The Lou Kelly Biography
Prisoner File: "Louise Jane Kelly"
Original Sentence: 8 Years For Armed Robbery- Age unknown (but probably 23-26)
Other Known Crimes: Murder, Attempted Escape, Assault (x3), Actual Escape, Illegal possession of a firearm, Kidnapping, Assault with a deadly weapon, Abduction and Theft.
Appeared in Episodes: 385-391, 397-399, 404-406, 409-412, 415-422, 439-440, 443-444, 447-448, 452-453, 457, 460-461, 464, 466-467, 469,471, 473, 475-477, 480-481, 483-485, 487-493, 495-522, 524-616.
(WARNING: This biography contains spoilers)
For such a major character, Lou's origins are shrouded in mystery. Louise Siversen appears as an unnamed extra in occasional episodes from 385 onwards although she had appeared in the series before, once as a nurse (169) and again as a flustered shop assistant when Nola McKenzie stole a camera when she turned her back (333).
She is first credited in 399 as "Tammy Fisher" - a minor role later passed on to Gloria Ajenstat - standing next to Bea in muster line up and chosen by Joan to scrub out bins for Lizzie's grog. Luckily she escaped playing this part for longer as Tammy was killed in the Ruth Ballinger siege and never really had any lines to say!
She is next credited as "Louise" kindly offering a boa to Cass Parker for Petra Robert's wedding in 404, but this is clearly not the Lou we know and love. It was actually this scene that convinced writer Coral Drouyn to cast her as a more regular character. By 412 she is back to being an unnamed extra, and makes further appearances in the backgrounds of 418, 422, 443 and 447, but as rather a nice, happy character always smiling and mumbling with the other mutes.
She does tend to react and pay attention to her body language more than the other extras, which was why she went such a long way. Whereas the others would merely play silent volleyball in the background, Louise would be violently kicking the ball and laughing, or pulling faces as she passed- the perfect way to show her acting abilities and to steal a scene! She also looked quite different to the Lou we came to know. She wore the pinafore style dress with smart court shoes, black tights or bare legs and sported a rather middle-aged, Mumsy hairstyle which was dark brown in some episodes (169 where she had a minor role as a nurse standing by Lizzie's bedside) and then incredibly blonde, fluffy and shorter in others. This is a stark contrast to the spiky haired trouser-wearing psycho that was Lou Kelly!
She gets her first real credit in 452 as "Lou Kelly" when she torments Hannah Geldschmidt with Alice's support and the nasty bitch side to her nature becomes clear. Hannah was German and Lou teased her about being deported and called her "Kraut", so Hannah decided the only way she could stay in Australia a bit longer was to be put into hospital, so she stirred Lou Kelly and her mate Alice Jenkins up so they would bash her and, of course, they did (453)!
In (457), there is possibly some confusion: she is credited as Lou (though she has no lines) but at muster both she and Gloria Ajenstat move off when the name "Fisher" is called, and when mail is called out for "Kelly", it is passed to a group near the door where she may be just in shot. She then was one of Reb Keane's thugs as well as other inmates Francis Harvey, Phyllis Hunt and Alice Jenkins and generally appeared when there was a bashing or when trouble was being stirred up.
Lou and Alice had apparently been in Wentworth for years- as far back as to the Bea Smith and Franky Doyle days- Lou even bogusly claims to have helped dig the tunnel for Bea and Lizzie's escape during the pantomime- although they had never been seen, but they could have perhaps been in another block in the prison?
After inmate Reb Kean had bashed Phyllis in the shower block, Lou tried to take Phyllis' place in dealing drugs for Reb and gives Reb an alibi in 461. After this, Lou's character went quiet again although she did have a lot more speaking roles such as stirring up arguments with anyone basically and being sarcastic.
Lou then became one of Barnhurst transferee Marie Winter's lackeys and would always be available for bashings and scams. Marie Winter and Officer Joan Ferguson had plotted together to get Governor Ann Reynolds the sack. Marie caused a big riot in which Lou and Alice bashed Joan Ferguson (466) and shortly after this Joan had planned for Marie to escape Wentworth in a helicopter. Lou created a diversion by causing a fight with Judy Bryant (471), which distracted the officers whilst Marie escaped by hanging from the helicopter!
With Reb out of action and Marie gone, Lou planned to take over the rackets, but modestly decided she needed someone to be the brains of the outfit, so approached new prisoner Bev Baker, who didn't want payment in cash but victims to torment, as she was obsessed with pain and torture. Lou's numbers game provided Bev's with victims as a "consolation prize". Lou acquired a selection of implements for her, including a knitting needle in 475. This plan meant Lou would be staying on the right side of Bev as well as giving her some power with her own scam. Prisoner Bobbie Mitchell "won" a game and Lou willingly helped Bev hold Bobbie down whilst Bev gave her a "full manicure" and opened her already cut hands with a razor blade.
