| Tommy Dysart | |
| Birth Name: | Thomas Gibson Dysart |
| Birth Date: | 24 December 1935 |
| Birth Place: | Maryhill, Glasgow, Scotland |
| Death Date: | 7 June 2022 (aged 86) |
| Death Place: | Melbourne, Victoria, Australia |
| Education: | National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) |
| Years Active: | 1959–2022 |
Thomas Gibson Dysart (24 December 1935 – 7 June 2022) was a Scottish-born Australian actor, known for his appearances on television dramas and comedies and in character roles in films and miniseries.
Dysart graduated from NIDA[1] in 1959, and started his career as a vocalist and performed in theatre.[2]
High-profile early roles included appearances in Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, Phoenix Five, and several roles in the Crawford Productions police drama series Homicide, Division 4, Matlock Police and Cop Shop.
Dysart appeared briefly in the series Prisoner in the early 1980s, where he played what is perhaps his best-known acting role, that of vicious and cold prison officer Jock Stewart. In the storyline, after being fired from the prison service Stewart admitted to prisoner Judy Bryant that he was the one responsible for murdering her lesbian lover, fellow prisoner Sharon Gilmour. This revelation brought to a close a murder-mystery storyline in the series but launched a long-running story-arc where Bryant repeatedly escaped from prison in a succession of attempts to exact her revenge on Stewart.
After this, Dysart continued in guest-starring television roles in drama series and situation comedies, and appeared in many feature films. His films included The Man from Snowy River (1982), Bliss (1985), Garbo (1992), and Flynn (1996). Television roles of the 1990s included appearances in All Together Now, The Games, State Coroner, Blue Heelers, Something in the Air and Neighbours. He also provided the voice for Captain Griswald in Anthony Lucas' animated short film The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello (2005).
In the 1990s he appeared in a well-remembered television commercial advertisement for the Yellow Pages where he calls a series of mechanics about his problematic Goggomobil, ("G, O, G, G, O ... No! No! Not the Dart").[3] He was also known for playing a recurring character of a Mafia-boss-like butcher in advertisements for Don Smallgoods.
In the early 2000s he continued his Goggomobil persona advertising Shannons Insurance. The concept played on the role of a person searching for the car parts as any car enthusiast would. Telstra challenged this in the Supreme Court and Shannons withdrew the advertisements, but continued with Dysart and the accent (which Dysart insisted was his own and could not change). The adverts continue and Shannons Insurance also owns several of the Goggomobil cars which feature regularly in their shows. Dysart and Joan Brockenshire appeared in Karl von Möller's 2019 documentary "D'art".[4]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1965 | Moby Dick - Rehearsed | TV movie | ||
| 1965 | The Big Killing[5] | Sergeant Bassett | TV movie | |
| 1969 | It Takes All Kinds | Seaman | Feature film | |
| 1972 | The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui | TV movie | ||
| 1982 | The Man from Snowy River | Mountain Man | Feature film | |
| 1982 | Next of Kin | Harry | Feature film | |
| 1982 | The Clinic | Patient | Feature film | |
| 1985 | Bliss | De Vere | Feature film | |
| 1985 | I Live with Me Dad | Griffin | Feature film | |
| 1986 | Sky Pirates | Bartender | Feature film | |
| 1986 | The Big Hurt | Schwartz | Feature film | |
| 1987 | Ground Zero | British Veteran | Feature film | |
| 1988 | Backstage | Head Waiter - Reception | Feature film | |
| 1988 | Georgia | Bystander | Feature film | |
| 1990 | What the Moon Saw | Skip | Feature film | |
