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Guest Character
Profiles >
Gino Esposito Claude Stevens, Shane McNamara
'Gino Esposito' [Ray Murphy] 2000, 2001-2007, 2024-
Lived: 24
Ramsay Street
Occupation: A Good Hair Day Salon Hairdresser/Owner
Flamboyant,
self-indulgent, temperamental and larger than life, Gino Esposito
was actually born plain old Ray Murphy, adopting the more Italian
sounding name of Gino Esposito when he embarked on a career
as a hairdresser after winning Apprentice of the Year.
Due to his renowned reputation as a top hairdresser, it
wasn't long before Gino opened his own hair salon. He bought
A Good Hair Day salon at the Lassiter's Hotel Complex in 2001,
and immediately caused concern for Lyn
Scully, who had been managing the salon for the previous
owner, Katrina Hart. Gino and
Lyn were rivals, having competed against each other in the
regional hairdressing competition for several years running.
Lyn's initial reaction to the news that Gino would be her
new boss was to start dressing younger, because she knew how
he favoured having young, pretty hair stylists working at
his salons. Gino, meanwhile, was more concerned with whether
or not Lyn was cut out for managerial duties on account of
the fact that she was juggling her career with a brood of
Scully kids at home. Gino eventually decided to put Lyn on
a month's trial to see if she could juggle the two demands
on her time - much to the disgust of Lyn. The final straw
came for Lyn when Gino started taking more and more of her
regular clients away from her.
Lyn's response was to quit the salon and branch out on her
own - with a plan to take a lot of Gino's clients from A Good
Hair Day with her. When Gino heard of her plans, he was furious
and threatened to blacken Lyn's name all over town if she
went ahead with her plans. But Lyn retorted by telling Gino
she knew his real name was Ray Murphy and he had made up his
Italian roots, having found an old newspaper article about
his Apprentice of the Year win. A shocked Gino dreaded the
truth about his Australian background damaging his reputation
in the hairdressing community, and accepted Lyn's resignation
and plan to set up her own business.
As Lyn began to work from home, Gino started to suspect
her of stealing some of his clients from the salon and began
threatening to sue her. Lyn initially laughed off Gino's threats,
but realised he meant business when an investigator from the
Town Planning Office showed up at the Scully house having
received a tip off that Lyn had been trading without a licence.
Lyn tried to assure him that she wasn't trading in the house
yet, but he knew from looking around that she had been cutting
hair. However, he appreciated that Lyn meant no harm and let
her off with a warning, on the condition that she didn't cut
any more hair until her licence came through. By that point,
however, Gino's business was suffering without Lyn, and he
began trying to entice her back. Lyn played hard to get with
Gino when he finally admitted he had made a mistake in mistreating
her at the salon and she only agreed to return after he had
started offering her all sorts of lucrative deals to return
to work.
Gino's penchant for theatre led him to become centrally
involved in the Erinsborough Amateur Players but he faced
a crisis when the builder he had enlisted to make the sets
for the society's production of Camelot turned out to be too
expensive. Gino looked to Lyn's builder husband, Joe,
to construct the sets, but Joe was adamant that he didn't
want to start mixing with Gino and all his 'arty' friends.
Gino, however, refused to take a hint from Joe, and immediately
started showing him his rather elaborate set designs. After
Joe gave in and agreed to build the sets, he and Gino went
on to clash over every facet of the production, with Gino
insisting Joe stick to his elaborate plans to have a moat
surround the castle and a huge round table for King Arthur's
knights. But after Joe reminded Gino that the show was starting
in a week, Gino realised he had no choice but to trust Joe
to get the sets built in time, and after he popped by the
community hall to take a peek at what Joe had done so far,
Gino was hugely impressed. Joe even began to surprise himself
by enjoying his involvement in the project.
