Christopher Milne

Milne studied a Bachelor of Civil Engineering at Melbourne's Monash University. After graduating, he worked as an engineer for 18 months, before realising it wasn't for him. He then joined a theatre group and trained with a film and television school, before auditioning for various television roles. Between acting roles, he drove a taxi and picked potatoes for extra income.^[1]

Milne played Chris in the soap opera Bellbird from 1967 until 1977.^[2] He appeared in the 1979 vampire horror film Thirst and the 1979 sexploitation film Felicity.^[3]

He played Ben Mazzini in 1980 miniseries Water Under The Bridge, based on the Australian book of the same name, alongside Judy Davis.^[4]

Milne originated the character of Philip Martin on Neighbours in 1985, when the program aired on Network Seven,^[5] before Ian Rawlings took over the role in 1992. He returned to Neighbours in 1998, to play journalist Declan Hewitt.^[6][1]

Milne was a script editor for Crawford Productions,^[7] and wrote scripts for numerous episodes of Prisoner, Neighbours and Starting Out.^[5] He has written children's books (ages 6–13) for many years and his Naughty Stories for Good Boys and Girls (based on his two sons) is a winner of The Young Australians Best Book Award. He recorded 13 of the stories for the BBC in London.^[8][9]

Milne was married to television presenter Denise Drysdale for ten years, until their separation in 1989.^[5][10] Together, they had two sons, but ended their marriage when they realised they did not have much in common. They have a grandson. Milne subsequently remarried.^[11]