Charles William TingwellAM (3 January 1923 – 15 May 2009),[2][3] known professionally as Bud TingwellorCharles 'Bud' Tingwell, was an Australian film, television, theatre and radio actor. One of the veterans of Australian film, he acted in his first motion picture in 1946 and went on to appear in more than 100 films and numerous TV programs in both the United Kingdom and Australia.[4]
Tingwell was born in the Sydney suburb of Coogee, the son of William Harvey Tingwell and Enid (née Green). William volunteered as a surf lifesaver at Coogee Surf Life Saving Club where, in 1922, a colleague noticed Enid's pregnancy and asked, 'What's budding there?', and 'Bud' became the nickname for their infant son. As an adolescent, Bud was encouraged by his father to train as an accountant, but Tingwell failed the entrance exam.
While still at school, he became a cadet at Sydney radio station 2CH, soon becoming the youngest radio announcer in Australia.[2]
It was just that you didn't not try to go, you know [...] You were so, I suppose, orientated towards the fact that the war's on and this is the right thing to do. We also did know quite a lot, a lot more than people realise I think, that difficult things were happening in Europe [...] We had Jewish friends who had rellies who had an awful time and we knew that was happening and refugees were arriving in Australia in the pre-war time. [...] We had German family next door and they had a son-in-law who wouldn't not say – he was a suspect, possible Nazi sympathiser, so he had to go inside somewhere. And Hitler, we knew a lot about Hitler and about Mussolini.
—Tingwell discussing his reasons for going to war (2002)[5]
Towards the end of the war, Tingwell was transferred back to Australia. He was posted to No. 5 Operational Training Unit RAAF as a flying instructor in June 1945, and then in December 1945, after the war had ended, he was posted to No. 87 Squadron RAAF, flying photo-reconnaissance Mosquitoes, until his demobilisation in March 1946.
After returning to Australia, Tingwell married his childhood sweetheart, Audrey May Wilson.[7] They were to have two children, Christopher and Virginia.[8]
In 1946, Tingwell was given his first film role, in Smithy, cast as an RAAF control tower officer – winning the role since he could supply his own RAAF uniform.
Tingwell had an excellent supporting role in Bitter Springs (1950), made by Ealing Studios with Chips Rafferty; Tingwell played Rafferty's bigoted son. He had a similar role in Kangaroo (1952), a Hollywood-financed film shot in Australia for 20th Century Fox. He then appeared in I Found Joe Barton (1952), the first TV show filmed in Australia.
Fox liked Tingwell's work in Kangaroo and invited him to Los Angeles to play the role of Lt. Harry Carstairs in The Desert Rats, in which he appeared opposite Chips Rafferty, James Mason and Richard Burton. They offered him a long-term contract but Tingwell turned it down because he wanted to return to Australia.[5]
The Australian film and radio industry slumped with the advent of television and Tingwell decided to move to the UK. He used the opportunity of a role in Ealing's The Shiralee (1957), which was filmed in Australia and London. Tingwell travelled to England to complete his scenes and decided to stay.
The following year, he took on his first recurring television role, as Australian surgeon Alan Dawson in the live TV serial Emergency Ward 10 and its film spin-off Life in Emergency Ward 10 (1959).
In 1969 until the end of the play's run, he appeared as Robert Danvers in the long running farce There's a Girl in My Soup at the Comedy Theatre, London.
Tingwell appeared in many other films during his time in Britain, spending a total of 16 years as a "London Aussie".[11] In 1973, he returned to Australia with his wife and children, and shortly after won the role of Inspector Reg Lawson in the long-running TV series Homicide. This was followed by small roles in a number of major Australian films, such as Breaker Morant (1980), Puberty Blues (1981) and All the Rivers Run (1983). He also played the recurring role of farmer Ted Campbell in the soap A Country Practice in the late 1980s and early 1990s and as the Narrator from The Flying Scotsman in Australia
Tingwell's career went through a quiet period during the late 1980s and early 1990s, until he took on the role of "Gramps" in "Charlie the Wonderdog", a recurring segment on The Late Show, in 1993. His role in The Late Show was later to win him a major role as lawyer Lawrence Hammill in the film The Castle (1997). He later stated that this role helped him to recover from the death of his wife the previous year.
After the success of The Castle, Tingwell's career underwent a revival during the late 1990s and early 2000s. This saw him take on small roles in the commercial films The Craic (1999) and The Dish (2000), and in the TV mini-series Changi, as well as the lead role in the romantic drama film Innocence (2000). He would also appear on other sketch Totally Full Frontal, playing himself, as well as a recurring guest role in the soap opera Neighbours from 2000 to 2003, playing Henry O'Rourke. He had previously appeared in the soap in 1993 as Bert Willis.[12] He appeared as John Conroy in the musical theatre production The Man from Snowy River: Arena Spectacular, which toured Australian capital cities twice during 2002.
In 2004, Tingwell published a memoir, Bud: A Life. In 2006, he launched his own website, which attracted 500 registered users in just over a week. On 5 October that year, he created his first blog. He continued to act regularly until his death, in a number of films and TV programmes including eight episodes of Bed of Roses that aired in 2010. Among his last appearances, he hosted both Celebrity Circus and 20 to 1 and appeared on a celebrity special of Temptation with his daughter, Virginia.
^"Advertising". The Sydney Morning Herald. No. 34, 263. New South Wales, Australia. 15 October 1947. p. 11. Retrieved 19 March 2016 – via National Library of Australia.
^"Stage Whispers". The Sunday Herald (Sydney). No. 94. New South Wales, Australia. 12 November 1950. p. 8 (Sunday Herald Features). Retrieved 19 March 2016 – via National Library of Australia.
^Dooley, John; Tingwell, Charles; Daly, Michael; Naylor, Greg; Mobil Oil Australia; Bendigo Street Productions; Vision Entertainment Australia; 100th Oboe Pty. Ltd (1992), The Flying Scotsman in Australia, Vision Entertainment Australia [distributor], retrieved 9 May 2016{{citation}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
