VALE – February 2023

TONY BARRY

Actor

28 Aug 1941 –  21 Dec 2022

• 2 oral histories held (by Tina Kaufman and Martha Ansara) – NFSA
• One of the most recognisable actors in the Australian screen industry, Tony Barry was also one of the most respected and prolific. (Artshub)
• ‘He was a fierce fighter for the underdog, and the only Australian to feature on a New Zealand postage stamp for his iconic lead role in Geoff Murphy’s Goodby Pork Pie,’ says Dame Gaylene Preston. (Byron Echo)
• He channelled his considerable compassion and communication skills to help others through teaching and mentoring. He volunteered to work with disadvantaged people in correctional centres and brought about substantial cultural changes (Actors Benevolent Fund)

IMDB listing

BERT DELING

Film director & writer

1:Dec:1942 – 14:Dec:2022.

• Two short interviews held  (by Alan Turner and Brian S– NFSA. 
• Forever a larrikin, a shit stirrer, a fighter for the underdog, a master of the one-liner. A lover. A storyteller. A punk. (Omee Moon Deling’s Facebook page)
• With the passing of writer/director Bert Deling over the Christmas period, Australia lost one of its most potent and singular cinematic voices. (the making of Pure Shit and more)  (FilmInk)
• IMDB listing

DIANA FISHER

TV personality

1932 – 2023

• c. 1967-1967 audio interview held – NFSA.
• Once considered Australia’s foremost royalist, Sydney social identity and former television personality Diana “Bubbles” Fisher died on Thursday evening. She was 91. (SMH obituary)
• Born in London, UK ‘Bubbles’ (named after her warm personality and love of champagne) moved to Australia in 1964 with her husband, Humphrey, who was a BBC producer posted to Sydney. (TVtonight)

RENEE GEYER

Singer

11 September 1953 – 17 January 2023)

• Oral history held – interview by Nick Weare – NFSA.
• Renée was born in Melbourne in 1953. Her parents were both Jewish immigrants with her father from Hungary, and her mother being a Holocaust survivor from Slovakia. The family moved to Sydney when Renée was a toddler. Then, as a teenager, she fell in love with music, specifically rhythm and blues.( NFSA tribute)
• A soul, jazz, blues and R&B legend, the husky-voiced Renée Geyer has died aged 69. (Artshub)

DOROTHY HALLAM

News cinematographer

1924-2022

Oral history held – interviewed by Jeannine Baker – NFSA.

As ABC’s freelance cinematographer on the Tasman Peninsula, she was the first female news cinematographer in Australia. (ACS tribute)

JILL JOLLIFFE

Journalist

Australian journalist who devoted much of her life to solidarity with East Timor.  Jill reported on the early incursions into East Timor by the Indonesian military (TNI) and rhe murder of the Balibo 5. (Search Foundation)

Jill Jolliffe began her Timor journey as a member of an Australian union and student delegation to Portuguese East Timor in March 1975. Representing the Australian Union of Students (AUS), her report on the week-long exposure tour reveals her instinctive empathy for the East Timorese. (Timor Archives)

GEORGE T. MILLER

Film & TV director

28 November 1943 – 17 February 2023

Not to be confused with Mad Max creator George Miller, who rose to prominence around the same time, George Trumbull Miller was the son of Scottish immigrants who arrived in the country in 1947. (If magazine)

He started his career in 1966 working for Crawford Productions. “They trained you to do everything, they’d throw you in at the deep end to see if you sank or swam,” he said. “I was one of the ones who swam – you wouldn’t get that training anywhere now.” (Wikipedia)

International films would include The Aviator, The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter, Frozen Assets, Andre, Zeus and Roxanne, Robinson Crusoe and a string of telemovies. (TVtonight)

KEN MOGG

Film scholar

16 July 1942 – 2 Feb 2023

Vale Ken Mogg – Peter Tammer’s tribute to one of Australia’s finest film scholars

Ken Mogg (Kenneth Marcus Mogg) will be remembered as one of Australia’s most intrepid researchers and writers on the topics which most dominated his life and thoughts: the films of Alfred Hitchcock and the works of philosophers Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. (Filmalert101)

photograph shows Ken (r) with friends Peter Tammer and Inge Pruks

HANS POULSEN

Singer, songwriter, film & TV composer) –

7 March 1945 – 17 February 2023

an Australian singer-songwriter and musician of Danish descent who was popular in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and known for his eccentric hippie style. (Wikipedia)

