William Gerald Brown AM (11 January 195213 January 2013) professionally known as Billie Brown was an Australian stage, film and television actor and acclaimed playwright.

Early life

Brown was born in

Biloela Biloela ( ) is a rural town and locality in Shire of Banana, Central Queensland, Australia. It is situated inland from the port city of Gladstone at the junction of the Burnett and Dawson highways. Biloela is the administrative centre of Ban ...

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

and studied drama at the

University of Queensland , mottoeng = By means of knowledge and hard work , established = , endowment = A$224.3 million , budget = A$2.1 billion , type = Public research university , chancellor = Peter Varghese , vice_chancellor = Deborah Terry , city = B ...

. He began his career in the early 1970s at

Queensland Theatre Company Queensland Theatre, formerly the Queensland Theatre Company and Royal Queensland Theatre Company, is a professional theatre company based in Brisbane, Australia. It regularly performs in its own Bille Browne Theatre and the Queensland Performi ...

, working alongside

Geoffrey Rush Geoffrey Roy Rush (born 6 July 1951) is an Australian actor. He is known for his Eccentricity (behavior), eccentric leading man roles on stage and screen. He is among 24 people who have won the Triple Crown of Acting, having received an Academy ...

. He was openly gay.

Abroad

Brown's career took him abroad to Britain, where he joined the

Royal Shakespeare Company The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs over 1,000 staff and produces around 20 productions a year. The RSC plays regularly in London, St ...

(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 The Barbican Centre is a performing arts centre in the Barbican Estate of the City of London and the largest of its kind in Europe. The centre hosts classical and contemporary music concerts, theatre performances, film screenings and art exhibi ...

(RSC's home theatre from 1982 to 2002) and had a Royal Command Performance. As a member of the RSC (between 1976 and 1982, 1986–88 and 1994–96) Brown toured with their productions throughout Europe, playing Paris, Vienna, Berlin and Munich. He also appeared in the RSC's premiere production of ''The Wizard of Oz'' in the gender-bending roles of The Wicked Witch of the West and Miss Gulch, for which he was nominated for an

Olivier Award The Laurence Olivier Awards, or simply the Olivier Awards, are presented annually by the Society of London Theatre to recognise excellence in professional theatre in London at an annual ceremony in the capital. The awards were originally known as ...

in 1988. While working in the United Kingdom, Brown also performed in the West End, at the Aldwych and Haymarket Theatres, the Chichester Festival Theatre, English National Opera and Dublin Theatre Festival. While performing onstage at Stratford he was spotted by

John Cleese John Marwood Cleese ( ; born 27 October 1939) is an English actor, comedian, screenwriter, and producer. Emerging from the Cambridge Footlights in the 1960s, he first achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and ...

, who cast him in ''

Fierce Creatures ''Fierce Creatures'' is a 1997 British-American farcical comedy film. While not literally a sequel, ''Fierce Creatures'' is a spiritual successor to the 1988 film '' A Fish Called Wanda''. Both films star John Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kli ...

'', the sequel to ''

A Fish Called Wanda ''A Fish Called Wanda'' is a 1988 heist comedy film directed by Charles Crichton and written by Crichton and John Cleese. It stars Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline, and Michael Palin. The film follows a gang of diamond thieves who double- ...

''. In New York, Brown made his Broadway debut as an actor in 1986 in

Michael Frayn Michael Frayn, FRSL (; born 8 September 1933) is an English playwright and novelist. He is best known as the author of the farce ''Noises Off'' and the dramas ''Copenhagen'' and ''Democracy''. His novels, such as '' Towards the End of the Mo ...

's '' Wild Honey'' with

Ian McKellen Sir Ian Murray McKellen (born 25 May 1939) is an English actor. His career spans seven decades, having performed in genres ranging from Shakespearean and modern theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction. Regarded as a British cultural i ...

, directed by Christopher Morahan, and as a playwright with his adaptation of a benefit performance of ''

A Christmas Carol ''A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas'', commonly known as ''A Christmas Carol'', is a novella by Charles Dickens, first published in London by Chapman & Hall in 1843 and illustrated by John Leech. ''A Christmas C ...

