Jack Thompson (actor)

Infobox actor


name = Jack Thompson
birthname = Thomas Hadley Pain
birthdate = birth date and age|mf=yes|1940|8|31
location = Manly, New South Wales,
Australia
yearsactive = 1969 - present
spouse = Leona King
awards =Chauvel Award 2006
Inside Film Living Legend Award 2005
Film Critics Circle of Australia Award For Contribution to Australian Cinema 1998
Logie Hall of Fame 1995
Raymond Longford Award 1994
Australian Film Institute Award Best Actor "Breaker Morant" 1980
Cannes Award Best Supporting Actor "Breaker Morant" 1980
Hoyts Prize for Best Performance "Sunday Too Far Away" 1975

Jack Thompson, AM (born August 31, 1940), is an Australian actor and one of the major figures of Australian cinema. He was educated at the University of Queensland, before embarking on his acting career. In 2002 he was made honorary member of the Australian Cinematographers Society (ACS). He is best known as a lead actor in several acclaimed Australian films including popular classics "Sunday Too Far Away" (1975), "The Man from Snowy River" (1982) and "Breaker Morant" (1980). He won Cannes and AFI acting awards for the latter film. He was the recipient of a Living Legend Award at the 2005 Inside Film Awards.

Acting career & celebrity

Thompson's fist significant role was as part of the cast of soap opera "Motel" (1968). He then took the lead role in spy drama series "Spyforce" (1971). He quickly moved into feature film lead roles, winning roles in many popular and acclaimed Australian films. He has also acted in television miniseries.

Thompson has emerged as a popular celebrity. He was the first nude male centrefold in Cleo magazine in 1972. He has also acted in many television commercials, including the famous advertisement for Claytons non-alcoholic mixer.

Personal life

Born Thomas Hadley Pain in Manly, a suburb of Sydney, Thompson was educated at Sydney Boys High School. Thompson was 4 years old when his mother died, leaving his father, a merchant seaman, unable to care for him and his brother, David. He was sent to a boarding school by his father and was subsequently adopted by John and Pat Thompson and changed his surname afterwards. [cite web |url=http://www.abc.net.au/tv/enoughrope/transcripts/s1379785.htm |work=Enough Rope transcript |title=Jack Thompson interview on Enough Rope, 30 May 2005 |accessdate=2008-01-13] The film reviewer, Peter Thompson, is his adopted brother. [ [http://www.abc.net.au/tasmania/stories/s1391344.htm Jack Thompson on film :: ABC Tasmania ] ] Thompson's eldest son, Patrick Thompson, featured on and later hosted Seven Network's Ground Force.

Thompson featured in the first episode of the Australian version of "Who Do You Think You Are?", which was televised on 13 January 2008 on SBS, with Thompson discovering that his great-grandfather was Captain Thomas Pain, and his great-great uncle was Alfred Lee, a prominent figure in Sydney society, who donated the journal of Joseph Banks, from Captain Cook's navigation to Australia in 1770s, to the Mitchell Library in Sydney. [cite web |url=http://programs.sbs.com.au/whodoyouthinkyouare/celebrity/?id=70 |Who Do You Think You Are? |title=Episode featuring Jack Thompson |accessdate=2008-01-13]

Thompson has two sons, Patrick and Billy.

Filmography

*"Wake in Fright" (1971)
*"Petersen" (1974)
*"Sunday Too Far Away" (1975)
*"Scobie Malone" (1975; title role)
*"Caddie" (1976)
*"Mad Dog Morgan" (1976)
*"The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith" (1978)
*"The Journalist" (1979)
*"Breaker Morant" (1980)
*"The Club" (1980)
*"The Earthling" (1980)
*"Bad Blood" (1981)
*"A Woman Called Golda" (1982) (TV)
*"The Man from Snowy River" (1982)
*"Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence" (1983)
*"Waterfront" (1984) (mini) TV Series
*"Burke & Wills" (1985) (as Robert O'Hara Burke)
*"Flesh & Blood" (1985)
*"The Last Frontier" (1986) (TV)
*"The Riddle of the Stinson" (1987) (TV)
*"Ground Zero" (1987)
*"Trouble in Paradise" (1989) (TV)
*"Turtle Beach" (1992)
*"Wind" (1992)
*"The Sum of Us" (1994)
*"Broken Arrow" (1996)
*"" (1996) (TV)
*"Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" (1997)
*"Under the Lighthouse Dancing" (1997)
*"My Brother Jack" (2001) (TV)
*"Original Sin" (2001)
*"South Pacific" (2001) (TV)
*"Yolngu Boy" (2001)
*"" (2002)
*"The Assassination of Richard Nixon" (2004)
*"Oyster Farmer" (2004)
*"Feed" (2005)
*"Man-Thing" (2005)
*"Ten Empty" (2006)
*"Bastard Boys" (2007)
*"December Boys" (2007)
*"Australia" (2008)

Awards

*1975 AFI Award: Best Actor, for "Sunday Too Far Away" and "Petersen"
*1980 AFI Award: Best Actor in a Lead Role, for "Breaker Morant"
*1980 Cannes Film Festival: Best Supporting Actor, for "Breaker Morant"
*1986 Appointed a Member of the Order of Australia
*1994 AFI Award: Raymond Longford Award
*1998 Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards: Special Achievement Award
*2005 Inside Film Awards: Living Legend IF Award

Thompson was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia on 9 June, 1986 for his service to the Australian film industry, [cite web |url=http://www.itsanhonour.gov.au/honours_list/resultDetail.cfm?awardsID=883131 |accessdate=2006-03-26 |publisher=Commonwealth of Australia |work=Australian Honours List |title=Mr John Hadley (Jack) THOMPSON] and served as an UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador.

References

External links

*imdb name|id=0860233|name=Jack Thompson