - The Life and Times of Billy T James (Auckland, HarperCollinsPublishers, 2009)
Fleur Guthrie,'TV legend Ilona Rodgers tells why she'll never stop working' (Interview) - New Zealand Woman's Weekly, 6 September 2024
Kerry Harvey, 'Ilona Rodgers on Gloss and playing a 'grumpy, old bitch' in Dirty Laundry' (interview) - TV Guide, 12 October 2016
Ingrid Leary, 'Ilona Rodgers - The Beauty Behind the Beast' (Interview) - North & South, July 1989, page 98
Kingi Milward, 'Ilona Rodgers Interview' - Time/Space Visualiser 13, May 1989
'Son of Oblomov' Theatricalia website. Accessed 8 September 2025