- Chips Rafferty
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Chips Rafferty 
Chips RaffertyBorn John William Pilbean Goffage
26 March 1909
Broken Hill, New South Wales, AustraliaDied 27 May 1971 (aged 62)
SydneyResting place Cremated and his ashes cast into his favourite fishing hole in Lovett Bay, Pittwater Occupation Film actor Years active 1939–71 Chips Rafferty MBE (26 March 1909 – 27 May 1971) was an iconic Australian actor. Called "the living symbol of the typical Australian",[1] Rafferty's career stretched from the 1940s until his death in 1971, and during this time he performed regularly in major Australian feature films as well as appearing in British and American productions. He appeared in commercials in Britain during the late 1950s, encouraging British emigration to Australia.
Contents
Early life
He was born John William Pilbean Goffage in Broken Hill, New South Wales to John Goffage, an English-born stock agent, and Australian-born Violet Maude Joyce.[2] Gaining the nickname "Chips" as a school boy,[2] Rafferty studied at Parramatta Commercial High School before working in a variety of jobs, including opal miner, sheep shearer, drover, airman[3] and pearl diver[1] before making his film debut in Ants in His Pants in 1938. At that time he was managing a wine cellar in Bond St, Sydney.[4]
Film career
Rafferty's onscreen image as a lanky, laconic bushman struck a chord with film goers and Rafferty soon became the most popular actor in Australia, appearing in such films as Forty Thousand Horsemen, The Rats of Tobruk, The Overlanders and Eureka Stockade.
Rafferty married Ellen Kathleen "Quentin" Jameson on 28 May 1941,[5] He enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force the next day and entertained troops. He was discharged on 13 February 1945, having reached the rank of Flying Officer.[6]
Hollywood also beckoned, and Rafferty appeared in American fare like The Desert Rats, opposite Richard Burton; The Sundowners, with Robert Mitchum and Deborah Kerr; and Mutiny on the Bounty, with Marlon Brando. The most bizarre appearance was with Elvis Presley in Double Trouble in 1967. Initially, Rafferty was marketed in the United States as the Australian version of Cary Grant before being allowed to resume playing variations of the leathery bushman role that had served him well thus far.
Rafferty also produced and wrote films for a production company, Southern International, which he founded in 1953,[7] although none of these reached the same level of popularity as those he appeared in for other companies. These included producing The Phantom Stockman, producing and writing the original screenplay for King of the Coral Sea (1953), producing and providing the original story for Walk Into Paradise (1956) and producing Dust in the Sun (1958) and the Ambitious One (1959).
In addition to his film work, Rafferty also guest starred in a range of Australian and American television shows, including Gunsmoke, The Stranger, Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, Tarzan, The Monkees and The Wackiest Ship in the Army (as a different character to the role that he played in the movie version).
He also participated in cinema advertisements that were part of an Australian Government campaign in 1957 called: "Bring out a Briton". The campaign was launched by the government in a bid to increase the number of British migrants settling in Australia.
In 1962, he was attacked by a gang of thugs near his flat in London and was taken to hospital to be treated for his injuries.[8]
Rafferty's final film role was in 1971's Wake in Fright, where he played an outback policeman. (The movie was filmed mainly in and around Rafferty's home town of Broken Hill.) In a review of the film, a critic praised Rafferty's performance, writing that he "exudes an unnerving intensity with a deceptively menacing and disturbing performance that ranks among the best of his career".[9]
Hours before he died, Rafferty was offered a prominent role in the film The Day the Clown Cried by Jerry Lewis.[1]
Death
Rafferty collapsed and died of a heart attack while walking down a Sydney street at the age of 62 shortly after completing his role in Wake in Fright.[3] His wife Quentin predeceased him in 1964 and they had no children.[5]
Honours
In the 1971 New Years' Honours, Rafferty was made a Member of the Order of British Empire (MBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to the performing arts.[10] Australia Post issued a stamp in 1974 that depicted Rafferty in recognition of his work in Australian cinema, and in March 2006, Broken Hill City Council announced that the town's Entertainment Centre would be named in honour of Rafferty.
