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Tommy Dysart

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Tommy Dysart
Born
Thomas Gibson Dysart

(1935-12-24)24 December 1935
Maryhill, Glasgow, Scotland
Died7 June 2022 (aged 86)
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
EducationNational Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA)
Occupations
  • Actor
  • commercial advertiser
Years active1959[1]–2022

Thomas Gibson Dysart (24 December 1935 – 7 June 2022) was a Scottish-born Australian actor, known for his appearances on television dramas and comedies and in character roles in films and miniseries.

Early career

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Dysart graduated from NIDA[2] in 1959, and started his career as a vocalist and performed in theatre.[1]

Film and TV roles

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High-profile early roles included appearances in Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, Phoenix Five, and several roles in the Crawford Productions police drama series Homicide, Division 4, Matlock Police and Cop Shop.

Dysart appeared briefly in the series Prisoner in the early 1980s, where he played what is perhaps his best-known acting role, that of vicious and cold prison officer Jock Stewart. In the storyline, after being fired from the prison service Stewart admitted to prisoner Judy Bryant that he was the one responsible for murdering her lesbian lover, fellow prisoner Sharon Gilmour. This revelation brought to a close a murder-mystery storyline in the series but launched a long-running story-arc where Bryant repeatedly escaped from prison in a succession of attempts to exact her revenge on Stewart.

After this, Dysart continued in guest-starring television roles in drama series and situation comedies, and appeared in many feature films. His films included The Man from Snowy River (1982), Bliss (1985), Garbo (1992), and Flynn (1996). Television roles of the 1990s included appearances in All Together Now, The Games, State Coroner, Blue Heelers, Something in the Air and Neighbours. He also provided the voice for Captain Griswald in Anthony Lucas' animated short film The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello (2005).

Commercial advertisements

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In the 1990s he appeared in a well-remembered television commercial advertisement for the Yellow Pages where he calls a series of mechanics about his problematic Goggomobil, ("G, O, G, G, O ... No! No! Not the Dart").[3] He was also known for playing a recurring character of a Mafia-boss-like butcher in advertisements for Don Smallgoods.

In the early 2000s he continued his Goggomobil persona advertising Shannons Insurance. The concept played on the role of a person searching for the car parts as any car enthusiast would. Telstra challenged this in the Supreme Court and Shannons withdrew the advertisements, but continued with Dysart and the accent (which Dysart insisted was his own and could not change). The adverts continue and Shannons Insurance also owns several of the Goggomobil cars which feature regularly in their shows. Dysart and Joan Brockenshire appeared in Karl von Möller's 2019 documentary "D'art".[4]

Filmography

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Film

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Year Title Role Notes
1965 Moby Dick - Rehearsed TV movie
1965 The Big Killing[5] Sergeant Bassett TV movie
1969 It Takes All Kinds Seaman Feature film
1972 The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui TV movie
1982 The Man from Snowy River Mountain Man Feature film
1982 Next of Kin Harry Feature film
1982 The Clinic Patient Feature film
1985 Bliss De Vere Feature film
1985 I Live with Me Dad Griffin Feature film
1986 Sky Pirates Bartender Feature film
1986 The Big Hurt Schwartz Feature film
1987 Ground Zero British Veteran Feature film
1988 Backstage Head Waiter - Reception Feature film
1988 Georgia Bystander Feature film
1990 What the Moon Saw Skip Feature film
1992 Garbo Bagpipes Feature film
1992 Come Rain or Shine Feature film (starred with son Kole Dysart)
1993 Flynn (aka My Forgotten Man) Macintosh Feature film
1993 Body Melt Sergeant Feature film
1994 Metal Skin Mr Graham Feature film
1995 The Final Stage Stinky Radford Feature film
1995 Mushrooms Wilson Feature film
1996 River Street Sergeant Feature film
1999 Strange Fits of Passion Taxi Driver Feature film
2000 Wee Jimmy Grandad Short film
2001 Four Jacks Lance Feature film
2002 The Real Thing Husband Feature film
2005 The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello Captain Otto H. Griswald (voice) Animated short film
2009 Remembering Nigel Tommy Dysart Short film (starred with son Kole Dysart)
2009 Crazy in the Night Jock Short film
2011 Hands.Hands Old Man Short film
2018 A Thin Life The Man Feature film
2019 D'art Self Documentary film
2021 Frankly - A Life in the Circus Self Feature film

