Bille Brown

Brown was born in the coal, wheat and cotton country town of Biloela, Queensland, to Bill and Maureen Brown. His father, Bill, was almost two generations older and had worked as a stockman, publican and railway worker.^[2] His mother Maureen worked in Creevey’s music store. He was raised Catholic.

While growing up in Biloela, Brown played piano, wrote poetry, painted, as well as performing small stage pieces at the local theatre.^[3] He also spent time as a rugby league referee.^[4]

Brown initially had aspirations to become a painter,^[5] attending a summer painting school in Brisbane at the age of 16. He subsequently undertook tertiary studies at the University of Queensland (UQ) to be a history and geography teacher,^[6] and while doing so, became involved with the student drama company Dramsoc. He made his professional debut with the Queensland Theatre Company in 1971,^[7] working alongside Geoffrey Rush. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Drama and a Postgraduate Diploma of Education in 1973.^[8]

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Brown's career took him abroad to Britain, where he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), and was the first Australian commissioned to write and perform in their own play The Swan Down Gloves. The show opened at the Barbican Theatre and had a Royal Command Performance. He appeared in the RSC's premiere production of The Wizard of Oz in the roles of the Wicked Witch of the West and Miss Gulch, for which he was nominated for an Laurence Olivier Award in 1988.^[9]

As a member of the RSC, Brown toured with their productions throughout Europe, playing Paris, Vienna, Berlin and Munich. Brown also performed in the West End, at the Aldwych and Haymarket Theatres, the Chichester Festival Theatre, English National Opera and Dublin Theatre Festival.

Brown made his Broadway debut as an actor in 1986 in Michael Frayn's Wild Honey with Ian McKellen, directed by Christopher Morahan, and as a playwright with his adaptation of a benefit performance of A Christmas Carol in 1985, featuring Len Cariou as Scrooge. That same year his adaptation of A Christmas Carol was staged in London and on Broadway,^[10] and then the following year at the Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire, Illinois starring F. Murray Abraham as Scrooge.

Brown returned to Australia to live permanently in 1996. He had an outstanding career on stage and performed for many leading Australian theatre companies, including Queensland Theatre Company, Sydney Theatre Company, Bell Shakespeare Company, Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne Theatre Company, Company B, State Theatre Company of South Australia, Marian St Theatre, La Boite and the Old Tote Theatre at the Sydney Opera House.

In 1996, he directed the Australian stage production of Hugh Lunn's Over the Top with Jim, which exceeded box office expectations. He had huge success with his role as Count Almaviva in Beaumarchais' The Marriage of Figaro, with Geoffrey Rush, which opened the new Playhouse in Brisbane in September 1998. In 1999 he also had major success throughout Australia as Oscar Wilde in the Belvoir St production of David Hare's The Judas Kiss, for which he won a Matilda Award.^[11]

Brown also directed John Cleese in his solo show John Cleese – His Lifetimes and Medical Problems, as well as directing the operas Don Giovanni and Samson and Delilah.^[12]

In 2009, Brown wrote and performed in Queensland Theatre Company's The School of Arts, a production about 'College Players' who toured Shakespeare through Queensland in the late 1960s. He also wrote Bill and Mary, based on imaginary conversations between the poet Mary Gilmore and the portrait painter William Dobell while she was sitting for him.^[13] and Aladdin for The Old Vic, starring Sir Ian McKellan.

Brown was the recipient of a 2009 Helpmann Award for his role as King Arthur in the musical Monty Python musical Spamalot. In 2012, he performed to critical acclaim as Bruscon in sell-out seasons of Thomas Bernhard’s play The Histrionic in both Melbourne and Sydney,^[14] receiving a Helpmann Awards nomination.^[15]

In 2002, when the Queensland Theatre Company moved to Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC), they named their theatre space the "Bille Brown Studio", in recognition of Brown's contribution to the Arts^[16] and the 29 QTC productions he had appeared in.

John Cleese cast Brown in 1997 film Fierce Creatures (the sequel to A Fish Called Wanda), after spotting him performing onstage at Stratford in the UK.

Brown appeared in several other films, including Oscar and Lucinda (1997) as Percy Smith, The Dish (2000) as the Prime Minister, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010) as Coriakin, Killer Elite (2011) as Colonel Fitz and Singularity (2013) as Egerton.^[17]

Brown also appeared in a variety of Australian television roles. He had a 13 episode recurring role as Lightfoot in drama series Big Sky in 1999. He played Howard in miniseries A Difficult Woman (1999), and Booth in miniseries The Farm (2001).

He made guest appearances in Medivac (1997), Bad Cop, Bad Cop (2002), White Collar Blue (2003), Grass Roots (2003), The Cooks (2004), The Hollowmen (2008), All Saints (2000 and 2009), Wild Boys (2011), Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries and Rake (both 2012). He also guested in US series The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones (1999) and UK series Heartbeat (2009).

He played former Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies in the made for television film Curtin. Brown was nominated for an Australian Film Institute Award for his supporting role as George Ritchie in the 2009 television film 3 Acts of Murder.

