Angela Wales Kirgo, who was the very first Executive Director of the Australian Writers’ Guild, has died.
Angela Wales Kirgo, who was the very first Executive Director of the Australian Writers’ Guild, has died, aged 78.
The AWG stated she died in Sydney of cancer on 28 July surrounded by her loving family.
Screenwriter Roger Simpson penned an obituary to AWG members which recalled her saying, “I have always loved writers,” upon being appointed the Guild’s first Executive Director in 1983.
“Well, who could imagine running an organisation that looked after producers? Ugh.”
With a love of books and the theatre and a degree in English and classics from Sydney University, her first jobs were with a library (Cambridge University, UK) and as a meticulously organised field archaeological assistant in Greece before returning to Sydney to work for the Elizabethan Theatre Trust and the National Playwrights Conference.
She joined the AWG as its administrator in 1979.
During the next ten years, she oversaw the transformation of the Guild from an organisation dependant on the voluntary contributions of a small but devoted group of members operating through a series of committees – doing everything from industrial negotiations, contract advice and holding the AWGIE Awards – to the properly staffed and resourced professional body writers enjoy today.
The renaissance of the Australian film and television industry in the seventies and eighties was led by celebrated writers including David Williamson, Eleanor Witcombe, John Dingwall and Cliff Green, but the emergence of the AWG as a respected professional body was led by Angela Wales Kirgo.
At the end of 1989, she resigned her position to move to LA and became the Executive Director of the Writers Guild Foundation, the educational and charitable arm of the Writers Guild of America, West.
There she came to know every writer of any consequence in LA – and most of the leading writers in New York and the UK as well. She had tea with Billy Wilder and had Bill Link (Colombo) and Georgia Jeffries (Cagney & Lacey) to dinner. Writers like David E. Kelley and David Mamet would cross to greet her in restaurants. Angela also secured many notable guests for the National Screenwriters’ Conference.
For twenty-four years, her expansive apartment in Brentwood became the go-to place for Australian screenwriters visiting Hollywood – her time, advice and contacts freely given – and for more than a few, her guest room as well.
Her son Alec, who she had with Australian playwright, Mil Perrin, now works for the WGA in LA, continuing his mother’s commitment to the writing community.
Angela is survived by her son, Alec Perrin, his wife Luana, her adored grand-daughter, Alice, her sisters Katrina and Philomena, her brothers Aidan, Robert and Duncan and their families.