Harold Hopkins (actor)

Theatre

After numerous theatre performances with NIDA in the late 1960s,^[6] Hopkins originated the role of Danny Rowe, captain of the Collingwood Football Club in a 1977 stage production of David Williamson's satirical play The Club.^[5]

Hopkins' appeared on stage with the Sydney Theatre Company and Melbourne Theatre Company playing Barney in Ray Lawler's The Doll Trilogy at the Sydney Opera House, Melbourne Athenaeum and again three years later in New York.^[6][3]

Television

Hopkins' on-screen career began in the late 1960s with a recurring guest role on the short-lived daytime soap opera Motel, alongside Jack Thompson.^[7] He also had a major co-starring role opposite Jeanie Drynan in the 1969 ABC drama miniseries Pastures of the Blue Crane, an adaptation of the 1965 children's novel by Hesba Brinsmead.^[8][9]

Other early television credits included Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, Riptide, Delta and Barrier Reef.^[7] He also had a recurring role in the 1971 comedy drama series The Godfathers and its spin-off The People Next Door.^[7] Hopkins won a Penguin Award in 1974^{[citation needed]} for his portrayal of private secretary Percy Deane in John Power's docudrama Billy and Percy.^[10]

Hopkins went on to appear in numerous other series including Certain Women, Silent Number, Matlock Police, Homicide, Division 4, Rush and The Lost Islands.^[7][11] He then landed a lead role in the 1979 series Twenty Good Years.^[7]

Hopkins also appeared in several miniseries including Sara Dane (1982), The Last Bastion (1984), The Dirtwater Dynasty (1988), True Believers (1988), Winners, Shadows of the Heart (1990) and Brides of Christ (1991).^[7][11]

Later television series in which Hopkins had roles, included State Coroner, Blue Heelers, White Collar Blue, Wildside, All Saints, The Secret Life of Us, Grass Roots and The Strip.^[7][11] He also played Melbourne arms dealer George Joseph in Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities,^[2] the second season of underworld series Underbelly.

Film

Hopkins first foray into film began with a supporting role in Age of Consent (1969), with James Mason and Helen Mirren.^[5] He appeared in 16 films over the course of his career, including classic Australian films Don's Party (1976) in which he played the role of Cooley,^[2] and The Picture Show Man (1977).^[7][1]

Hopkins reprised his role as Danny in The Club (from his 1977 stage performance) once more in Bruce Beresford’s 1980 film adaptation.^[5] His performance saw him nominated for a 1981 Australian Film Institute Award for Best Supporting Actor. He lost out to Bill Hunter for Peter Weir’s war drama Gallipoli,^[5][12] in which Hopkins also starred as obnoxious farmhand Les McCann, opposite Mel Gibson and Mark Lee.^[7][1]

Further film credits included Monkey Grip (1982), Fantasy Man (1984), Children of the Revolution (1996)^[5] and 1987 coming of age drama The Year My Voice Broke,^[1] with Noah Taylor and Ben Mendelsohn.^[13] Several TV films followed, including Big Ideas (1993) and Never Tell Me Never (1998).^[5] In 2001, he starred as a dying man in AFI-nominated, TV short Saturn’s Return, opposite Joel Edgerton, who played his son.^[5]

Hopkins' final film was 2010 horror thriller The Clinic.^[5] His last audition was for the role of Jay Gatbsy’s father, Henry C. Gatz in Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby, although he knew he would not live to play the role, as he had been diagnosed with cancer mere days earlier.^[1]

Film

Television