ROSALIND (ROS) BOWDEN

Radio broadcaster & academic

RosBowden15 December 1940 – 29 January 2023

  • Ros Bowden, interviewer and broadcaster with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, worked in the Radio National Social History Unit and on the ‘Coming Out Show’.  (Women in Australia)
  • Ros was a pioneer feminist in the 1970s and a foundation member (and life member) of OHAA NSW. She encouraged the ABC to present her programs on the role of women in Australian history. Unusually for a journalist she preserved her recordings and presented them to the Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, where they form an important archive.  (Oral History NSW)
  • She died peacefully in Forster NSW on 16 February aged 83. (SMH Tributes)

ROSS GIBSON

filmmaker, media producer, audio artist, academic

1956 –  2 March 2023

  • Ross-Gibson-1

    Filmmaker and author Ross Gibson has died. Gibson was the author of several books including The Summer Exercises (2009), 26 Views of the Starburst World (2012), Changescapes (2015) and Memoryscopes (2015) Books and Publishing: Vale Ross Gibson)  

  • A quick online search throws up pages of references to Ross Gibson, identifying him as an academic, curator, poet, film maker, media producer, audio artist, and et cetera. (University of Canberra ‘Un Cover’)
  • I don’t remember the first time I met Ross Gibson (born 1956), but I do remember the first time we bonded. It was 1985, I believe, in the back seat of a cab, hurtling along the road on the way to a conference session in Perth. –Adrian Martin: Film Critic
  • –  2 oral histories held by NFSA  ( interviewed by Gary Warner and Ross Harley in2020,   and  by Tina Kaufmanand Adrian Martin in 1986) 

MAC GUDGEON

Writer for film, TV & the stage; advocate for writers’ rights

mac-gudgeon2 March 1949 – 29 May 2023

  • Esteemed screenwriter, whose credits include Waterfront, The Petrov Affair, Killing Time and The Secret River, has died.(TV Tonight)  
  • A former president of the Australian Writers’ Guild (AWG), Gudgeon’s career spanned more than three decades, during which time he used his platform to advocate for writers’ rights. Inside Film (IF) magazine
  • IMDB listing

ROLF HARRIS

singer, television entertainer

Rolf-Harris30 March 1930 – 10 May 2023

  • For more than half a century until being jailed as a sex offender in 2014, Rolf Harris, who has died aged 93 after suffering from neck cancer, was one of the most celebrated television entertainers in Britain and his native Australia. He was a musician, singer, artist, comedian – Obituary in The Guardian
  • . . .Harris returned to Perth in Australia when television was introduced there in 1959 after he was headhunted. He subsequently produced and starred in five episodes of a half-hour weekly children’s show, as well as his own weekly evening variety show.[33] From 1959, he worked on TVW-7’s first locally produced show, Spotlight, and during this time he recorded “Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport” on a single microphone placed above him in the television studio (Wikipedia)

RUTH HESSEY

short film director & writer; arts journalist

ruth-hessey16 December 1959 – 1 April 2023

  • Writer, actor, filmmaker, broadcaster, advocate for justice and nature. (SMH notice)
  • Ruth has been Communications Director at Total Environment Centre for 8 years.  She wrote and directed the award winning documentary film Waste Not, for TEC. Ruth has been published in three anthologies of women’s writing by Hardie Grant, and several critical cinema anthologies. Interview in Total Environment Centre publication
  • Ruth Hessey Sydney NSW award winning filmmaker died after being stuck by vehicle:  obituary/
  • Station stalwart Ruth Hessey succumbed to her injuries in St Vincent’s Hospital this morning (Sat, April 1). As a pedestrian, she was involved in a serious traffic incident near her home in Bronte yesterday  Statement from Eastside Radio
  • IMDB listing

BARRY HUMPHRIES

comedian, actor, writer

17 February 1934-  22 April  2023

  • barry-humphries-1John Barry Humphries AC CBE was an Australian comedian, actor, author and satirist. He was best known for writing and playing his stage and television characters Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson. (Wikipedia entry)
  • His father was a well-to-do builder. Barry was a highly intelligent boy who attended Melbourne University. There, he began acting in revues and doing impersonations. He moved to London in 1959  https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0402032/
  • Entertainer whose outrageous caricatures Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson took the one-man show to new heights  The Guardian: obituary
  • Although he may be best remembered for his work in theatre, he was a painter, author, poet, and a collector and lover of Art in all its forms. He was also a loving and devoted husband, father, grandfather, and a friend and confidant to many. – TV Tonight l