Bev killed herself shortly after this and Lou soon became Reb's heavy again. When Deirdre Kean (Reb's mother) came into Wentworth as an inmate for aiding her daughter's escape, Joan ordered Lou and some of her mates to bash Deirdre in 480. Lou bashes Deirdre unconscious in the laundry and just as Lou and her mates are about to put Deirdre in the laundry drier, Myra Desmond and Judy Bryant manage to stop her.
Whilst still working with Reb, Lou schemed for ways to take over the trading. She gave information to Joan about Officer Heather Rodgers attempt to frame her, in return for help in getting her boyfriend Neville a job as handyman so he could bring in goods to trade (484) - though of course, Joan doesn't do anything of the sort. Neville got the job by blackmailing fellow applicant, handyman Stan Dobson, and succeeded in getting drugs in for Lou.
Lou set Reb up so that Joan could find a knife on her and have her sent to solitary in 485 - which Joan uses to try to push Reb over the banisters. When Reb returns from solitary, she used Lou to front for her, as she was trying to distance herself from the rackets so she could win support from the women and take over as top dog.
Lou overheard that the Governor was getting threatening letters, so she and Reb decide to fake a ransom demand, trying to extort $50,000 from Ann Reynolds (487). This backfires for Lou when Neville is caught collecting the money, and she is charged as an accomplice to murder (489) after a police guard on Ann's flat is killed and the police assume Neville was responsible.
Lou Kelly really starts to come into her own around this point and becomes a bit more self-sufficient.
(MAJOR LOU KELLY SPOILERS FOLLOW!! The next episodes contain more detailed accounts so be warned if you haven’t seen the whole series).
Extremely bitter and furious about her accusation, she demands that Reb help her with an escape attempt. Her first attempt is during a softball game when she attacks Phil Cleary, Officer Meg Morris and a gate guard with a bat (490), but inmate Marlene Warren stops her. Security guards drag her back into the prison and Lou is extremely angry and violent as she is taken to solitary where she plots a further escape.
Lou has a razor blade hidden in her shoe and when Officer Joyce Barry enters the solitary cell, Lou pretends to be dead, so when Joyce gets nearer to her, Lou grabs her and holds the blade to her neck, forcing Joyce to take her to the armouries where she obtains a gun. Lou orders Joyce to her car outside the prison and Joyce manages to drive Lou of the prison gates with her hiding in the back. Joyce drives a long way off and then Lou gets her to stop, knocks her out and puts Joyce in the boot of the car leaving her for dead. Lou heads off on the run.
Lou makes her way to Reb's Mother's place and demands money from her. Deirdre tells Lou she'll have to wait until the next day when she can go to a bank. Lou tries to stay awake until the morning, but falls asleep and is injured in the arm when Deirdre grabs the gun and it goes off (492). Ever the fighter, Lou demands bandages and says, "Stupid bitch, you can't even shoot straight!" She takes the gun and makes it to Adelaide, glamming up first in a smart red suit, but is recaptured when a "handsome stranger" takes a fancy to her in the park and offers to take her for a meal. He then walks off with all her money, leaving her unable to pay and she is caught out in the restaurant. She is returned to Wentworth, where she is inducted by Joyce with charges such as kidnapping (495).
While she was away, the new male officer Len Murphy has arrived and Lou is drawn into plans by both Joan and the women to frame him, but these come to nothing. After Brian Lowe is identified as the person behind the threatening letters to Ann, Lou's murder charge is dropped, but she then becomes one of the prime suspects for the murder of corrupt visiting justice Sarah Higgins in 499 when she is found dead in her cell.
Myra resigns as top dog when she finds everyone but her knew that Lou Kelly was dealing drugs (502). Reb takes over as top dog and allows Lou to run a drugs racket in which the drugs are supplied by Reb's outside contact. Reb eventually lags on Lou regarding the drugs, but makes sure Lou thinks that Pixie Mason is the one who lagged, so Lou goes to Pixie's cell where she begins to bash Pixie, but luckily Myra gets to Pixie's cell and stops her thanks to foreign prisoner Yemil Bakarta's warning.