'' in 1985, featuring

Helen Hayes Helen Hayes MacArthur ( Brown; October 10, 1900 – March 17, 1993) was an American actress whose career spanned 80 years. She eventually received the nickname "First Lady of American Theatre" and was the second person and first woman to have w ...

Len Cariou Leonard Joseph Cariou (; born September 30, 1939) is a Canadian actor and stage director, best known for his portrayal of Sweeney Todd in the original cast of '' Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street'', for which he won the Tony Award ...

as Scrooge, MacIntyre Dixon,

Celeste Holm Celeste Holm (April 29, 1917 – July 15, 2012) was an American stage, film and television actress. Holm won an Academy Award for her performance in Elia Kazan's ''Gentleman's Agreement'' (1947), and was nominated for her roles in ''Come to th ...

Raúl Juliá Raúl Rafael Carlos Juliá y Arcelay (March 9, 1940 – October 24, 1994) was a Puerto Rican actor. Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, he took an interest in acting while still in school and pursued the career upon completion of his studies. After ...

Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio (born November 17, 1958) is an American actress and singer. She made her Broadway debut in the 1980 revival of ''West Side Story'', and went on to appear in the 1983 film '' Scarface'' as Al Pacino's character's sist ...

, Harold Scott,

Carole Shelley Carole Augusta Shelley (16 August 1939 – 31 August 2018)Bartlett, Rhett"Carole Shelley, One of the Pigeon Sisters From 'The Odd Couple,' Dies at 79"''The Hollywood Reporter'', 1 September 2018

, and

Fritz Weaver Fritz William Weaver (January 19, 1926 − November 26, 2016) was an American actor in television, stage, and motion pictures. He portrayed Dr. Josef Weiss in the 1978 epic television drama, ''Holocaust'' for which he was nominated for a Primetime ...

, directed by W. Stuart McDowell. He was also an Artist-in-residence at the State University of New York in 1982. Bille Brown was a visiting professor at the

State University of New York at New Paltz The State University of New York at New Paltz (SUNY New Paltz or New Paltz) is a public university in New Paltz, New York. It traces its origins to the New Paltz Classical School, a secondary institution founded in 1828 and reorganized as an a ...

Australia

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 Sydney Theatre Company (STC) is an Australian theatre company based in Sydney, New South Wales. The company performs in The Wharf Theatre at Dawes Point in The Rocks area of Sydney, as well as the Roslyn Packer Theatre (formerly Sydney Thea ...

Bell Shakespeare Company Bell Shakespeare is an Australian theatre company specialising in the works of William Shakespeare, his contemporaries and other classics. It is based in Sydney. The Bell Shakespeare vision is to create theatre that allows audiences of all wal ...

Malthouse Theatre Malthouse Theatre is the resident theatre company of The Malthouse building in Southbank, part of the Melbourne Arts Precinct. In the 1980s it was known as the Playbox Theatre Company and was housed in the Playbox Theatre in Melbourne's CBD. ...

Melbourne Theatre Company The Melbourne Theatre Company is a theatre company based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1953 as the Union Theatre Repertory Company at the Union Theatre at the University of Melbourne, it is the oldest professional theatre compa ...

, Company B,

State Theatre Company of South Australia The State Theatre Company of South Australia (STCSA), branded State Theatre Company South Australia, formerly the South Australian Theatre Company (SATC), is South Australia's leading professional theatre company, and a statutory corporation. It ...

, Marian St Theatre, La Boite and the

Old Tote Theatre The Old Tote Theatre Company (1963–1978) was a New South Wales theatre company that began as the standing acting and theatre company of Australia's National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA). It was the predecessor to the Sydney Theatre Company ...

at the Sydney Opera House. In 1996, he directed the Australian stage production of

Hugh Lunn Hugh Duncan Lunn (born 1941 in Brisbane, Queensland) is an Australian journalist and author. Writing career Early journalism Lunn served his journalism cadetship with ''The Courier-Mail''. Upon completing his cadetship, he worked overseas for ...

