Actor David Gulpilil seriously ill with lung cancer, wins NAIDOC lifetime achievement award

Legendary actor David Gulpilil is seriously ill with lung cancer, but wants audiences to remember him after he has gone.

Gravely ill indigenous actor David Gulpilil, whose charismatic screen presence helped change the way indigenous people were seen around the world, has asked audiences to remember him.

“Never forget me. While I am here, I will never forget you,” Gulpilil said in a video message thanking NAIDOC for this week’s lifetime achievement award.

"Never forget me. While I am here, I will never forget you. I will still remember you, even though I am gone forever, I will still remember." More: https://bit.ly/2Jqxm88 #NAIDOC2019 #VoiceTreatyTruth

Posted by NITV on Saturday, 6 July 2019

It had been widely known that Gulpilil, 66, was ill but his daughter Phoebe Marson confirmed it to the NAIDOC audience.

“He’s sick. He has lung cancer and one day soon he will go to the Dreamtime,” Ms Marson said, standing with her sister MaKia McLaughlin.

David Gulpilil's daughters Makia McLaughlin and Phoebe Marson with their father’s Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2019 National NAIDOC Awards. Picture: Rohan Thomson/Getty Images

Gulpilil, who was born in Arnhem Land and now lives in Murray Bridge, appeared frail on the red carpet at the launch of the new Storm Boy in January.

He is being treated at the RAH.

He made his name as Fingerbone Bill in the first Storm Boy, filmed in South Australian on the Coorong in 1976 and had a brief cameo as Fingerbone Bill’s father in the new version. It will be, perhaps fittingly, his final role.

David Gulpilil at the premiere of Storm Boy in January this year. Picture: AAP/Emma Brasier

“Thank you very much for watching me,” he said in the video address shown at the Canberra awards ceremony at the opening of NAIDOC week. “I will still remember you, even when I am gone forever, I will still remember.”

Gulpilil’s life was troubled and he spent periods of time as an alcoholic and in jail but his ability to hold attention on screen continued to win him roles.

Among his most memorable were in Crocodile Dundee (1986), Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002), and Australia (2008) and he was recently in the zombie drama Cargo (2017) which filmed in South Australia.

But it was his artistic collaboration with former South Australian director Rolf de Heer, in The Tracker (2002), Ten Canoes (2006) and Charlie’s Country (2013)that brought him critical acclaim and in 2014 won Gulpilil Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival in the specialist category, Un Certain Regard.

**
SPECIAL SUBSCRIPTION OFFER
Just $1 a week for 12 weeks — click here
Get massive discounts and our +Rewards
**

Originally published as Actor David Gulpilil seriously ill with lung cancer, wins NAIDOC lifetime achievement award