Playing the role of Magenta is a severe test for any actress, because the character is so largely engaged in the art of supporting others. She helps Brad undress before he and Janet are taken to Frank's laboratory; she stands beside Frank during the delicate, final moments before Rocky is born; she announces the dinner; she throws the Medusa switch at Frank's command, turning Brad, Janet, Dr. Scott, Columbia and Rocky to stone. It is wholly fitting that she is defined, both in the movie credits and in Frank's rambunctious household as "a domestic."
More than any other character, Magenta supports her incestuous brother/lover Riff Raff. And in their scenes together she is most visible and most vibrant.
Born on May 28 in Belfast, Ireland, Patricia Quinn performed in her home-town theaters and in London before studying at the Drama Centre. After her course there she spent a season with the Glasgow Repertory Theatre, then returned to London to appear in AC/DC, which won the Best Play of the Year award. She also played Sarah Bernhardt in Sarah B. Divine. She originated the role of the Usherette and Magenta in the first Rocky Horror Show production. She appeared in the BBC series on pre-Raphaelite painters entitled "Love School' and portrayed Christabel Pankhurst int he television series "Shoulder to Shoulder," about the British suffragette movement.
Nevertheless, she remains dauntless in terms of the character she portrays: "From male chauvinism to women's liberation. I remeber completing the Rocky Horror Picture Show after the last show on a Saturday night and taking the overnight train to Halifax to give my first political speech for the television series. I was still covered from head to toe in glitter and they covered it all with my period costume."
She appeared in numerous films before Rocky horror, but the four she particularly likes to remember were Up the Chastity Belt, Rent-a-Dick, Up the Front, and The Garnett Saga. On the American television she had been seen in PBS's "I Claudius" and Beauty and the Beast" with George C. Scott.
During the summer of 1978 Ms. Quinn originated the role of Martha Fortune in the london premiere of Richard O'Brien's play Disaster. She lives in London with her actor-director husband, Don Hawkins, and their son, Quinn.
She also made an appearance in Monty Python's The Meaning of Life. She also joined some of the original Rocky Horror cast in the next of Richard O'Brien's works, Shock Treatment.