Gino set himself up as a wedding planner as a sideline to
his hairdressing, and was delighted when Susan
Kennedy called upon his services for her second wedding
to husband Karl. However, Karl
and Susan were put right off the idea when they attended one
of the weddings that Gino had organised, and opted not to
avail of his services. But when Gino called and invited himself
over to discuss the plans further, Susan was too polite to
turn him down and agreed to at least hear what Gino had to
offer. However, Gino's grand plans involving butterflies and
fireworks horrified the Kennedys, and they were faced with
the task of rejecting Gino's ideas. Luckily, Gino saved them
the awkwardness by announcing that due to his commitments
to the Erinsborough Players' production of Oklahoma he would
be too busy to organise their wedding.
After falling out with his boyfriend Aaron,
Gino desperately needed somewhere else to live and was thrilled
to discover that Harold Bishop
had a room for rent at his house on Ramsay Street. Harold
wasn't overly keen on the idea, however, and when Gino insisted
on calling round to No. 24 to check the place out, Harold
tried in vain to put him off. However, Gino and Harold soon
bonded over their mutual love of musicals, vegetarian food
and instruments, and Harold was happy to invite Gino to move
in. But cracks began to show in Harold and Gino's domestic
bliss after Gino started to change Harold's furniture around
and add some of his own belongings to the living room. So
Harold breathed a huge sigh of relief when Gino announced
he was going on a trip to an antiques fair with an old friend
for a couple of days. But Harold was left extremely uncomfortable
when Gino returned from the trip with a nude female bust to
take pride of place in the living room, which he named Doris
because it made his 'Day'. Harold tried to persuade Gino to
take it into his bedroom with him, but Gino insisted she wasn't
his type, and he had got it for them to share anyway. Totally
flustered by the object, Harold took to hiding it with a tea
towel when Susan called over for a cuppa. But Gino quickly
removed it upon arriving home from work, and Harold was embarrassed
in front of a highly amused Susan.
Harold could barely contain his excitement when Gino patched
up his differences with Aaron and moved back in with him.
Harold even took to deliberately making a mess around the
house as soon as Gino was gone because he would no longer
be around to complain. However, Harold was stunned when Gino
arrived back at No. 24 within hours of leaving, announcing
that he and Aaron had fallen out again already and he was
moving back in. Harold then embarked on various campaigns
to rid himself of Gino, beginning by taking in Valda
Sheergold's prized poodles Blanche and Stella in the hope
of them irritating Gino. That plan backfired when Gino welcomed
the dogs with open arms and took to decorating them with bows
and ribbons. Desperate to force Gino out, Harold sought Toadie
Rebecchi's advice on the matter, who suggested he become
more macho and larrikin like. That evening, Harold dressed
in a vest, open robe and underwear and pigged out in front
of the telly. But Gino wasn't as outraged as Harold had expected,
and instead, opted to laze about in his nightgown too, thankful
that 'the real' Harold was out at last! Finally, Harold succeeded
in getting rid of Gino by cooking up lots of meat and outraging
him by actually eating a sausage, although unbeknown to Gino,
it was a vegetarian one. Gino fled No. 24 in horror and back
to Aaron's, forgiving and forgetting all that had happened
between them.
After making a mess of doing society queen Veronica Dean's
hair, Gino was forced to call upon Toadie for help when Veronica
announced her plans to sue. But Toadie was reluctant to take
the case due to the fact that Veronica was the wife of top
barrister Lester Dean. However, Gino was determined to have
his day in court, and began envisioning him and Toadie engaging
in a battle reminiscent of The Rainmaker. But just as Toadie
had come round to representing Gino thanks to his boss Tim
Collins pointing out that it could lead to more business
for them if they won a case against someone of Lester Dean's
stature, Gino opted to take his business elsewhere after seeing
the mess of Toadie's house.
Gino showed a rare, more vulnerable side to himself when
he asked Joe if he could be godfather to his and Lyn's baby.
