Jack Thompson AM (born August 31 1940) is an Australian actor and one of the major figures of Australian cinema.
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.
Thompson's first 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.
Thompson was born in Manly, a...
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December Boys is a 2007 Australian film directed by Rod Hardy and written by Marc Rosenberg and adapted from the novel of the same name by Michael Noonan.The “December Boys” are a close knit group of four adolescent orphans who were all born in December. The boys' hope of ever being adopted grows slimmer with each passing year, and it is not until their first summer away from the orphanage that the fading hope of finding parents becomes a real possibility – but only for one of them. The boys make friends with a young couple who are unable to become pregnant and decide to adopt a child. The four compete to be the most adoptable, severely testing their friendships when long gestating feelings of rejection erupt to the surface.December Boys fan site,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0465436
Man-Thing is a 2005 straight to video then telefilm, directed by Brett Leonard and featuring the Marvel Comics creature created by Stan Lee, Roy Thomas and Gerry Conway. The plot is based loosely on a storyline by Steve Gerber, who wrote the most well-known series of Man-Thing comics.
The film appeared on the Sci Fi Channel in 2005 under the Sci Fi Pictures label. It starred Matthew Le Nevez, Rachael Taylor, and Jack Thompson.
The movie's plot took many liberties with the source material (most of which seem to have been intended to conform the character more closely to the more popular Swamp Thing). Among these are: moving the setting from the Florida Everglades to Louisiana (though the film was actually made in Australia), and changing the creature's powers from burning those who "know fear" to being able to manipulate the swamp's vegetation. The movie character is also represented in a significantly more antagonistic light than the comic-book version. Man-Thing's former identity...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0290747
Oyster Farmer is a 2004 Australian romantic comedy / drama film about a young man who runs away to the Hawkesbury River and gets a job with eighth generation oyster famers. It was written and directed by Anna Reeves, and stars Alex O'Loughlin and Diana Glenn.
The film enjoyed some free publicity, due to rumours that its star Alex O'Loughlin was a finalist for the role of James Bond.
...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0379918
Original Sin is a 2001 movie starring Angelina Jolie and Antonio Banderas. It is based on the novel Waltz into Darkness by Cornell Woolrich. Jolie was nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award in 2001 for Worst Actress for her work in Original Sin and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. Most of the interest in Sin comes from the controversial sex scene between Banderas and Jolie, two of modern cinema's most popular sex symbols
Luis Vargas (Antonio Banderas), a wealthy Cuban businessman who seeks out an American wife, believes Americans represent the future, and that his own countrymen - and women - are mired in the past and their traditions. After months of corresponding with Julia Russell (Angelina Jolie), the day comes when she sails to his country to be his bride. Julia departs from the ship, looking nothing like the photos she's sent prior to her voyage. Julia explains she wants more than a man who is interested in a pretty face, and that's why she's been deceptive - substituting a plain...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0218922
The plot revolves around the comfortable relationship between widower Harry and his gay son and their individual searches for the right mate. Jeff's boyfriend, who is closeted from his own homophobic father, finds it difficult to relate to Harry's well-meaning matchmaking ways, while Harry's relationship with a woman he meets via a computer dating service is jeopardized when she learns about his son's sexual orientation.
The play, directed by Kevin Dowling, opened on October 16, 1990 at the off-Broadway Cherry Lane Theatre, where it ran for 335 performances. Tony Goldwyn and Richard Venture headed the cast.
