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1-12 of 12
- Actor
- Music Department
- Writer
David Gulpilil is a legendary Yolngu actor, a First Nations person of Northern Australia, born around 1953. The local missionaries gave him his birthdate of July 1, 1953, just as they gave him his Christian name David, although he admits he liked that name from the start. His last name, Gulpilil, was a totem, the kingfisher. He'd never seen a white person until he was 8 when he visited the mission school, but he never really allowed them to teach him anything.
In 1969, the British film director Nicolas Roeg, scouting locations in the Outback, appeared at a mission in the north and asked if anyone knew a boy who can throw a spear, who can hunt, and who can dance, and everyone pointed at David.
David's easy smile made him a natural, and it quickly became obvious that he was unlike anyone the white man had met in the outback. He was not reserved or suspicious of strangers, and carried song on his lips and rhythm in his legs. David Gulpilil was fearless.
Looking back over his career, he tells us in the documentary, My Name is Gulpilil (2021), filmed while dying of terminal lung cancer, that he never acted, that acting wasn't something he had to do because it was natural. "I know how to walk across the land in front of a camera, because I belong there," Standing on stage, before a camera, or before the Queen of England, David felt comfortable in his own skin whether it was barely dressed in a loin cloth, or stuffed into the white man's dinner jacket.
Roeg quickly cast the charismatic Gulpilil in Walkabout (1971), a film based upon Donald G Payne's 1959 novel about a boy who cheerfully leads children to safety. Without really knowing it, Roeg broke new ground in Australian cinema, and redefined the way that Indigenous people were represented in Australian cinema. The film was an international success everywhere but in Australia, where First Nation peoples had been previously portrayed only by white people wearing blackface. And to top it off, the film broke cultural barriers, presenting on the wide screen a sexually attractive young Black man.
David Gulpilli was, overnight, hurled in to high society as an instant, international celebrity and presented before Queen Elizabeth, who found him quite charming and humorous. She in turn introduced David to John Lennon and that was just the beginning. Before long he was soon shaking hands with Muhammad Ali, Marlon Brando, Bruce Lee, Jimi Hendrix, and Bob Marley, who would help contribute to David's downfall. David taught Bob Marley to play the didgeridoo. Marley taught David to smoke ganja. But it was while filming Mad Dog Morgan (1976) that he got his crash course in hellraising by Dennis Hopper. Later in his one-man stage show he'd say, "If you're working with people like Dennis Hopper and [John] Meillon, well, you gotta learn all about drinking and drugs."
David enjoyed being in front of the camera, and he well knew the importance of his work because it was history and it would "remember to generation to generation," shining a spotlight on his people who had been murdered, exploited, and corralled into camps. The collective history of his people meant everything to him and these films, he claimed, "Won't rub it out."
He was a dancer, a singer, an artist, and a story teller, and fell lovingly into the role of ambassador of his culture to the white man's world, which ironically would eventually divorce him from his culture, as he took to drink and drugs and wound up in trouble with the law, racking up four drink-driving arrests, and one drunken escapade that landed him in jail again, but this time for assaulting his wife. As he admitted in his biopic, "Left side, my country. Right side, white man's world. This one tiptoe in caviar and champagne, this one in the dirt of my Dreamtime."
When he'd been discovered, he spoke no English, though he knew a few dialects of the First People's language, and he was such a quick learner. He began picking up English while just listening during the making of the film, Walkabout, and afterwards as he travelled about the world.
In his one man show, "Gulpilli," he tells the story of trying to use a knife and fork while sitting next to the queen. He cut and cut but couldn't get any meat as he just moved the plate around the table. He gave up and finally picked it up with his hands. Whether true or not, he tells how the Royal Family joined in, eating their meat as he did.
After his sudden fame in Walkabout, David found his way onto Australian television in episodes of Boney (1972), Homicide (1964), Rush (1974), The Timeless Land (1980), and more, and even got a bit part in The Right Stuff (1983).
