Justine Clarke starred as Ruth ‘Roo’ Stewart in Home And Away until 1989, and the Daily Star takes a peek at where she is today after leaving the show.
This week on Home and Away, Alf Stewart and daughter Roo had a falling out when Alf tried to persuade Roo to see her sister with him.
Roo decides not to accompany her father to Merimbula because she believes viewing Martha will influence her decision to receive a transplant – but will she be able to meet Martha before it’s too late?
Since 1988, viewers have followed Roo through some of her most significant events, including teenage pregnancy, health issues, and her departure from Summer Bay.
Original Roo actress Justine Clarke was replaced in the role by Georgie Parker in 2010, but have you ever wondered what happened to the original actress?
looks at where original Roo actress Justine Clarke is now, 23 years after her departure from Home And Away.
Heath Ledger link
Justine rocketed to popularity as Anna Goanna in the blockbuster Hollywood film Mad Max: Beyond The Thunderdome in 1985, just a few years before she played Ruth ‘Roo’ Stewart in Home And Away.
Following her departure from the soap, she continued to act in films such as Turning April in 1996 and Blackrock in 1997, in which she co-starred with late Hollywood actor Heath Ledger in his first ever credited film role.
She also won Best Actress at the Mar Del Plata International Film Festival for her performance as Meryl Lee in the 2005 film Look Both Ways.
While Justine may have left Home And Away over 23 years ago, she has continued to feature on television shows such as All Saints, The Surgeon, Maya The Bee, and, most recently, RFDS.
Children’s TV fame and music career
Justine rose to prominence in 1999 when she was hired as a regular presenter on the Australian children’s television show Playschool, where she remained one of the show’s longest-running hosts until 2020.
The actress revealed that it had always been her dream job, telling Now To Love: “I’d always wanted to be on Play School. I’d watched it as a kid and from a young age I recognized how skillful those actors were.”
She has landed prominent roles in major theatre plays such as The Sound Of Music, Cyrano De Begerac, The Man With Five Children, and Muriel’s Wedding in 2017, as well as hosting her own children’s TV show, The Justine Clarke Show.
Justine is not only a gifted actor and presenter, but she is also a critically renowned singer who performs on the Sydney Club Circuit on a regular basis.
She even combined the two abilities by creating A Little Day Out With Justine Clarke, a children’s CD that received the ARIA Award for Best Music Album in 2013.
Family life
Justine has not only achieved recognition during her career, but she has also found love while acting in a Cyrano De Begerac stage production.
Justine met her husband, Jack Finsterer, while both were working on the project, and the two married afterwards.
The actress, on the other hand, stated that her husband proposed by mistake in a happy accident while the couple was rehearsing a Shakespeare play.
She revealed in an interview with Now To Love: “We were at the Melbourne Theatre Company and the lights were just about to go down at the beginning of act two.
“Anyway, he was kind of posing the question, asking me if I was really serious about this relationship, and then he said, ‘would you marry me?’ I was like, yeah.”
“And he said ‘you really want to marry me?’ And then the lights went down. That’s why I can’t remember what the play was. I remember sitting there thinking ‘oh my God, what just happened?’. It was really lovely.”
Despite her high-flying job, Justine emphasised that her family always comes first. The couple has three children named Joe, Nina, and Max.
She added: “I think the decisions I’ve made about my career are not based on what’s right for me; they’ve been based on what’s right for everybody.”
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