I know that I only posted on here yesterday, but I felt it only right that I mention the death of the true Aussie great, Bill Hunter. He passed away yesterday aged 71 after a battle with cancer.
For those of you that don’t know Bill, you’ve obviously never seen an Australian film… I can literally count on one hand the number of Australian films I’ve seen that he hasn’t starred in. He starred in films such as Muriel’s Wedding, The Adventures of Priscilla Queen Of The Desert, Strictly Ballroom, Gallipoli, and even did the voice of the dentist in Finding Nemo. Two of my personal favourites are the underrated comedy Crackerjack, centered around the world of bowls clubs, and the cop-comedy-drama Bad Eggs (which are both due their own blogs in the future…) For a full list of films, take a look at his pretty stunning IMDb page: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0402730/
Reading all of the messages that have flooded in to various websites after the announcement of his death, I haven’t seen anyone post a bad word about Bill. He was as he often appeared on screen: a rough, working class Aussie with a huge heart. In a recent interview, he summed up his views on the ‘art’ of acting:
“As long as the director told me where to stand and what to say, I was happy… Anyone who says there’s any more to it than that, is full of bullshit… It’s a job. It is a craft, but there’s no art involved… What you need is common sense and a reasonably rough head… You put on the makeup and the wardrobe and that is half the performance… That upsets the purists but never mind, they don’t work as much as I do.”
It's Tomorrow Over There 
Yes, a true Aussie great indeed. We were privileged to see Bill in Sydney in 1997, in a cafe in the Botanic Gardens and again later that afternoon.
Posted by Sue Mawson | May 22, 2011, 1:27 pm