Darryl Neilson
| Darryl Neilson | |||||||||||||||||
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| Shortland Street character | |||||||||||||||||
| Portrayed by | Mark Ferguson | ||||||||||||||||
| Duration | 1992–1995 | ||||||||||||||||
| First appearance | 5 October 1992 | ||||||||||||||||
| Last appearance | 24 March 1995 | ||||||||||||||||
| Introduced by | Caterina De Nave (1992) Brian Lennane (1993) Tony Holden (1994) |
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| Classification | Former; recurring | ||||||||||||||||
| Profile | |||||||||||||||||
| Occupation | Pharmaceutical distributor and representative (until 1995) | ||||||||||||||||
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| Father | Tom Neilson |
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| Mother | Marj Neilson |
| Brothers |
Patrick Neilson Damien Neilson Stuart Neilson |
| Half-sisters | Jane Fitzgerald |
| Wife | Diane Neilson (1986–94) |
| Children |
Robert Neilson Melissa Neilson |
| Sons | Robert Neilson |
| Daughters | Unnamed daughter Melissa Neilson |
Darryl Neilson is a fictional character on the New Zealand soap opera Shortland Street. Appearing sporadically, Darryl made several recurring appearance from 1992 to the characters death in 1995. He was portrayed by Mark Ferguson.
A character that fans "loved to hate", Darryl was introduced as the antagonistic son of receptionist Marj Neilson (Elizabeth McRae) and paramedic Tom Neilson (Adrian Keeling). Utilized in the soap as a means to develop the character of Marj, Darryl was involved in numerous high profile story lines. These included attempting to rape Kirsty Knight (Angela Dotchin), drugging Chris Warner (Michael Galvin) so that he missed his wedding day, faking the abduction of his own children, distributing dodgy drugs, stealing Grace Kwan's (Lynette Forday) egg cells and eventually drowning after attempting to murder Kirsty. Darryl's personality was seen as manipulative, egotistical and destructive. However it has been noted that his saving grace was his "love for his mum".
Upon the show first airing, audiences struggled to relate to the character of Marj Neilson (Elizabeth McRae), a character played largely for comic relief. The character was the matriarch of the Neilson family unit however upon the rewriting of Stuart Neilson (Martin Henderson), more members were added to the family. To add more depth to the character of Marj and focus her story lines less on comedy, producers decided to introduce another of her sons that would appear antagonistic and help audiences sympathize with her. The character of Darryl was created because of this. Without auditioning, Mark Ferguson was offered the role in what he saw as typecasting due to his widows peak. Ferguson appeared in a sporadic role for several years before running into a "contractual dispute" with producers. As a result of the dispute, Ferguson requested Darryl be killed off the soap. Darryl was killed off on the episode airing 21 March 1995, with his body making his final appearance several days later. Ferguson returned to the soap 3 years later as Darryl's brother, Damien Neilson.
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