He was quickly recognized as the most renowned tribal dancer in Australia, and he choreographed the traditional First People's dance in Crocodile Dundee (1986). His love of dance inspired him to organize dancing troupes and musicians that won the Darwin Australia Day Eisteddfod dance competition four times.
His breakthrough role came in the mid-seventies with Storm Boy (1976), one of David's personal favorites, followed up by a lead role in The Last Wave (1977). In fact, his last appearance as an actor was in the remake of Storm Boy (2019), playing the father of Fingerbone Bill, the character he'd played in the original version.
Despite his fame, his earnings were never substantial and he was subjected to racism from agents and film crews. He was often homeless, sleeping in parks. He wound up living in a corrugated iron hut in the community of Raminginig that had no electricity or running water, where he hunted kangaroos, cooking bush meat over an open fire. "I was brought up in a tin shed. I wandered all over the world - Paris, New York - now I'm back in a tin shed," Gulpilil said.
Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002) is the story of Australia's Lost Generations, in which mixed race First Nation children were removed from their families and placed in church-run missions in order to breed the "black" out of them and integrate them into society. Many of the children ran away from these camps and trackers were sent out after them. David Gulpilil played the formidable tracker in Rabbit-Proof Fence, and that led to a leading role in The Tracker (2002), directed by Rolf de Heer. David referred to this role as the best performance in his career. He won best actor at the Australian Film Institute Awards, the Inside Film Awards, and the Film Critics' Circle Awards.
He teamed up with Rolf de Herr a few more times, but their most unique production was the first film scripted entirely in the Yolngu language, called Ten Canoes (2006). Gulpilil narrated the film and it won a Special Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. It was after this time that David's life took a downhill turn and landed him in prison because of his drinking and assaulting his then partner Miriam Ashley. After his release he went into treatment and got sober.
Clean and sober he went to work again with Rolf de Herr and co-wrote the film Charlie's Country (2013), the true to life story of an ageing man who yearned to return to his cultural roots. Gulpilil gave the performance of his career, winning four best actor awards, including best actor at the Cannes Film Festival. At the Australian Film Critics Association Awards, he shared with Rolf de Heer the best screenplay award.
Released six months before his passing, My Name is Gulpilil (2021) is, as David put it, the story of his story. Though very ill, David gives us insight into his charismatic life and charm as we witness the full spectrum of his talents. We see him dancing, singing, celebrating, and even painting. One of his paintings, "King brown snake with blue tongue lizard at Gulparil waterhole" hangs in The Art Gallery Of South Australia. He spins wool from his hair, something his ancestors handed down that his father taught him. He takes us for a walk through his land, along the rivers, in the shadows of the mountains, and knowing he's dying, he admits he really doesn't yet grasp it, but tells us, "I'm walking like across the desert of the country, a long, long way. Until the time comes . . . for me."- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Production Manager
Skip was born in Plentywood, Montana and raised in Oakesdale, Washington, the son of Norma Johnson Cosper and Ransom Cosper. He was a graduate of the University of Washington, Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa, 1961. US Army Infantry Captain, Airborne, Ranger. Skip took a picture directed by Jack Nicholson to Oregon in the spring of 1970 and returned to take up permanent residence in the fall of that same year, where he subsequently built his own home and raised his family.- Writer
- Actor
- Producer
Wyllis Oswald Cooper was born in Pekin, Illnois, USA and passed away in High Bridge, New Jersey, USA.
Cooper attended Pekin High School, graduating in 1916. He soon joined the U.S. Cavalry where, achieving the rank of Sergeant, he spent time on the Mexican border. In 1917, he became a part of the Signal Corps and was sent to France during World War I. While in France he was gassed at the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. He remained on active duty until 1919 when he left to become an advertising writer, though he maintained his reserve status.
By the late 1920s he was writing advertising copy in Chicago and entered radio, writing scripts for the 1929âEUR"1931 NBC radio program Empire Builders. He later worked as continuity editor of CBS Chicago and, in 1933, left to take the same position at NBC Chicago. In 1934, he created his best known dramatic series, a late night horror radio program called Lights Out, which he also directed. Airing at midnight, the program quickly earned a reputation for its gory deaths and sound effects.