The women decide to have another try at getting rid of bent officer Len, this time using the fact that Len clearly fancies Lou. Len is set up to be discovered having sex with Lou to get him sacked, but he outsmarts the plotters and calls on Lou's cell later on in the evening when she least expects it and forces her to have sex with him several times (503). This isn't her only rape encounter. Despite her fake flirting with Murphy, Lou is far from happy with the nightly maulings she receives.
After Joan outsmarts Reb, she is transferred to Blackmoor, so Lou never had the chance for revenge on her for lagging over the drugs.
Lou tries to take over the rackets and starts to fix Marlene's cockroach races and use Lexie Patterson's card playing skills to con money out of the women. When three male prisoners are transferred to Wentworth, Lou uses her feminine charms and teams up with rapist Frank Burke, arranging deals inbetween casual sex. She gets in drugs herself and demands the women's buy up and payment for protection (512). She even took over as top dog, but only for a few episodes whilst Myra was in hospital. Lou and Frank had loads of schemes going but none of them seemed to ever work as he was too busy trying to molest her or beat her up.
When lawyer Janice Grant is brought to Wentworth as a prisoner, Lou quickly realises she is an alcoholic and supplies her with various alcohol substitutes such as meths (515). When Myra tries to stop her schemes, Lou decides to get rid of both Myra and Joan. She steals a zip gun made by Frank in the workshop and plans to frame Myra for killing Joan. Unfortunately the plan and the gun both backfire and Lou ends up in hospital with a gunshot wound to her hand (517).
Lou never stopped there, she attempted to stab Myra and even strangle her to death with a guitar string. She then teams up with Frank Bourke again to trap Myra and Geoff McCray in the library and kill them; however they are outsmarted and lose.
A further attempt to get rid of Myra by wiring up her cell door handle to the plug socket ends in disaster. The plan goes wrong, as while the women are celebrating Myra's 40th birthday party, inmate Samantha Greenway goes to Myra's cell instead and is electrocuted to death by mistake. Lou and Alice string her up to make it look like suicide, a favourite pass time of Lou's as we see later in the series! (520). Myra finds out who was really responsible and tricks Frank into thinking that Lou intended to frame him for the murder, so Frank beats up Lou and she is admitted to hospital with internal injuries (522).
Janice lags on Alice Jenkins who helped Lou with the electrocution and Alice gains a further 10 years to her sentence for murder. Lou does absolutely nothing to help her friend and just lets her take the blame, although she does try to poison Janice for lagging, but Joan discovers what's going on and forces Lou to drink the soup because of what had happened with the zip gun incident.
Lou has to share with the nun Anita Selby (526) at Anita's request as she wants to try and "save" Lou after hearing that she is a difficult case - fortunately there is no chance of that, and it provides many opportunities for classic Lou putdowns and snide comments, although this is one of the rare times we see the weaker side of Lou when she is comforted by Anita after being bashed. She lets down her guard for a moment and gives us a brief insight into her childhood, which is rare, as she never talks of her past or family members or shows emotion. From the brief monologues- we learn that Lou was kicked out of home at 15 as her Mother's new boyfriend said there was no room for the young Kelly. By stealing and selling goods, she made enough money to eat- then fell in with a gang of "no hopers" until the police picked them up and Lou began her incarceration at young offenders institute Winlaton.
It's never said how old Lou Kelly is or where she came from- but I'd imagine she was supposed to be the same, if not pretty close to Louise Siversen's actual age (beginning at age 23 before leaving at 26) and regional accent. It is in this scene that Kelly sums up her life with "I give nothing to no-one and expect nothing back".
Lou goes to trial with terrible facial bruising and swelling (in the same red jacket outfit she bought when on the run in Adelaide) for the attempted murder of Joan and gets another seven years added to her sentence (534), but notices that Joan is suffering memory lapses when giving evidence. Myra plans to use this by framing Joan for bashing Lou when she is having a funny turn. The plot collapses when Anita Selby is stricken with conscience and tells the truth about what happened.
Lou finds herself outclassed by the next lot of arrivals from Barnhurst: May Collins refuses to support Lou's challenge to Myra as top dog and Lou's attempt to suck up to posh child porn and drug baron's wife Ruth Ballinger just get her a slap across the face (539).
Lou does eventually manage to convince Ruth to let her do errands and when Ruth agrees to get rid of Myra in return for having her escape arranged by Joan, Lou is the one who beats up Myra (548) and is accused by Joan for attempted murder (549).
Ruth is known to have some very powerful friends on the outside so Lou takes her chances and helps her. They both decide that Myra should be killed (of course Lou is all set to go along with this!) so they grab Myra and inject heroin into her, however Myra is saved just in time.