The Oxford Companion to Australian Film refers to Rafferty as "Australia's most prominent and significant actor of the 1940s–60s".[11]
Australian singer/songwriter Richard Davies (musician) wrote a song titled "Chips Rafferty" for his album "There's Never Been A Crowd Like This".
Associations
He was also a talented artist, and as "Long John Goffage" was a leading light of the Black and White Artists' Club .[4]
He was a Freemason [1].
Filmography
Year Title Role Notes 1939 Come Up Smiling Man in Crowd (uncredited) Film also known as Ants in His Pants 1940 Dad Rudd, MP Fireman Forty Thousand Horsemen Jim 1944 The Rats of Tobruk Milo Trent 1946 The Overlanders Dan McAlpine 1947 Bush Christmas Long Bill The Loves of Joanna Godden Collard 1949 Eureka Stockade Peter Lalor Released as Massacre Hill in the United States. 1950 Bitter Springs Wally King 1952 Kangaroo Trooper 'Len' Leonard 1953 The Desert Rats Sgt. 'Blue' Smith The Phantom Stockman The Sundowner Rafferty also produced and helped write the script. Released in the United States as Return of the Plainsman. King of the Coral Sea Ted King Rafferty also produced and helped write the script. 1956 Smiley Sergeant Flaxman Walk Into Paradise Steve MacAllister Rafferty also produced. Released in the United States as Walk into Hell 1958 Smiley Gets a Gun Sergeant Flaxman The Flaming Sword Long Tom 1960 The Sundowners Quinlan The Wackiest Ship in the Army Patterson A comedy, with Rafferty as an Australian Coastwatcher on a secret mission, and Jack Lemmon in charge of the ship 1962 Mutiny on the Bounty Michael Byrne Rafferty was in financial difficulty after the failure of some of his producing projects, but he got out of it with all the overtime he earned during the production of this film. 1966 They're a Weird Mob Harry Kelly 1967 Adventures of the Seaspray Double Trouble Archie Brown 1968 Kona Coast Charlie Lightfoot 1970 Skullduggery Father 'Pop' Dillingham 1971 Wake in Fright Jock Crawford Dead Men Running Spyforce Leon Rielley References
- ^ a b c Hooper, K. "Chips was denied comeback chance", The Age, 29 May 1971, p. 2.
- ^ a b Pike, A. (1996) "Goffage, John William Pilbean [Chips Rafferty] (1909–1971)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 14, Melbourne University Press.
- ^ a b "Obituary: Chips Rafferty, Australian film actor", The Times, 29 May 1971.
- ^ a b The Mercury (Hobart) 13 April 1946
- ^ a b Legge, J. (1968) Who's Who in Australia, XIX Edition, Herald and Weekly Times Limited, Melbourne.
- ^ "Goffage, John". World War II Nominal Roll. http://www.ww2roll.gov.au/script/veteran.asp?ServiceID=R&VeteranID=886025. Retrieved 27 January 2008.
- ^ Mayer, J. (2004) "Lee Robinson (1923–2003)", Screening the Past. http://www.latrobe.edu.au/screeningthepast/firstrelease/fr_16/gmfr16.html Accessed 2 January 2008.
- ^ The Age, "Chips Rafferty attacked by London Thugs", 10 September 1962, p. 1
- ^ Sherlock, J. "Wake in Fright". Jim's DVD Review and Selections. http://www.3aw.com.au/blogs/denis-walter-blog/jims-dvd-review-and-selections/20091123-it0l.html. Retrieved 27 November 2009.
- ^ "List of Awards in Full", The Times, 1 January 1971.
- ^ McFarlane et al., B. 2000 The Oxford Companion to Australian Film, Oxford University Press.
External links
- Chips Rafferty at the Internet Movie Database
- Chips Rafferty at Australian Screen Online
- Chips Rafferty at Australian Dictionary of Biography
- Chips Rafferty at the Australian War Memorial
- Chips Rafferty Interview on Radio National
- Chips Rafferty at the National Film and Sound Archive
Categories:- 1909 births
- 1971 deaths
- Australian film actors
- Royal Australian Air Force officers
- People from New South Wales
- People from Broken Hill
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