's ''Over the Top with Jim'', which exceeded box office expectations. He had huge success with his role as Count Almaviva in

Beaumarchais Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais (; 24 January 1732 – 18 May 1799) was a French polymath. At various times in his life, he was a watchmaker, inventor, playwright, musician, diplomat, spy, publisher, horticulturist, arms dealer, satirist, ...

' ''

The Marriage of Figaro ''The Marriage of Figaro'' ( it, Le nozze di Figaro, links=no, ), K. 492, is a ''commedia per musica'' (opera buffa) in four acts composed in 1786 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with an Italian libretto written by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It premie ...

'', with

, which opened the new Playhouse in Brisbane in September 1998. In 1999 he also had major success in Sydney and subsequently throughout Australia as

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...

in the Belvoir St production of David Hare's '' The Judas Kiss''. The same year he accepted an offer to be Adjunct Professor in the School of English, Media Studies and Art History at the

, and gave workshops and master classes for drama students. In 2009, Brown wrote and performed in Queensland Theatre Company's ''The School of Arts''. The play follows the story of the old 'College Players' who toured Shakespeare through Queensland in the late 1960s. His playwriting credits include ''Bill and Mary'', based on imaginary conversations between the poet

Mary Gilmore Dame Mary Jean Gilmore (née Cameron; 16 August 18653 December 1962) was an Australian writer and journalist known for her prolific contributions to Australian literature and the broader national discourse. She wrote both prose and poetry. Gi ...

and the portrait painter

William Dobell Sir William Dobell (24 September 189913 May 1970) was an Australian portrait and landscape artist of the 20th century. Dobell won the Archibald Prize, Australia's premier award for portrait artists on three occasions. The Dobell Prize is named ...

while she was sitting for him.

Film

Brown appeared in films including ''

'' (as "Neville"), ''

The Dish ''The Dish'' is a 2000 Australian historical comedy-drama film that tells the story of the Parkes Observatory's role in relaying live television of humanity's first steps on the Moon during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969. It was the top-grossing ...

'' (as "the Prime Minister"), ''

Oscar and Lucinda ''Oscar and Lucinda'' is a novel by Australian author Peter Carey which won the 1988 Booker Prize and the 1989 Miles Franklin Award. It was shortlisted for The Best of the Booker. Plot introduction It tells the story of Oscar Hopkins, th ...

'' (as "Percy Smith") and '' Singularity''.

Honours

Brown was appointed a

Member of the Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Gove ...

(AM) in the Australia Day Honours 2011.

Awards

Brown received an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the

Death

Brown died from bowel cancer on 13 January 2013, two days after his 61st birthday. After a private funeral, a public memorial service was held at the

Queensland Performing Arts Centre The Queensland Performing Arts Centre (also known as QPAC) is part of the Queensland Cultural Centre and is located on the corner of Melbourne Street and Grey Street in Brisbane's South Bank, Queensland, South Bank precinct. Opened in 1985, it ...

on 4 February 2013. The eulogy was delivered by longtime friend and colleague

Film credits

* ''

'' (1997) - Neville Coltrane * ''

'' (1997) - Percy Smith * '' Passion'' (1999) - John Grainger * ''Walk the Talk'' (2000) - Barry * ''

'' (2000) - Prime Minister * ''Serenades'' (2001) - Pastor Hoffman * ''

The Man Who Sued God ''The Man Who Sued God'' is a 2001 Australian comedy film starring Billy Connolly and Judy Davis, and directed by Mark Joffe. The film was a financial success, debuting at number one at the Australian box office in the week of its launch. Plot ...

'' (2001) - Gerry Ryan * ''

Black and White Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...

'' (2002) -

Sir Thomas Playford Sir Thomas Playford (5 July 1896 – 16 June 1981) was an Australian politician from the state of South Australia. He served continuously as Premier of South Australia and leader of the Liberal and Country League (LCL) from 5 November 1938 to 10 ...

* '' Dirty Deeds'' (2002) - Senator * '' Curtin'' (2007) -

Robert Menzies The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of ''Hrōþ, Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory ...