Television

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Year Title Role Notes
1963 Consider Your Verdict Jack McLean TV series, 1 episode
1965 The Stranger TV miniseries, 2 episodes
1968 Skippy the Bush Kangaroo Andrews TV series, 1 episode
1969 Division 4 George Baker TV series, 1 episode
1970 The Rovers Butcher TV series, 1 episode
1970 Phoenix Five Gunfighter TV series, 1 episode
1971, 1973 Matlock Police Ted Woods / Abdul TV series, 2 episodes
1974 Silent Number Sand TV series, 1 episode
1975 Behind the Legend TV series, 1 episode
1964-75 Homicide George Hogan, Jeffrey Hodges, Anthony Scott, Angus Lawrence, Chris Doyle, Van Driver, Osman Rados, Neil Campbell, Nicolo Rogowski TV series, 9 episodes
1975 Ben Hall Haigh TV series, 1 episode
1975 Luke's Kingdom Lug TV miniseries, 1 episode
1978 The Truckies TV series, 1 episode
1978 Against the Wind Settler / Travers / Drunken Rebel TV miniseries, 3 episodes
1979 Skyways Paddy McDonald TV series, 1 episode
1979 The Sullivans Fergus McCullough TV series, 1 episode
1980 Young Ramsay Paddy Rourke TV series, 1 episode
1980 Water Under the Bridge Hamish TV miniseries, 1 episode
1980 The Last Outlaw Superintendent TV miniseries, 4 episodes
1981 Are You Being Served? Kilted Customer TV series, 1 episode
1977-81 Cop Shop Dimonicus, Don Morgan, John Ford, Lawrence Peck TV series, 7 episodes
1980-82 Prisoner Jock Stewart TV series, 12 episodes
1982 Come Midnight Monday Angus McPhee TV series, 5 episodes
1982 Women of the Sun Joe TV miniseries, 1 episode
1983 Carson's Law Captain Robinson TV series, 1 episode
1983 Infinity Limited Henry TV series, episode 15: The Big Lift
1984 Five Mile Creek Trantor TV series, 1 episode
1984 Special Squad Scottie / Bingo Caller TV series, 2 episodes
1984 Eureka Stockade Tom Kennedy TV miniseries, 2 episodes
1985 The Fast Lane Neville TV series, 1 episode
1985 Trapp, Wrinkle and Box Various TV series
1985 Zoo Family McGregor TV series, 1 episode
1986 Alice to Nowhere Fighting Scotsman TV miniseries, 2 episodes
1986, 1987 The Flying Doctors Inspector Kevin Day / Simpson TV series, 2 episodes
1990 Friday on My Mind
1991 Boys from the Bush Nick TV series, 1 episode
1991 All Together Now Barkeeper TV series, 1 episode
1991 Chances Trevor Russell TV series, 1 episode
1991 Kelly Sgt Terry Blake TV series, 2 episode
1992 Round the Twist Bus Driver TV series, 1 episode
1992, 1993 The Late Show Goggomobile Man TV series, 2 episodes
1994 Wedlocked Marvin / Hot Dog Man TV series, 4 episodes
1995 Snowy River: The McGregor Saga Mr Couch TV series, 1 episode
1998 Good Guys, Bad Guys Athol Amoroso TV series, 1 episode
The Games Taxu Driver TV series, 1 episode
1998 State Coroner Robeet Ash TV series, 1 episode
2000 Blue Heelers Jimmy Fong TV series, season 7, 1 episode
2001 Neighbours Fergus MacLeod TV series, 1 episode
2001 Pizza 50s Pizza Couple TV series, 1 episode
2001 Something in the Air Roy Suede TV series, 2 episodes

Theatre

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Year Title Role Notes
1975-77 The Rocky Horror Show Narrator Regent Palace Theatre, 458 performances

Personal life

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Dysart enjoyed a long personal and professional relationship with director and writer Frank Howson. They worked together on the films Backstage, Boulevard of Broken Dreams, What the Moon Saw, Flynn, Crime Time, The Final Stage, Lucky Country, and the award-winning short film Remembering Nigel, which also featured Dysart's wife and son Kole.

Dysart was married to actress Joan Brockenshire. On 18 February 2022, Dysart suffered a stroke and was taken to the Alfred Hospital.[6] He died on 7 June 2022 in Melbourne, Victoria at the age of 86.[7]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Tommy Dysart".
  2. ^ "Cast of thousands cheers for NIDA's 50th birthday". The Sydney Morning Herald. 18 February 2009. Retrieved 3 March 2020.
  3. ^ "Sheer dartistry a-Goggo". www.theaustralian.com.au. 11 September 2019. Retrieved 3 March 2020.
  4. ^ "Review: 'D'art'". 25 June 2020.
  5. ^ Vagg, Stephen (27 April 2021). "Forgotten Australian TV Plays: The Big Killing". Filmink. Retrieved 12 August 2024.
  6. ^ "Frankly: A Life in the Circus - A film by Roberto Chuter on Facebook". Facebook. Archived from the original on 30 April 2022.[user-generated source]
  7. ^ "Vale Tommy Dysart 1935–2022". Shannons Club. 15 June 2022. Retrieved 15 June 2022.
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