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Simon Fitzgerald (Richard Norton)
Simon Fitzgerald was a character in Home and Away from 1991 to 1992. He was played by Richard Norton.
Backstory[]
Simon lived with his widowed father Bill. Bill was a crook and the pair moved to Summer Bay after being more or less run out of the town where they had lived beforehand.
1991-1992[]
Simon quickly befriended Blake Dean and Sophie Simpson who were in the same class as him at school. After falling out with his father, he ended up living with Alf and Ailsa Stewart, alongside Blake. His father was soon arrested for embezzlement and sent to prison. Simon became Blake's new sidekick and the pair got up to all sorts of high jinks. Later, he supported Blake when his girlfriend Meg died from leukaemia. He and Blake also helped newcomer Damian Roberts deal with school bully Tug O'Neale.
He began to date Sophie, not knowing at first that she was pregnant with David Croft's child. When Sophie told her foster parents Pippa and Michael Ross that she was pregnant, Simon pretended to be the child's father. This deception didn't last long and Sophie ran away to The City. After she was found and brought back home, they remained friends.
Simon later briefly dated Toni Bryant, an exchange student who had come to stay in Summer Bay for a while. Toni's father Phil had a whirlwind romance with Marilyn Chambers during this brief time. Simon helped Toni come to terms with the news that not only was her father dating a woman almost half his age but that they had got engaged.
Shortly afterwards, Simon received a letter from his father, who had now been paroled from prison. He decided to go live with him and left Summer Bay very quickly
Memorable info[]
Birthday: 1975
Full Name: Simon Fitzgerald
First Line: "School's very important to me." (to Lois Crawford)
Last Line: "Yeah. Alf...it's nothing. I'll see ya later."
Simon is one of the less remembered "Early Years" series regulars. An obvious replacement for Haydn Ross who had just departed, he became a character who the writers didn't seem particularly interested in developing. It didn't help that better known series regulars such as Finlay and Damian Roberts, Shane Parrish and Tug O'Neale were on the horizon. The character was axed within a year of first appearing. This came as a shock to actor Richard Norton who had been poached from rival soap Neighbours.
Family[]
Father: Bill Fitzgerald