Obituary: Harold Hopkins

Australian acting veteran Harold Hopkins has died in a Sydney hospital from the asbestos-related cancer mesothelioma.

The 67-year-old actor was diagnosed several months ago and is believed to have contracted the cancer from his first job after finishing high school, where he worked with asbestos sheeting as an apprentice carpenter in Queensland in the early 1960s.

Hopkins’ acting career began in the late 1960s on the Seven Network’s daytime drama Motel (a series that also starred a young Jack Thompson). 

Early TV roles also included Skippy The Bush Kangaroo, Riptide, Delta and Barrier Reef.  He had an ongoing role in the comedy-drama The Godfathers and its spin-off series The People Next Door.

Other TV credits included Certain Women, Silent Number, Matlock Police, Homicide, Division 4, Rush, The Lost Islands and the lead male role in the 1979 series Twenty Good Years (pictured with co-star Anne Pendlebury).

He went on to appear in mini-series including Sara Dane, The Dirtwater Dynasty, True Believers, The Last Bastion, Winners, Shadows Of The Heart and Brides Of Christ.

More recent appearances have included Grass Roots, State Coroner, Blue Heelers, White Collar Blue, The Secret Life Of Us, Wildside, The Strip, All Saints and Underbelly: A Tale Of Two Cities.

Film credits have included Don’s Party, The Club, The Picture Show Man, Buddies, Monkey Grip and The Year My Voice Broke.

Harold Hopkins is survived by his twin brother, John, and five other siblings, Naomi, Michael, Gregory, Margaret and Suzanne.

Source: News.com.au, IMDB, The Age, ABC, TV Eye

TelevisionAU Update 10-May-10

http://www.televisionau.com

NEW FLASHBACK #54:
The behind-the-scenes workings of a fashion magazine formed the basis of the Seven Network's 1972 drama Catwalk, a 13-part spin-off of the former ABC series Dynasty.  Heading the cast was British actor John Forgeham as the magazine's fiery-tempered editor.  The cast line-up also included John Wood (pictured), Cecily Polson, Cornelia Frances and June Salter - the latter best known for her comic performances but in Catwalk takes on the role of a bitchy journalist and editor's assistant.  Picture: TV Week, 19 February 1972

CLASSIC TV GUIDES
Melbourne:
1989 (Family Double Dare debuts)
1989 (SBS screens the five-hour film epic, The Mahabharata)
1999 (Final Hey Hey It’s Saturday)

Victoria:
1961 (Official Opening GLV10 Gippsland)

Sydney:
1977 (US mini-series Roots debuts)

Canberra:
1983 (Network 0-28 extends to Canberra)

Brisbane:
1968 (Motel debuts in Brisbane)

Adelaide:
1974

Hobart:
1960 (Official Opening TVT6 Hobart)
1962 (Official Opening TNT9 Launceston)

TELEVISIONAU - THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALIAN TELEVISION
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http://blog.televisionau.com
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http://groups.yahoo.com/group/televisionau
http://au.youtube.com/user/TelevisionAU

Brian James

Of the names remembered in our last post of 2009 there was one name that has only now come to our attention – actor Brian James, who passed away late last year at the age of 91.

A former schoolteacher, James served in the Navy for six years before making his professional acting debut in the production of Noel Coward’s Present Laughter, at the Princess Theatre, in 1948.  After touring Australia with the production he went to London, studying drama and also appearing at the West End in the naval comedy Seagulls Over Sorrento – a production that he would also appear in on stage upon his return to Australia.

By the late-1950s, James had made the transition to television, with the lead role in the GTV9 series Emergency, followed by HSV7’s live-to-air performance of Seagulls Over Sorrento, reprising his former stage role.

In the early ‘60s, James had scored the lead role of Captain Bligh in the ABC historical series Stormy Petrel, a role which won him a TV Week Logie for best actor in 1961.  He then appeared in the courtroom drama Consider Your Verdict and played the title role in the Seven Network’s Jonah.

On 1 August 1964, he appeared (pictured) in the TV special This Is It!, commemorating the official opening of Melbourne’s third commercial television channel, ATV0, from studios based in the suburb of Nunawading. 

With roles in dozens of stage productions and in TV series including Bellbird, Motel, Solo One and Young Ramsay, James continued to be a familiar name on both stage and television throughout the 1970s, ending the decade as the bumbling airport administration officer George Tippett in the Seven Network’s Skyways – a role that scored him a Penguin Award.

During the ‘80s he reprised the role of George Tippett in Holiday Island, guest starred in Carson’s Law, appeared as prison warden Stan Dobson in Prisoner and swept neighbourhood gossip Nell Mangel (Vivean Gray) off her feet in Neighbours – all productions based in the same Nunawading studios where he appeared on opening night of ATV0 in 1964.

His last credited TV role was in the ABC series Something In The Air.

Brian James is survived by his niece Julie and nephews Phillip, Michael and Brian.  His cousin Gerald Mayhead had written a tribute to Brian James for The Age, including his extensive stage and film career.

Source: The Age, IMDB, Australian Television Information Archive