A 1994 Australian film version directed by Dowling and Geoff Burton starred Russell Crowe and Jack Thompson. The screen adaptation mimics the play's device of breaking the fourth wall with direct to camera conversational asides by both Harry and Jeff. Stevens' screenplay won awards from the Australian Film Institute and the Montréal World Film Festival, and the movie was named...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111309
Flesh & Blood (1985) is a film directed by Paul Verhoeven. The film is set in 1501 in Europe, and the title is an allusion to "Sex & Violence", the main themes. A group of mercenaries is followed as they battle, loot, rape and party.The script is partly based on unused material for the Dutch TV series Floris, which was the debut for Gerard Soeteman, Paul Verhoeven and Rutger Hauer.The film begins in 1501, where an unnamed city in Renaissance Italy is under siege. Many mercenaries were hired by the city's former ruler, Arnolfini (Fernando Hilbeck), to reinstate him. Arnolfini's Son, Steven, tries an experimental plan to blow open the city gate with explosives, but it fails rather comically. The city will be taken with an old-fashioned assault. To motivate his men, Arnolfini grants his troops 24 hours to take any spoils they can find within its walls. The plan works, and the men successfully take the city and slaughter the defenders.Arnolfini turns to the Mercenary Captain,...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089153
The Man from Snowy River was a 1982 film made in Australia. The film was based on the Banjo Paterson poem of the same name. The film had a cast including Tom Burlinson as "Jim Craig" (The Man), Kirk Douglas as "Harrison", the owner of a large cattle ranch, Sigrid Thornton as his daughter Jessica and Jack Thompson as "Clancy". Both Tom Burlinson and Sigrid Thornton reprised their roles for the 1988 sequel film. The movie opens with a montage of the Snowy River country. When the infamous Brumby mob is running though the night. Jim Craig and his father Henry sit in their log cabin listening to the wild horses galloping and making noise. The next day, Jim and Henry are out cutting down trees to clear land. While they have a large tree attached to their Draught horse Mare "Bess", the Brumbies come galloping through, exciting Bess and causing her to kick and buck and finally breaking the chain holding her to the log — now free, she gallops off and joins the mob while the log rolls...,
Bad Blood (1981) is a film set in the small West Coast town of Koiterangi, during World War II, and is based on the factual manhunt for mass-murderer Stanley Graham. Directed by English director Mike Newell, much of the film was shot at the original locations....,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082043
The Club is a satirical play by Australian playwright David Williamson, that follows the fortunes of a football club over the course of a season. It explores the clashes between "human loyalty versus materialistic gain". It was inspired by the backroom dealings and antics of the Victorian Football League's Collingwood.The play was produced in 1977, appropriately in Melbourne. It has been in the senior English syllabi for four Australian states for many years, and has even run in America, under the name Players. A film version was produced in 1980, written by David Williamson, directed by Bruce Beresford and starring John Howard, Jack Thompson, Graham Kennedy and Frank Wilson. The film was described as a "hilarious, sharply observed slice of life". The club pay a high price for Tasmanian recuit, Geoff Hayward (Howard). Geoff does not play well initially, infuriating the dedicated coach, Laurie Holden (Thompson). With the club playing so badly, Laurie's coaching days look to be over...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080546
Breaker Morant is a 1980 Australian feature film, directed by Bruce Beresford and starring British actor Edward Woodward as Harry "Breaker" Morant. The all-Australian supporting cast features Bryan Brown as Lieutenant Handcock, Lewis FitzGerald as Witton, and Jack Thompson as Major Thomas.
The 1978 play Breaker Morant: A Play in Two Acts, written by Kenneth G. Ross, was the source material for the screen story.Beresford co-wrote the screenplay with Jonathan Hardy, David Stevens and Kenneth G. Ross.
The film was produced by Matt Carroll. Although the action is set in South Africa, principal photography took place entirely in Australia.
The film was a top performer at the Australian Film Institute awards, with ten wins. It was also nominated for the 1980 Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay.
Breaker Morant concerns the murder trial of three Australian soldiers, officers of the elite Bushveldt Carbineers in South Africa. Harry "Breaker" Morant, Peter Handcock and George Witton...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080310
Caddie is an Australian film, directed by Donald Crombie, released in 1976, and belonging to the Australian film renaissance which occurred during that decade.The film is set in part in Sydney during the 1920s and 1930s, including the Great Depression, and tells of the life of a young middle class woman struggling to raise two children after her marriage breaks up.The film stars Helen Morse (Caddie), Takis Emmanuel, Jack Thompson (Ted), and Jackie Weaver.Parts of the movie were filmed in and around Balmain with a number of scenes at the Kent Hotel (which later became Caddies Restaurant) and the Sir William Wallace Hotel. Other scenes were filmed in Cameron Street, Edgecliff. Studio shots were taken at the Cinesound Studios in Rozelle.1M1 Records website...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074263
Sunday Too Far Away is an Australian feature film which was directed by Ken Hannam and released in 1975. It belongs to the "Australian film renaissance" which occurred during that decade.
The film is set on a sheep station in the Australian outback in 1955 and its action concentrates on the shearers' reactions to a threat to their bonuses and the arrival of non-union labour.
Acclaimed for its understated realism of the work, cameraderie and general life of the shearer, Jack Thompson plays the knock-about Foley, a heavy drinking gun shearer (talented professional sheep shearer), and while he makes a play for the station owner's daughter Sheila (Lisa Peers), the film is a presentation of various aspects of Austalian male culture and not a romance; the film's title itself is reputedly the lament of a shearer's wife, 'Friday night too tired; Saturday night too drunk; Sunday, too far away.'
Sunday Too Far Away won three 1975 Australian Film Institute awards: Best Film, Best Actor in a...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073765
Jack Thompson was born
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