TINA KAUFMAN

film journalist, editor, writer, cineaste, oral historian

1938 – 2023

  • Filmnews-Ed-board--1000x588Tina Kaufman [pictured bottom centre], who died last week aged 85, was, in her own quiet way, a significant part of the Australian film scene. She was a skilled editor, publisher, film writer, board member and cineaste. Tina touched many lives.   Tribute in FilmInk
  • Tina Kaufmann – among many other roles in Australian film culture over more than half a century – was for several years a member of AMOHG, and also in its earlier name, the Filmmakers’ and Broadcast Industry Oral History Group (FBIOHG). Some collected tributes from members of AMOHG  
  • Tina conducted a number of Oral History interviews that are held at NFSA (over a wide range of subjects from documentary-maker Dennis O’Rourke to Atlab colour grader Tina Hutch),
  • Oral history of Tina held by NFSA  

JOHN KRUMMEL

actor, theatre producer

Krummel-as-Turing-Breaking-the-Code-002-120 August 1944 – 2023

DOUG MULRAY

radio & TV host, comedian

1 December 1951 – 30 March 2023

  • doug-mulrayMulray started his early years as a salesman traveling in Europe, before his father, a lawyer, suggested a career in broadcasting. (Wikipedia)  
  • Known for his outrageous humour, Mulray’s glory days in radio were on Sydney radio in the 80s and 90s. Amongst his radio gigs were 2AD, 2GO, 3AW, 2JJ, 2SM, 2WS and most notably at TripleM, (TV Tonight)  l
  • He was famously dumped off air by Kerry Packer just 33 minutes into a new TV show, Australia’s Naughtiest Home Videos. Tribute in Radio Info.com
  • Podcast interview with Angela Catterns and Ian Rogerson

 TERRY NORRIS

Actor

9 June 1930 – 20 March 2023

  • terrynorris_0001As an actor, he starred in television shows such as Bellbird and Cop Shop, and in films like Romulus, My Father, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and Paper Planes.  Norris interrupted his show business career for ten years with a stint serving in state politics. Wikipedia  
  • IMDB listing
  • “The West End was one’s Mecca and so I went to England and I spent the next 12 years bumming around in repertory theatre.” TV Tonight –
  • There is an oral history held by NFSA

BRUCE PETTY

cartoonist, animator, artist, director

Bruce_Petty_square_2-4523 November 1929 – 6 April 2023

  • 2 oral histories held by NFSA
  •  He is known for his short Leisure, an exploration of the history of work and leisure, which won an Academy Award in 1977, –Obituary in IF magazine  
  • Petty began working for the Owen Brothers animation studio in Melbourne in 1949, before moving to the UK in 1954. His cartoons were published in The New Yorker, Esquire and Punch (Wikipedia)   
  • Some cartoons in the Behind the Lines exhibition

TINA TURNER

singer, actor, NRL icon

26 November 1939 – 24 May 2023

  • tina-turnerFrom Nutbush to the NRL: Australia’s unique love for Tina Turner  (The Guardian)
  • With almost fifty years in the music business, Tina Turner became one of the most commercially successful international female rock stars. Her sultry, powerful voice, her incredible legs, her time-tested beauty and her unforgettable story all contributed to her legendary status (IMDB biography and listing)
  • Turner was born into a sharecropping family in rural Tennessee. She began singing as a teenager and, after moving to St. Louis, Missouri, immersed herself in the local rhythm-and-blues scene. (Encyclopedia Britannica) 
  • Turner began her career with Ike Turner’s band Kings of Rhythm in 1957. Under the name Little Ann, she appeared on her first record, “Boxtop”, in 1958.  (Wikipedia)

BRIAN WALSH

television executive

1955–16 March 2023

  • brian-walshOver four decades, Walsh was one of the most influential creatives across our screen industry, and was a passionate supporter of Australian stories, storytelling and production. Tribute (with extract from video Oral History) by NFSA  ;
  • The television and wider media industry is reacting to the shock news that Brian Walsh has died. Collected tributes in Variety   
  • After beginning his career with ABC, Walsh went into feature film production and distribution at Palm Beach Pictures, before spending five years in promotions and publicity at Sydney Radio Station 2SM. IF magazine  
  • The Foxtel Group today expressed its profound sadness at the sudden loss of Brian Walsh, an iconic figure throughout Foxtel’s 28-year history and one of the most admired creative leaders in Australian television. Brian died in Sydney yesterday.   
  • NFSA holds a video Oral History of Brian Walsh, interviewed by Andrew Urban. 

CHRIS WEBB

assistant director

19  – May 2023

  • chris-webbAssistant Director Chris Webb began his career as a cleaner at the ABC in Sydney, where he worked his way up to become stagehand, set dresser, props manager, floor manager and then AD. Tribute by SA Film Corporation
  • . . .once he was given the opportunity to work on Peter Weir’s The Year of Living Dangerously, he became a freelancer. Chris chats to MEAA about is role, career highlights, and why he feels it’s important to be a MEAA member.
  •  IMDB listing