Ray Meagher, who plays Alf Stewart on Home and Away, turns 80
He’s been a fixture on Aussie TV and film screens for more than five decades. This week Ray Meagher celebrates his 80th birthday.
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No fuss TV star Ray Meagher will spend his 80th birthday on set of long-running TV soap Home and Away.
The much loved Gold Logie winner will keep Thursday’s milestone celebration low-key, with plans for lunch with a few mates at one of his favourite Sydney restaurants on Friday.
“I’ve got seven straight scenes so I will be up at five in the morning and finish at seven,” Meagher told The Daily Telegraph.
“I’ve always shied away from celebrations a bit. I used to joke with Lynne McGranger (actor who plays Irene) because she would tell everybody her birthday was coming up a month in advance and keep celebrating it for a month after.
“I am perfectly happy to slink under the radar and go along quietly but I love a party, meaning a few beers with a few friends.”
Meagher has been a fixture on the small and big screen since 1973 when he scored his first gig on TV drama Matlock Police. He subsequently appeared on the likes of Number 96, Skyways, A Country Practice, Five Mile Creek, and Mother and Son and in films including Newsfront, Breaker Morant and The Shiralee.
But it is his 37 years playing loveable Alf Stewart — known for classic Aussie phrases like Stone the flamin’ crows — that makes him an icon to several generations.
Cast and crew marked Meagher’s birthday a few days earlier with drinks at a local pub, where they shared a reel of his life on and off camera.
“Someone pointed out there wasn’t one flamin’ or stone the crows or flamin’ mongrel, none of those expressions, in the entire clip,” he said. “I suppose it just points out that maybe there is a little bit more to Alf Stewart than just those expressions.”
Home and Away premiered on Seven in 1988 and has helped launch the careers of some of Australia’s biggest Hollywood exports including Chris Hemsworth, Isla Fisher, Samara Weaving and the late Heath Ledger.
It is a stalwart in a stalwart with a legion of fans here and abroad.
“We’ve been blessed, I don’t think there will be another show in Australia that runs for that long, or certainly not a (TV) drama,” Meagher said.
“Everything these days that screens seems to be miniseries with six eps or 10 eps. In terms of an ongoing thing, I don’t think there will be another one like this when it finally turns its toes up but for the future of technicians and other young actors, I hope that is a long time away.”
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