- Born
- Died
- Birth nameWilliam John Bourke Hunter
- Height6′ 1″ (1.85 m)
- Bill Hunter was one of Australia's acting legends, having worked with almost every notable Australian director and actor of the last thirty years - evidence of his genuine popularity among the public and acting fraternity alike.
He started out in Australian television in the '60s (a hotbed of well written and directed drama), and rapidly became a favorite of directors during the boom in the Australian movie industry in the '70s. He has often played the strong, opinionated, stereotypically gruff Australian who ultimately betrays a softer heart.
Some of his notable movie roles include the Australian officer Major Barton, who will only ask his troops to do as he would, in Gallipoli (1981), Peter Weir's groundbreaking movie starring the young Mel Gibson; the meddling Barry Fife in Strictly Ballroom (1992), Baz Luhrmann's first international hit; scheming politician and failure as a father and husband Bill Heslop in Muriel's Wedding (1994), P.J. Hogan's first international hit; the lovable country battler in the international megahit The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994), starring Terence Stamp, Guy Pearce, and Hugo Weaving.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Movie fan
- SpouseRhoda Roberts(1993 - 1999) (divorced)
- Filmed Muriel's Wedding (1994) and The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994) at the same time, each requiring him to have different length hair, beard and to be in different parts of Australia.
- Ava Gardner encouraged the young swimmer to tout for work as an extra in On the Beach (1959) during a chance encounter. It was doing just this that Hunter became interested in acting, after watching Fred Astaire supposedly go through 32 takes to complete a simple scene.
- Was a member of the Australian Olympic Swimming Squad as a teen, and held the world hundred-yards freestyle record during a heat of the Victorian Swimming Titles - for ten minutes. He was beaten by 1/10 second courtesy of John Devitt in the following heat.
- 1996: Awarded Honorary Membership of the Australian Cinematographer's Society.
- 1994: Named Australian Movie Star of the Year.
- As long as the director told me where to stand, and what to say, I was happy. Anyone who says there is more to it [acting] than that is full of bullshit. It's a job. It is a craft, but there's no art involved. What you need is common sense and a reasonably rough head. You put on the make-up and the wardrobe and that is half the performance. That upsets the purists but never mind, they don't work as much as I do.
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