Australian film and theatre actor Charles William ‘Bud’ Tingwell passed away this morning, after a long battle with prostate cancer. He was 86 years old.
Tingwell first started acting after returning from World War II, where he had flown photographic reconnaissance missions as a pilot with the Royal Australian Air Force.
In 1946, Tingwell won his first film role, as a control tower officer in the film Smithy. He took on several roles over the next few years, increasing in stature, until he caught the attention of Hollywood in 1952, and won the part of Lt. Harry Carstairs in the film The Desert Rats, alongside Chips Rafferty, James Mason and Richard Burton.
In 1956, Tingwell moved to England. The following year, he took on his first recurring television role, playing Australian surgeon Alan Dawson in the live television serial Emergency – Ward 10. He also won the role of Inspector Craddock in all four films of the Miss Marple film series starring Margaret Rutherford, between 1961 and 1964.
In the later 1960s, he performed various minor voice roles for the Gerry Anderson shows Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet as well as appearing in the first series of cult television show Catweazle.
Tingwell made numerous other films while in England but in 1973, returned to Australia, and won the role of Inspector Reg Lawson on the long-running series Homicide. This was followed by small roles in a number of major Australian films, such as Breaker Morant, Puberty Blues and All The Rivers Run.
His career went through a quiet period throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s, until he took on the role of a grandfather in a recurring segment for the satirical series The Late Show in 1993. He was awarded the prestigious Gold Logie Hall of Fame award in 1994.
His role in The Late Show was later to win him a major role as lawyer Lawrence Hammill in the major 1997 film The Castle.
After the success of The Castle, Tingwell’s career underwent a revival during the late 1990s and early 2000s. This saw him take on small roles in commercial films The Craic and The Dish, the mini-series Changi, as well as the lead in the romance Innocence.