After Ruth's first escape is bungled, armed terrorists trying to free her besiege the prison. Lou tries to help them at first, but is forced by their ruthlessness to join forces with the other women. She gets skewers and knives from the kitchen and manages to stab one of the terrorists in the leg (551). When the terrorists tell the women that they will kill one inmate every hour Lou suggests that Joan Ferguson and Joyce Barry should be the first!
After Myra is killed by the terrorists, Lou tries to take over as top dog, but loses to Nora Flynn. Lou fights back for a while, taking over the press and bashing a few women to convince the others of her authority (557) but it doesn't last very long.
Lou then tries her hand at being nice to everyone to gain their confidence, but it only lasted five minutes due to Lexie causing an argument with her, forcing Lou to bash her. Lexie returns to the rec room where the women can see she has been attacked. Nora Flynn (present top dog) and May Collins go to Lou's cell to confront her and a brawl begins, but Lou manages to hit Nora in the stomach with a kettle causing her to miscarry and lose her baby. Nora at first tries to get revenge and attempts to strangle Lou, but fails when Officer Joyce Barry stops her.
Lou is not looking forward to Reb's promised return to Wentworth. However, when the women see how she has changed they are initially puzzled, but eagle eyed Lou sees her comb her hair like the old style Reb and thinks she is faking (577). Lou tries to get her to slip up and prove she's faking, but she and Alice are later made to coach Reb to convince Dr Weissman to argue for her release.
Lou goes a bit quieter after this but still continues to run the occasional book and wind everyone up as usual, including Joan Ferguson when she discovers that Joan is having a relationship with another female officer Terri Malone.
Lou absolutely hates the way Nora runs Wentworth as top dog because Nora has got a committee formed with the women in which they hand out their own punishment if necessary. Lou was punished on several occasions and the committee didn't last long when May and Willie left. Shortly after this Nora lost control of the women and Lou took the chance that she wanted and took over as top dog!
Hungry for power, Lou first forces the women to go a hunger strike (590) in order to get Ann Reynolds the sack because of May Collin's death when she was shot during an undercover escape plan. However things never go smoothly for poor Lou and she is once again outsmarted by new arrival, biker Rita Connors. Lou decides to stir up trouble by pouring paint on Rita's jacket (588) and tries to blame Joan for it. Ann resigns and new governor Bob Moran takes over. This makes Lou angry because he manages to get some of the women to break the hunger strike, although Rita Connors refused to go along with Lou's strike from day one and single handedly bashed Lou and Alice when they tried to attack her.
Lou and Alice attack Joan and put her in one of the driers, but someone gets her out again and leaves a note on Joan implicating Lou.
Lou is convinced that Lexie is responsible and tries to electrocute her with a faulty power point in the kitchen (593). Lexie fakes a pregnancy to get Lou off her back, but when she has to share a cell with her, Lou threatens to torture her in ways which will harm her, but not her baby. Lou craves power and takes every opportunity to be a bully to all the others and generally enjoy being the boss.
Lou instigates another hunger strike to protest against the new Governor Bob Moran's tough attitude (597). This becomes a fully-fledged riot when Lou finds out that the "Phantom Lagger" was actually inmate Eve Wilder. The episodes leading up to 600 see Lou starting to crack and eventually lose the plot all together. She begins to talk to herself and chain smoke. Lou's finest hour has arrived and her own riot is in full swing after she whips the women into a frenzy.
After the briefest of trials, she flips and turns into a raving, violent psychopath. Lou prepares a noose and hangs it in the dining room. Eve is strung up and Lou pulls the chair away saying "So long….." in one of Louise Siversen's finest performances of the series (600). She gets her mob to string Eve up in her cell to make it look like suicide (strangely familiar….!)
Lou sets Rita and Joan to fight to the death in the laundry, but Bob Moran overpowers Lou with the help of Rita who kicks her in the stomach and puts an end to the riot. Lou goes to solitary, along with Alice Jenkins and receives an informal visit from Moran telling her that she'll wish the death penalty was still in use after what will be waiting for her when she gets out. At first it seems certain that Lou will be transferred to Blackmoore, but Bob decides to keep her on to make an "example" of her to the other women.
Due to what had happened in the riot and the way Lou treated the women, Rita Connor's finally agrees to take over as top dog and gets the support of the others before Lou returns. Alice has finally had enough of Lou and tells her, so the pair fall out.
To teach them a lesson, Lou and Alice are subjected to a "trial" and a faked "hanging" organised by Rita (603). Rita and the women decide to punish Lou and Alice and prepare nooses in both cells. Rita and the women drag Lou and Alice to their nooses and Rita kicks the chair away from under Lou, but the noose snaps as planned by Rita and Lou survives. Rita decides that Lou and Alice should be sent to Coventry.