He made the charts with the solo “Boom-Sha-La-La-Lo” (No. 5) and “Light Across The Valley”, both from his 1970 debut album “Natural High” and issued through Ron Tudor’s Fable label. (The Music Network)

He was a composer and actor, known for December Boys (2007), Travelling Light (2003) and Getting Back to Nothing (1971). (IMDB)

DON SIMMONS

ABC reporter & current affairs producer

1937 – 26 Feb 2023

For further info, see tribute on AMOHG Facebook. 

Donald George Simmons as a journalist for the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC), South Vietnam 1960-1966, interviewed by David Bradbury,  held by Australian War Memorial

MIKE SPENCER

Footage librarian

1936 – 18 January 2022

Born in London in 1936, Michael Spencer attended boarding school in his teenage years, and developed a talent for drawing. After leaving school, he enrolled in the College of Heraldry for three years, . . . (Later in Australia) joining the CFU in 1967, Mike worked initially at its Gibbes Street, Chatswood, lab. The manager asked Mike, as a matter of urgency, to determine a future for what Mike recalled as a “heap of rusty cans” containing 35 mm dupe negatives . . . See Graham Shirley’s article on AMOHG Facebook

ANTOINETTE STARKIEWICZ

Animator

c1950 -31/12/2022

Oral history held Interview by Paul Harris – NFSA.

With a passion for animation, Antoinette moved to London to study the subject at the London Film School. Between 1974 and 1976 she produced and directed a number of animated films including Puttin’ on the Ritz (1974), which opened the 18th London Film Festival, and High Fidelity (1976), which was the official British entry at the Cannes Film Festival. (Elwood College magazine)

A brief  tribute on AMOHG Facebook. 

Many tributes on Antoinette’s own Facebook page

JOAN SYDNEY

Actor

5 September 1936 – 28 December 2022

Sydney was known for her Logie-winning role playing Matron Maggie Sloane in A County Practice between 1983 and 1990. However her screen debut occurred when she was just 18, in the 1957 film version of English play When We Are Married. (ABC obituary)

Sydney was known for playing Margaret “Maggie” Sloan, the no-nonsense but compassionate matron of the fictional Wandin Valley Bush Nursing Hospital in the Seven Network rural series A Country Practice from 1983 to 1990 and over 400 episodes. She won the Silver Logie Award for Most Outstanding Actress for her performance in 1989 (Wikipedia)

Sydney was known for playing Margaret “Maggie” Sloan, the no-nonsense but compassionate matron of the fictional Wandin Valley Bush Nursing Hospital in the Seven Network rural series A Country Practice from 1983 to 1990 and over 400 episodes. She won the Silver Logie Award for Most Outstanding Actress for her performance in 1989 (Wikipedia)

JEFF WATSON

TV science broadcaster
1942 – 22 February 2023

Jeffrey Watson was a British-born Australian journalist, author and documentary film maker. (Wikipedia)

Veteran Australian television presenter Jeff Watson, who became a familiar face on popular programs such as Getaway and Beyond 2000, has passed away at the age of 80. (Startsat60)

Watson had a rich career in television spanning over 40 years. Well known as the original presenter on Getaway from 1992 through to 1998, his passion for travel was shared in many family homes across the country. (9now)

A passionate aviator, he flew 23,000 km from England to Australia with John Travolta, in a 50 year old jet airliner to produce the programme Southend to Sydney. (TV tonight)

TOM ZELINKA

radio broadcaster

15.Feb.1940 – 10.Feb.2023

Tom was a pioneer on 2MBS-FM when it started, and then spent many years on 2JJ. He was broadcasting (“Strictly Vinyl”) on the 2MBS night shift right up until his death. No obituaries have emerged yet.

The definitive radio pedigree (Fine Music magazine, Feb 2013)

Tom’s is the face in profile in the back row, about 4th from the left in this c1980 photo of 2JJ staff.

Photograph shows Tom Zelinka (r) looking over Chris Winter’s shoulder at 2JJ.