Kelly Dingwall

Dingwall is the son of scriptwriters John Dingwall and Margaret Kelly.^[3][4] He is the oldest of five children.^[5]

His family travelled around Australia for work, which meant Dingwall changed schools often.^[6] At the age of 11, he attended a writing workshop and wrote a children's play. The play was subsequently picked up by Australian television and he starred it.^[6]

After appearing in miniseries Top Mates in 1979,^[1] Dingwall took on the regular role of Spider McGlurk (leader of the Spider gang) in children's adventure series Secret Valley from 1980 to 1983.^[1] He appeared in several miniseries including The Challenge (1986)^[7] and Vietnam (1987), starring Nicole Kidman in an early role.^[8] He also had guest roles in soap operas E Street^[2] and A Country Practice as well as police procedural series Police Rescue.^[8]

Dingwall's film roles during this time included playing Barry in 1987 coming-of-age drama The Year My Voice Broke, alongside Ben Mendelsohn and Noah Taylor,^[9] and Eddie in 1988 comedy Around the World in 80 Ways.^[10] He also featured in a 1987 stage production of I'm Not Rappaport at Sydney Opera House.^[11]

In 1989, Dingwall landed the regular role of antagonist Brian 'Dodge' Forbes in long-running soap opera Home and Away^[2] and in 1990, he played David in the film Raw Nerve.^[12] That same year, he left Home and Away, adopted the stage name 'Kelly Dale' and relocated to the UK to further his acting career.^[6]

In 1993, Dingwall played the role of Tony Reynolds in mystery thriller The Custodian,^[2] written and directed by his father John Dingwall and starring Hugo Weaving, Anthony La Paglia, Barry Otto and Essie Davis, with Naomi Watts in an early role.^[13] In 1995, he resumed the role of Dodge in Home and Away, until the character was killed off. He next had a recurring role as police diver Senior-Constable Sam Bailey in Water Rats in 1997,^[14] and a starring guest role in an episode of drama series Big Sky.^[15] He officially retired from the industry.

Dingwall met his wife Kristin, a casting consultant, on the set of 1993 film The Custodian. In January 1996, they were married and 18 months later in 1997, they had a daughter.^[14]