Lou is left physical wreck after her ordeal and becomes hell bent on revenge. Alice wants nothing more to do with Lou and inmate Nancy McCormack persuades Rita to let the women talk to Alice, so Rita finally agrees and they makes friends- much to Lou's anger. Alice severs ties with Lou for good.
Rita continues to give Lou a hard time by having her food tipped in her lap, soaking her in the showers and eventually putting her inside the laundry drier and giving her a ride! Lou finds out that Rita and her gang- "The Warriors"- are planning to make grog so plans to hinder their scheme. Lou steals some caustic soda from handyman Steve Ryan's toolbox and splices one of the grog cans with it, just as a going away present…
Lou devises a plan to get out of Wentworth for good. With the help of Janet "Maggot" Williams, she obtains a knife from the kitchen and slits her own wrists. She tells Meg that it was Alice and Rita who did it to her and they are sent to solitary for attempting to kill Lou, but are let off the hook when the forensic doctor examines her wounds and sees they are self inflicted. The fake suicide attempt gets Lou to hospital from where she is able to escape by knocking out the guard, Officer Hooper and dressing up as a nurse, then hitching a ride with a trucker (607).
She finds the Jenkins farm after travelling through the woods and seeks refuge with Alice's family in the country, but her Mother, Flora Jenkins behaves oddly towards Lou, and hides her in the barn until their "visitors" have left. When she is invited inside the house, it seems she is expected to work for nothing or be reported to the police. She of course complains but succumbs and gets down to mucking out the donkeys. Alice's brother Sean comes to visit his Mother and finds Lou in the barn. He speaks to her and implies that he wants sexual favours in return for not putting her in to the police. He returns later that afternoon and says he has come to collect her bed and board. After a brief struggle, she is too weak to fight back and he pins her down in the barn and brutally rapes her (609). When Sean has finished and is buttoning up, a half naked Lou vows to kill him for what he has just done to her, and in true Lou fashion, she keeps her word.
She tries to continue working on the farm but becomes increasingly weak and annoyed at Sean's constant sexual harassment. She hits him in the balls with a bucket, but collapses with exhaustion. She has contracted blood poisoning. The Jenkins take her into the house and she over hears Alice's mother planning to "get rid" of her. After having a nightmare about a man attacking her with a chainsaw, she seeks revenge on Sean and finds a shotgun and bullets in the cupboard. She takes both the Jenkins hostage and eventually shoots them both before escaping (612). She wanders until collapsing from her illness at the roadside and is woken up to find herself being arrested and recaptured. She is inducted back to Wentworth and put into the infirmary, as she is still ill.
Alice is devastated when she hears about her Mother and Brother's death and wants Lou dead. Lou's first meal back at Wentworth contains a threatening note and Alice and Lexie make various attempts to get to her in sickbay. Alice and Rita frighten her by smashing a window onto her head and try to attack her when collecting the laundry, but fail as she has been moved.
Janet Williams knew about Bob Moran's relationship with new mercy killing inmate Kath Maxwell on the outside and was blackmailing Bob in order to escape, but Bob refuses to go along with this. Janet tells Lou about Bob knowing Kath and suggests they could use it as blackmail to force Bob to help the pair of them escape. Lou shuns this idea, preferring to go it alone so tries to blackmail Bob alone in solitary. Bob wants no part of the scam but frightens her by threatening to kill her.
Janet finds out about Lou double-crossing her and that same night whilst all the other women and officers are celebrating Joyce Barry and Mervin Pringle's wedding breakfast, she kills Lou with a glass bottle (615). Alice is pleased about Lou's death and it's a mystery who killed her at first as you never actually see the murder, it is just announced that a prisoner is dead in her cell.
The last time we ever see Lou, she is lying face down on the floor of her solitary cell in a rather bizarre position and the police are taking photographs of her corpse. Louise Siversen gets her final credit in episode 616.
There are several suspects when Lou is found dead in solitary with her head bashed in. Even the Governor Bob Moran seems to have motive and opportunity, and the police suspect Lexie and almost charge her with the murder, Janet "Maggot" Williams eventually confesses after a talking to from Bob (617).
After this, her name is mentioned a few times, but there is no talk of her after a while and not even a memorial service or funeral is shown. Louise Siversen appeared in around 140 episodes and is ranked 14th in the top 25 longest serving actresses in the series. Lou Kelly certainly was one of the biggest bitches ever to set foot in Wentworth and won't be easily forgotten by her fans.
R.I.P