* ''

Unfinished Sky ''Unfinished Sky'' is a 2007 drama film written and directed by Peter Duncan. William McInnes stars as John Woldring, an Australian farmer living in self-imposed exile after his wife's death, who rescues and protects Tahmeena, played by Monic H ...

'' (2007) - Bob Potter * '' Dying Breed'' (2008) - Harvey / Rowan * '' At World's End'' (2009) - James Hall * '' The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader'' (2010) - Coriakin * '' The Eye of the Storm'' (2011) - Dudley * '' Killer Elite'' (2011) - Colonel Fitz * '' Singularity'' (2013) - Egerton (final film role)

Television credits

* '' Medivac'' (1997) - Prosecutor * ''A Difficult Woman'' (1998) - Howard * '' Big Sky'' (1999) - Lightfoot * ''

The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles ''The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles'' is an American television series that aired on ABC from March 4, 1992, to July 24, 1993. Filming took place in various locations around the world, with "Old Indy" bookend segments filmed in Wilmington, North ...

'' (1999) - Hinkel * '' The Farm'' (2001) - Booth * ''

Bad Cop, Bad Cop ''Bad Cop, Bad Cop'' is a 2002 Australian television series produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Southern Star, directed by David Caesar Cast * Michael Caton – Det. Red Lilywhite * Dan Wyllie – Det. Cons. Lou ...

'' (2002) - Detective 'Blue' Wales * ''

White Collar Blue ''White Collar Blue'' is an Australian television series made by Knapman Wyld Television for Network Ten from 2002 to 2003. Starring Peter O'Brien as Joe Hill and Freya Stafford as Harriet Walker, the series dealt with a division of the pol ...

'' (2003) - Tony Heron * ''

Blackjack Blackjack (formerly Black Jack and Vingt-Un) is a casino banking game. The most widely played casino banking game in the world, it uses decks of 52 cards and descends from a global family of casino banking games known as Twenty-One. This fami ...

'' (2005) - Tez Miller * ''

The Hollowmen ''The Hollowmen'' is an Australian television comedy series set in the offices of the Central Policy Unit, a fictional political advisory unit personally set up by the Prime Minister to help him get re-elected. Their brief is long-term vision; t ...

'' (2008) - Senator Ron Engels * '' All Saints'' (2000-2009) - Steve Coulter / Bill Lewis * '' Heartbeat'' (2009) - Sergeant Flaherty * ''

3 Acts of Murder ''3 Acts of Murder'' is a 2009 Australian television film directed by Rowan Woods. It is based on the true-life story of how author Arthur Upfield inadvertently inspired The Murchison Murders. The film starred Robert Menzies as Upfield and Luk ...

'' (2009) - George Ritchie * ''

Wild Boys ''Wild Boys'' is an Australian television period drama series that began airing on the Seven Network on 4 September 2011. It is produced by Julie McGauran and Sarah Smith from Southern Star and John Holmes. The series is set in and around the ...

'' (2011) - Booth * ''

Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries ''Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries'' is an Australian drama television series. It was first broadcast on ABC on 24 February 2012. It is based on author Kerry Greenwood's historical mystery novels, and it was created by Deb Cox and Fiona Eagger. ...

'' (2012) - Bart Tarrant * '' The Kennedys'' * '' Rake'' (2012) - Dominic Rose

References

External links

*
Alyce Faye Cleese interviews Bille Brown in Montecito, Ca
35 minutes.
Bille Brown
– Stage acting credits
"Merry Wives of Windsor"
– special Waratah Festival performance, at Albert Park Amphitheatre, Brisbane (1987)
"The Merry Wives of Windsor"
– Albert Park Amphitheatre, Brisbane (1987) {{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Bille 1952 births 2013 deaths Australian male dramatists and playwrights Australian male film actors Australian male stage actors Australian male television actors Australian theatre directors Australian expatriates in the United Kingdom Australian gay actors LGBT theatre directors LGBT dramatists and playwrights Helpmann Award winners Members of the Order of Australia University of Queensland alumni People from Biloela Deaths from colorectal cancer Deaths from cancer in Queensland 20th-century Australian dramatists and playwrights 21st-century Australian dramatists and playwrights 21st-century LGBT people