Although Joe was initially horrified by the idea of even considering
Gino for the honour, Gino's heartfelt explanation as to why
he wanted the role - the fact that he would never have kids
of his own and his nieces and nephews all living so far away
- made Joe see a different side to Gino and he agreed to give
it some serious thought.
By the time Lyn gave birth to Baby
Oscar, Joe and Lyn had already lined up Harold, Valda
and Susan as godparents and it looked as if Gino had been
forgotten about. But on the day of the christening, Joe was
touched to discover Gino had arranged for the church to be
decorated with a beautiful array of flowers for the event
and asked him if he would be Oscar’s fourth godparent. Gino
was ecstatic, and threw himself into the role - even competing
with rival Harold to outdo each other on buying gifts for
the tot.
Gino decided to expand his mini hair empire to Lorne by
opening a salon there, but he was desperate to find a receptionist.
Lyn suggested Gino ask Lori Lee,
because she needed some security now that she had a baby daughter
to support. But although Lori was delighted and jumped at
the chance for the fresh start, Jack
Scully wasn’t pleased because he had planned to set up
home with Lori.
Meanwhile, Gino and Aaron were on hand to help out Toadie’s
recently arrived cousin Scott
‘Stingray’ Timmins when he wanted to take Serena
Bishop out to a fancy restaurant for dinner. Gino and
Aaron managed to make Scott presentable for the date, and
even agreed to take a table nearby at the restaurant to guide
him in proper etiquette. It was all going well until Scott
ate too much and ended up throwing up all over Serena.
Gino found himself coming between Harold and his best friend
Lou Carpenter when he and
Lou started to spend a lot of time together which consequently
caused Harold to look on with jealousy. It started out when
Harold turned down Lou's invite to an evening at the theatre,
believing that the friends shouldn't spend too much time together
given the fact that they were about to become partners on
the revamped Coffee Shop. Lou offered the tickets to Gino
instead, but when Harold realised they were for The Producers,
one of his favourite stage shows, he had second thoughts.
However, Lou insisted that Harold had had his chance and the
tickets were Gino's. Harold's jealousy intensified when Gino
and Lou and two of the girls from the salon went away together
for the weekend, and started to party with each other on a
regular basis. The final straw came for Harold when Lou started
to act on recommendations Gino had suggested for the décor
of the new store. However, both Lou and Harold put aside their
differences and rallied around Gino when young Boyd
Hoyland wrongly accused Gino of trying to come onto him
and threatened him. The experience left Gino badly shaken
and he began to reassess the way people viewed him. But he
didn't remain despondent for long, and he was helped put the
incident behind him when Boyd apologised for his out of character
behaviour.
When the time came for casting a dashing male lead in his production of The Pirates of Penzance for the Erinsborough Players, Gino couldn't believe his luck when strapping hunk Corey Helpmann expressed an interest not just in the role, but also in Gino. Despite several other expressions of interest in the lead role, most notably from Ned Parker, Gino made Corey his start and re-wrote his script to give Corey even more lines. But Gino ditched Corey altogether when he discovered that Corey actually had a girlfriend and had been pretending to be gay in order to get the part. Gino was forced to go back to the drawing board and wrote a new musical about the explosion of Krakatoa in the late 1800s and picked Ned and Sky Mangel as his leads, with Ned's girlfriend, Elle Robinson, receiving a small part too. But the subject matter was deemed too tasteless and Gino instead wrote a much simpler story – the tale of a young country lad arriving in the big city dreaming of stardom, which was tailor-made for Ned. Although the rehearsals for the play were beset by all manner of hiccups – most notably a blossoming romance between Ned and Elle and Elle's jealousy over Ned having to kiss Sky in one scene – Gino was confident that he was onto a winner as opening night arrived. But that morning, Gino did his back in while running through some dance steps with Ned, and it fell to Karl Kennedy to step in as director when Gino over did it on painkillers and was completely incoherent. Alas, Karl's involvement proved to be the undoing of the play, as his insistence on including some of his own original music in the production proved hugely unpopular with the actors and audience. And when Ned injured his leg during a game of footie, Karl was only too happy to fill his shoes as the star of the show. Unfortunately, once opening night was out of the way, no more tickets were sold – and Gino's dreams of his original production becoming a worldwide hit were over.