The show would prove to be a long-term success, but in 1936, Cooper capitalized on the fame of Lights Out and resigned from NBC, moving to Hollywood, California, where he worked as a screenwriter for film studios. His screenplay for the 1939 film Son of Frankenstein introduced the much-parodied character of Ygor. He contributed to a few of the Mr. Moto films. At the same time, he continued to provide radio scripts for various series including Hollywood Hotel.
Arch Oboler, who took over the writing of Lights Out when Cooper left, would suggest that Cooper was the first person to create a unique form of radio drama, writing, "Radio drama (as distinguished from theatre plays boiled down to kilocycle size) began at midnight, in the middle thirties, on one of the upper NBC floors of Chicago's Merchandise Mart. The pappy was a rotund writer by the name of Wyllis Cooper."
By 1940, Cooper moved to New York City. Here he changed his name from "Willis" to "Wyllis" in order "to please his wife's numerological inclinations". He continued to make a living writing radio scripts for various network programs including The Campbell Playhouse, the sponsored successor of Orson Welles's Mercury Theatre.
During World War II, he was made a consultant to the Secretary of War and produced, directed and wrote a weekly news and variety propaganda series entitled 'The Army Hour.
In 1944, Cooper joined the radio department of New York's Compton Advertising, Inc. In 1947, he created what was arguably his finest radio effort, Quiet, Please. It began over the Mutual Broadcasting System network and later moved to ABC. He also wrote and directed a crime anthology for NBC entitled Whitehall 1212, which debuted on November 18, 1951. The series was hosted by Chief Superintendent John Davidson, fictional curator of the Black Museum at Scotland Yard. It featured an allegedly British cast and told stories inspired by artifacts held by the famous London crime museum. Cooper's show competed with a similar program hosted by Orson Welles which ran on Mutual in 1952.- Robin Cook was born on 28 February 1946 in Bellshill, Lanarkshire, Scotland, UK. He was married to Gaynor Regan and Margaret Katherine Whitmore. He died on 6 August 2005 in Ben Stack, near Laxford Bridge, Highland, Scotland, UK.
- Gordon Phillott was born on 18 August 1879 in Bath, Somerset, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Whack-O! (1956), The Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre (1959) and The Avengers (1961). He died on 16 May 1969 in Santon Bridge, Cumbria, England, UK.
- Ralph LeBlanc was born on 6 October 1921 in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, USA. He died on 21 August 1994 in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, USA.
- Composer
- Soundtrack
William Mathias was born on 1 November 1934 in Whitland, Carmarthenshire, Wales, UK. William was a composer, known for Ally Was Screaming (2014), Forward to First Principles (1966) and Britannia: A Bridge (1973). William died on 29 July 1992 in Menai Bridge, Anglesey, Wales, UK.- Angus Fairhurst was born on 4 October 1966 in Pembury, Kent, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon (1998), Two Melons and a Stinking Fish (1996) and Omnibus (1967). He died on 29 March 2008 in Bridge of Orchy, Scotland, UK.
- Actor
- Writer
- Casting Director
Cody Parrish Thompson was born on 16 November 1974 in Marlboro, New Jersey, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Rolling (2007). He died on 9 December 2023 in Old Bridge, New Jersey, USA.- Winnie Ewing was born on 10 July 1929 in Glasgow, Scotland, UK. She was married to Stewart Ewing. She died on 21 June 2023 in Bridge of Weir, Scotland, UK.
- Duncan Ford was born in 1986. He was an actor, known for Byker Grove (1989). He died on 13 June 2002 in Monkwearmouth Bridge, Sunderland, England, UK.
- Music Department
Reginald Goodall was born on 13 July 1901 in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England, UK. Reginald is known for Davy (1957). Reginald was married to Eleanor Gibbs. Reginald died on 5 May 1990 in Bridge, near Canterbury, Kent, England, UK.