Manila Downunder

GOODBYE

CHARLES 'BUD' TINGWELL

1923 - 2009

Woke this morning to the very sad news that Charles Tingwell had passed away this morning from postate cancer.
It is through his later work in Aussie comedy that I have got to experience this great actor and this tribute looks at bits and pieces of this.
Australia has lost another great person :-(








FROM WIKIPEDIA

Early life and military service

Tingwell was born in Coogee, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia; as an adolescent, he was encouraged by his father to be an accountant, but failed the entrance exam. He found work as a junior radio announcer at Sydney radio station 2CH in 1941 but not long after volunteered for Royal Australian Air Force.

He trained as a pilot in Canada during 1942 under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. Despite damaging a Harvard trainer in August 1942, he qualified as a Pilot Officer in December 1942. He served with No.74 Operational Conversion Unit in British Palestine and qualified to fly the Hawker Hurricane and Supermarine Spitfire. He was posted to No. 680 Squadron RAF and flew 75 photo-reconnaissance sorties in Hurricanes and Spitfires during the North African Campaign. He was also type qualified on the Bristol Blenheim, Martin Baltimore, Bristol Beaufighter, de Havilland Mosquito and Airspeed Oxford. He was promoted to Flying Officer in June 1943 and Flight Lieutenant in December 1944.^[10] On demobilisation in 1946 he was awarded the 1939-45 Star, Italy Star and Defence Medal. He remained a reservist into the 1950s.

After returning to Australia, he married his childhood sweetheart, Audrey. He also began to seriously consider a career in film, which had been a passion of his before the war.

Acting career

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.

After filming The Desert Rats, Tingwell stayed in Australia for three years, making three films, including King of the Coral Sea, which also featured Rafferty. 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, spending a total of 16 years as a 'London Aussie' ^[11] , but in 1973, returned to Australia with his wife and children, and soon after, 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. He later said that this role helped him recover from the death of his wife not long before.

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.

Tingwell also had a recurring guest role in the soap opera Neighbours in 2000 and 2003, playing "Henry O'Rourke".

'Bud' Tingwell appeared as "John Conroy" in the musical theatre production The Man from Snowy River: Arena Spectacular, which toured Australian capital cities twice during 2002.

In 2006 Bud successfully launched his own website with over 500 registered users in just over a week. On 5 October 2006 he launched his first blog. Bud encouraged fans to visit the site and share their thoughts on his life and career.

Until his death, Tingwell was still acting regularly, alternating between theatre, film and television. Most recently, he has hosted ratings winners Celebrity Circus, and 20 to 1. He appeared on a Celebrity special of Temptation with his daughter Virginia. Just before his death, he was acting in a number of television programs and films which are in-production.