As host of the Annual Beautiful Baby competition at Lassiter's, Gino was less
than impressed with the behaviour of Harold after his great-granddaughter Kerry
failed to win. Having criticised Kerry’s grandmother Janelle for weeks and
desperately trying to persuade her not to enter the tot in such a contest, it
was a total about face for Harold to start crying 'fix' and angrily lashing out
at Gino and the judges. And after calling for security to remove Harold from the
vicinity of the contest, an exasperated Gino lamented that the same thing
happened every year. A few weeks later, Gino announced plans to take his baby paegents touring around Australia,
selling the salon to vet Steve Parker to fund the venture, before bidding a fond farewell to Erinsborough.
Seventeen years later, following his retirement, Gino moved into Eirini Rising, Erinsborough's newest retirement complex, owned by Terese Willis and
employing Susan Kennedy as Operations Manager and Karl Kennedy as the resident doctor. Gino was delighted to be reunited with both of them and equally
pleased to hear that old friend Harold Bishop was also living there. Gino's arrival came with a problem, however, as he brought with him more furniture
than would fit inside his new apartment. Several pieces of furniture had to be left in Eirini Rising's courtyard and, with Terese in hospital recovering
from a car accident, Susan and Karl were left to try and find a solution to the problem themselves. Soon after, Gino and Harold had a proper catch-up, catching Eirini Rising's courtesy bus to Lassiters for a trip down memory lane. Gino had lost none of
his overbearing personality, as he suggested that he and Harold separate off from the rest of the 'oldies' and dragged him around for the day, remembering
what the complex used to be like when Harold ran the General Store with Lou.
Gino quickly found himself involved in Erinsborough life again, as he discovered that fellow Eirini resident Moira Tohu was planning a protest against an
upcoming charity male revue named Boylesque that was taking place at Lassiters. With encouragement from another Eirini resident, Hilary Robinson, Moira
stood outside the hotel's reception and handed out leaflets about the 'smut', asking people to sign a petition to have it banned. Gino did his best to
point out that it was just a bit of harmless fun, but Moira ignored him and continued to spread her message around the Lassiters complex. Fortunately, Susan managed to distract Moira and Hilary, giving them tickets to another event on the night of Boylesque, which caused the protests to
fizzle out.
Gino and Moira then butted heads again as they took part in some carpentry classes for the Eirini residents. Gino was frustrated when Moira created a trophy
for the Eirini jam-making competition, something that had already been vetoed by Harold, the residents' representative. But with Harold away visiting family
in Port Douglas, it seemed that Moira and his friends were overruling his decisions. But the petty squabbles were quickly forgotten when recovering alcoholic
Terese, who had secretly started drinking again, accidentally reversed into the gas pipe as she was leaving one night. Unaware of what she'd done in her
drunken state, she went home and passed out and Gino raised the alarm, calling Susan, who asked him to get everyone out of the building. As the emergency
services arrived and the residents were evacuated, an exhausted Gino suddenly collapsed in front of Karl and Susan. He was rushed to hospital and kept in
overnight but, just as he seemed to have recovered, he suddenly suffered a heart attack.
Trivia Notes
• Gino originally appeared as a background character in one episode in 2000, when he competed against Lyn at a hairdressing show and was played by Claude Stevens. When he returned the following year, he had aged several years, was played by Shane McNamara and his dark black hair had gone grey
• To read our inteview with Gino's portrayer Shane McNamara, click here
Episodes
Featured
3595, 3747-5243, 9115, 9122, 9129, 9138, 9139
Biography
by Moe
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