From Olympic hopeful to homegrown screen hero

Aussie movie great Bill Hunter held the world freestyle record for just 10 minutes.

Actor Bill Hunter in scene from 1994 film 'Muriel's Wedding'.

If things had gone a little differently, the name Bill Hunter might be more closely associated with swimming than acting. As a boy the late actor, born 75 years ago today, was a champion in the pool. In 1958 he held a world record for the 110 yards (100m) freestyle – albeit only for 10 minutes before it was broken by a swimmer in the next heat of the Victorian swimming titles – and was focused on Olympic glory at the 1960 Games.

Meningitis stopped him going to the Games and set him on a path that would make him famous on stage and screen. Ironically, if he hadn’t been a swimmer it is unlikely he would have got that start in acting.

When directors of post-apocalyptic drama On The Beach needed a swimming double for star Anthony Perkins they found what they needed in the Ballarat teenager. Hunter would become one of the best known faces and voices in Australian entertainment. Often cast as a gruff, no-nonsense, hard drinking Aussie bloke, in reality he was a gruff, no-nonsense hard-drinking bloke.

Hunter was born William John Hunter on February 27, 1940, in Ballarat, the son of publican William Hunter senior and his wife Francie. Both were heavy drinkers, a habit Bill began to develop from drinking shandies as a child. His father reasoned that if they let him have beer as a child he wouldn’t want it later on. He was wrong.

At school he wasn’t much of a student but he excelled at swimming and was part of the junior squad at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. He got an early taste for acting as an extra in the 1957 Peter Finch film The Shiralee.

When a partly American cast and crew came to Australia to make On The Beach in 1959, Hunter met one of the stars Ava Gardner who suggested he ask the director for a role. He turned, dropped Gardner’s name and became Hopkins’ swimming double.

Hunter saw one of the stars of the film require 30 takes to get a scene right and decided he could do it better. When his Olympic dream fell through he took drama courses in Melbourne.

There was no instant stardom. He tried a range of other jobs including mechanic, drover and working in bars and jazz clubs in Kings Cross in the early 1960s before heading off to England in the mid ’60s to take up a scholarship with the Northampton Repertory Company.

In 1966 he landed his first TV role in Dr Who, then returned to Australia to appear in a string of TV and film roles including Hunter, Skippy, Division 4, Homicide, Matlock and alongside Mick Jagger in the 1970 film Ned Kelly.

Building up his reputation with stage roles and in films such as Backroads, in which he played a red-necked ocker alongside indigenous actor Gary Foley, his gravelly, monotone Aussie drawl and undeniable presence made him stand out in any cast.

He earned a best supporting actor AFI award for his performance as Sergeant Smith, the nemesis of bushranger Dan Morgan in Mag Dog Morgan, but his breakthrough role was as newsreel reporter Len Maguire in Newsfront, which won him best actor in a lead role.

Although his vocal delivery remained much the same no matter what film he was in, he was always convincing, even when playing military men such as Major Barton in Gallipoli. He was also pitch perfect as politicians Rex Connor in the TV series the Dismissal and Ben Chifley in The Last Bastion.

The 90s saw him appear in classic Australian films such as international hits Strictly Ballroom and Muriel’s Wedding and in hard- hitting TV dramas including Blue Murder. But his hard drinking and sometimes overly generous lifestyle landed him deeply in debt ending in bankruptcy in 1996. Fortunately he never seemed to be out of work and worked his way to solvency, in demand as an actor. He returned to where it all began playing a role in TV remake of On The Beach in 2000, this time playing a fictional Australian prime minister.

That voice became known to generations of younger film lovers when he played the dentist in Finding Nemo in 2003 and later Bubo in Legend Of The Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole in 2010.

His health declined from years of heavy drinking and smoking and he died in May 2011. His last two films were released posthumously. The Cup, in which he portrayed racing trainer Bart Cummings, and a cameo in Red Dog, seemed to confirm his reputation as the Aussie everyman actor.

Originally published as From Olympic hopeful to homegrown screen hero