Bill Hunter

We were due to start shooting at 8:00am. Legendary actor Bill Hunter, Billy to his mates, looked at me with one eye open, the other squinting and with a wry smile made it clear he wouldn’t be moving until I relaxed, sat with him and had a beer or two. He hadn’t said a word. His was a face that told a story.

Four other well known Aussie actors were there too. We were shooting a self-funded pilot for a TV series (that was rejected by the networks). For once I didn’t babble. I watched and listened and learned. I can’t say I knew Bill Hunter, but I was pleased to my core as we sat back and opened a second beer before shooting, that I shared a few golden moments with a man who knew how to tell a story.

Bill Hunter had a knack of picking the right Aussie films to be in. He knew what a good story was. So many Australian feature films are a flop nowadays because we lack the ability to tell a good story on-screen. For all the modern gadgets, the hand-held video cameras, the hard-drives; the instant play-back generation simply doesn’t know how to tell a story on-screen anymore.

Continue reading "Airheads with gadgets have hijacked real storytelling" »

The great Australian actor Bill Hunter has died in a Melbourne hospice, aged 71. Hunter had inoperable cancer. Film studies teacher Richard Smith celebrates his life work and legacy.

A friend and I once had a joke about Bill Hunter: that he was the Gerard Depardieu of Australian Cinema. This meant that he was in everything and that he could do anything.

He did not seem to change much from one appearance to the next, but he seemed to be so naturally right for the roles: Think of the difference between his role in the BHP ads and his role as Bill Heslop in Muriel’s Wedding, one the voice of The Big Australian, the other the patriarch of little Australia.

Continue reading "Vale Bill Hunter, the voice and face of Aussie cinema" »