Brown was Artist-in-Residence at the State University of New York in 1982, a visiting professor at the State University of New York at New Paltz, and Writer-in-Residence at The Acting Company, New York.^[18]

In 1999 he accepted an offer to be Adjunct Professor in the School of English, Media Studies and Art History at the University of Queensland, and gave workshops and master classes for drama students.^[19] He received an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the university in 2011.^[20]

Brown was also Lecturer in Drama and Theatre at Australian Catholic University (ACU), Queensland University of Technology (QUT), The Michael Chekhov Studio and University of New York.^[21]

Year	Work	Award	Category	Result
1988	The Wizard of Oz	Laurence Olivier Awards	Outstanding Performance of the Year by an Actor in a Musical	Nominated[22]
1992	Twelfth Night	Matilda Awards	Gold Matilda Award for Performance in a Play	Won[23]
1999	Judas Kiss	Matilda Awards	Performance in a Play	Won[24]
2001	Bille Brown	Centenary Medal	Distinguished Service to the Arts	Honoured[25]
2009	Monty Python's Spamalot	Helpmann Awards	Best Male Actor in a Musical	Won[26]
2009	3 Acts of Murder	Australian Film Institute Awards	Best Guest or Supporting Actor in a Television Drama	Nominated[27]
2011	Bille Brown	Australia Day Honours List Member of the Order of Australia (AM)	Service to the performing arts as an actor and playwright, and to education	Honoured[28]
2011	Bille Brown	University of Queensland	Honorary Doctorate of Letters	Honoured[29]
2012	The Histrionic	Helpmann Awards	Best Male Actor in a Play	Nominated[30]

Brown was often referred to as "The Boy from Biloela".^[31]

He had a sister, Rita Carter, who was a primary school teacher in Kenmore, Brisbane.^[32]

Brown was openly gay. He had two long-term relationships, including a male live-in partner in the US, but also had girlfriends.^[33]

Brown died after a year-long battle with bowel cancer^[34] on 13 January 2013, two days after his 61st birthday, in the suburb of Chermside in Brisbane.^[35] After a private funeral, a public memorial service was held at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre on 4 February 2013. The eulogy was delivered by longtime friend and colleague Geoffrey Rush.^[36]

Year	Work	Award	Type
1997	Fierce Creatures	Neville Coltrane	Feature film
1997	Oscar and Lucinda	Percy Smith	Feature film
1999	Passion	John Grainger	Feature film
2000	Walk the Talk	Barry	Feature film
2000	The Dish	Prime Minister	Feature film
2001	Serenades	Pastor Hoffman	Feature film
2001	The Man Who Sued God	Gerry Ryan	Feature film
2002	Black and White	Sir Thomas Playford	Feature film
2002	Dirty Deeds	Senator	Feature film
2003	Silent Storm	Hedley Marston	Docudrama film
2005	Blackjack: In the Money	Tez Miller	TV movie
2007	Curtin	Robert Menzies	TV movie
2007	Unfinished Sky	Bob Potter	Feature film
2008	Ascension	The Leader	Short film
2008	Dying Breed	Harvey / Rowan	Feature film
2009	The Pessimist	Bob	Short film
2009	3 Acts of Murder	George Ritchie	TV movie
2009	At World's End (aka Ved verdens ende)	James Hall	Feature film
2010	The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader	Coriakin	Feature film
2011	The Eye of the Storm	Dudley	Feature film
2011	Killer Elite	Colonel Fitz	Feature film
2011	Mug's Game	Bill Mayer	Short film
2012	Silver Stiletto	Father Hegerty	Short film
2013	Singularity (aka The Lovers)	Egerton (final film role)	Feature film

Year	Work	Award	Type
1997	Medivac	Prosecutor	TV series, season 2, 2 episodes
1998	A Difficult Woman	Howard	Miniseries, 3 episodes
1999	Big Sky	Lightfoot	TV series, season 2, 13 episodes
1999	The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles	Hinkel	TV series, season 3, episode 1: "Tales of Innocence"
2001	The Farm	Booth	Miniseries, 3 episodes
2002	Bad Cop, Bad Cop	Detective 'Blue' Wales	Miniseries, episode 2: "He Who Slips on Milkshakes"
2003	White Collar Blue	Tony Heron	TV series, season 1, episode 18
2003	Grass Roots	Hector Abbott	TV series, season 2, episode 6: "Egomania"
2004	The Cooks	Colin	TV series, episode 5: "Waltzing Sakamoto"
2008	The Hollowmen	Senator Ron Engels	TV series, episode 2: "The Ambassador"
2000, 2009	All Saints	Steve Coulter / Bill Lewis	TV series, 3 episodes
2009	Heartbeat	Sergeant Flaherty	TV series, season 18, 2 episodes
2011	Wild Boys	Booth	TV series, episode 12
2012	Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries	Bart Tarrant	TV series, season 1, episode 6: "Ruddy Gore"
	The Kennedys		Miniseries
2012	Rake	Dominic Rose	TV series, season 2, episode 7: "Greene vs Hole"