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Character Profiles > Danny Ramsay David Clencie

Daniel 'Danny' Ramsay 1985-1986
Lived: 24 Ramsay Street
Born: c. 1968 (later altered to 1967)
Parents: Maria Ramsay and Tim Duncan (biological); Max Ramsay (adoptive)
Siblings: Shane
Family Tree: Ramsay and Rossi
Occupation: Student, Bank Teller

Danny Ramsay was born the product of a one-night stand between his distraught mother, Maria Ramsay, and Tim Duncan. Tim had been gone from Maria's life before she realised she was pregnant and so she let her husband Max believe Danny was his son. But Max was always very hard on wimpish Danny, constantly comparing him to his athletic older brother, Shane. As a result, Max and Danny were always at each other's throats and never got on.

When Danny began having strange nightmares in which Shane was killed during swimming training, Maria suggested he see a doctor to try and understand what was causing them. The doctor couldn't understand what the reason for the nightmares was but Danny found the explanation when he and Shane were involved in a car accident which ruined Shane's swimming career. From the accident, Danny decided that the dreams had represented a warning.

Danny and best mate Scott Robinson were constantly getting into scrapes around Erinsborough growing up - but on one occasion found themselves on the wrong side of the law when they were wrongly accused of mugging neighbour Carol Brown, then running away and ended up staying with Mrs Forbes, on whose farm they worked part-time. The boys faced more drama when both of them fell for a friend of Maria's sister, Anna Rossi from Queensland, Wendy Gibson.

Not long after Maria left Max to live with Richard Morrison in Hong Kong, Danny learnt the shocking truth about his real parentage. He overheard Max tell his French teacher, Miss Drew, that he was not Danny's real father. Danny underwent an identity crisis, as he was finally able to understand why Max had always treated him different. After an emotional confrontation, Max finally admitted to Danny that, although he wasn't his real father, he still loved him as his own son. For the first time in his life, Danny was able to be sure of his father's love for him and with the pressure of having to worry about living up to Max's expectations gone, Danny could put his mind to concentrating on a career in commerce. Having achieved a successful HSC, Danny landed a job at the Pacific Bank as a junior teller.

It was here that Danny fell for a fellow junior Marcie, even though she pipped him to the post for a promotion. When Marcie mentioned that if someone brought her to Surfer’s Paradise she’d do anything for them, Danny quickly set about trying to make some extra cash to afford the trip. Attempts at getting a loan from Shane proved fruitless and the most Max offered was $20, leaving Danny with no alternative but to take on some extra work as a gorilla-gram for Clive Gibbons, who had moved in next door and caused an instant rift with Max due to his unorthodox business venture. Because of Max’s fierce dislike of Clive, Danny kept his new job a secret but his auntie Madge Mitchell, who had recently moved into the Ramsay house to look after the boys and Max, realised something was going on when she accidentally caught a glimpse inside Danny’s wallet and saw he had a lot of extra cash. Madge told Max of her find, and when he confronted Danny about the money, Danny pretended to have won the money on the horses rather than tell his father the truth.

Danny’s moonlighting as a gorilla was finally exposed to all, however, on the day of Des Clarke’s planned wedding to Daphne Lawrence. Clive pleaded with Danny to fill in for a sick gorilla on the morning of the wedding, and Danny agreed after Clive promised double pay. But it meant he would be late for the wedding, and when Shane was driving Daphne to the church along with Max and her bridesmaid Zoe Davis, he was sure it was Danny running to the church when he spotted a man in a gorilla suit racing along the footpath. Shane let him into the car, but quickly realised it wasn’t Danny when the guy pulled a gun on the wedding party and made them drive into the country where he dumped them and stole the car. It later transpired that a group of three robbers dressed as gorillas had robbed the Pacific Bank that same morning, but the real damage was done to Des and Daphne, as Des thought Daphne was having cold feet and he fled the church. Danny, meanwhile, found himself in jail overnight being questioned by the police because of the fact he was prone to wearing gorilla suits. And to top it all off, Marcie rejected Danny’s offer of a weekend in the mountains in favour of two weeks in Fiji with her boyfriend Dwayne, meaning Danny need never have donned the monkey suit in the first place.

With the break-up of his parents marriage and their reunion in Queensland several months after, Danny decided he had nothing left in Ramsay Street and secured a transfer to another branch of Pacific Bank in the country.

Trivia Notes
• In 2005, Danny made a cameo appearance in Annalise's 20th Anniversary Documentary
• Apart from Paul Robinson, Danny Ramsay is the only original character to leave the series and then return being played by the same actor