| 1992 | Garbo | Bagpipes | Feature film | |
| 1992 | Come Rain or Shine | Feature film (starred with son Kole Dysart) | ||
| 1993 | Flynn (aka My Forgotten Man) | Macintosh | Feature film | |
| 1993 | Body Melt | Sergeant | Feature film | |
| 1994 | Metal Skin | Mr Graham | Feature film | |
| 1995 | The Final Stage | Stinky Radford | Feature film | |
| 1995 | Mushrooms | Wilson | Feature film | |
| 1996 | River Street | Sergeant | Feature film | |
| 1999 | Strange Fits of Passion | Taxi Driver | Feature film | |
| 2000 | Wee Jimmy | Grandad | Short film | |
| 2001 | Four Jacks | Lance | Feature film | |
| 2002 | The Real Thing | Husband | Feature film | |
| 2005 | The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello | Captain Otto H. Griswald (voice) | Animated short film | |
| 2009 | Remembering Nigel | Tommy Dysart | Short film (starred with son Kole Dysart) | |
| 2009 | Crazy in the Night | Jock | Short film | |
| 2011 | Hands.Hands | Old Man | Short film | |
| 2018 | A Thin Life | The Man | Feature film | |
| 2019 | D'art | Self | Documentary film | |
| 2021 | Frankly - A Life in the Circus | Self | Feature film |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1963 | Consider Your Verdict | Jack McLean | TV series, 1 episode | |
| 1965 | The Stranger | TV miniseries, 2 episodes | ||
| 1968 | Skippy the Bush Kangaroo | Andrews | TV series, 1 episode | |
| 1969 | Division 4 | George Baker | TV series, 1 episode | |
| 1970 | The Rovers | Butcher | TV series, 1 episode | |
| 1970 | Phoenix Five | Gunfighter | TV series, 1 episode | |
| 1971, 1973 | Matlock Police | Ted Woods / Abdul | TV series, 2 episodes | |
| 1974 | Silent Number | Sand | TV series, 1 episode | |
| 1975 | Behind the Legend | TV series, 1 episode | ||
| 1964-75 | Homicide | George Hogan, Jeffrey Hodges, Anthony Scott, Angus Lawrence, Chris Doyle, Van Driver, Osman Rados, Neil Campbell, Nicolo Rogowski | TV series, 9 episodes | |
| 1975 | Ben Hall | Haigh | TV series, 1 episode | |
| 1975 | Luke's Kingdom | Lug | TV miniseries, 1 episode | |
| 1978 | The Truckies | TV series, 1 episode | ||
| 1978 | Against the Wind | Settler / Travers / Drunken Rebel | TV miniseries, 3 episodes | |
| 1979 | Skyways | Paddy McDonald | TV series, 1 episode | |
| 1979 | The Sullivans | Fergus McCullough | TV series, 1 episode | |
| 1980 | Young Ramsay | Paddy Rourke | TV series, 1 episode | |
| 1980 | Water Under the Bridge | Hamish | TV miniseries, 1 episode | |
| 1980 | The Last Outlaw | Superintendent | TV miniseries, 4 episodes | |
| 1981 | Are You Being Served? | Kilted Customer | TV series, 1 episode | |
| 1977-81 | Cop Shop | Dimonicus, Don Morgan, John Ford, Lawrence Peck | TV series, 7 episodes | |
| 1980-82 | Prisoner | TV series, 12 episodes | ||
| 1982 | Come Midnight Monday | Angus McPhee | TV series, 5 episodes | |
| 1982 | Women of the Sun | Joe | TV miniseries, 1 episode | |
| 1983 | Carson's Law | Captain Robinson | TV series, 1 episode | |
| 1983 | Infinity Limited | Henry | TV series, episode 15: The Big Lift | |
| 1984 | Five Mile Creek | Trantor | TV series, 1 episode | |
| 1984 | Special Squad | Scottie / Bingo Caller | TV series, 2 episodes | |
| 1984 | Eureka Stockade | Tom Kennedy | TV miniseries, 2 episodes | |
| 1985 | The Fast Lane | Neville | TV series, 1 episode | |
| 1985 | Trapp, Wrinkle and Box | Various | TV series | |
| 1985 | Zoo Family | McGregor | TV series, 1 episode | |
| 1986 | Alice to Nowhere | Fighting Scotsman | TV miniseries, 2 episodes | |
| 1986, 1987 | The Flying Doctors | Inspector Kevin Day / Simpson | TV series, 2 episodes | |
| 1990 | Friday on My Mind | |||
| 1991 | Boys from the Bush | Nick | TV series, 1 episode | |
| 1991 | All Together Now | Barkeeper | TV series, 1 episode | |
| 1991 | Chances | Trevor Russell | TV series, 1 episode | |
| 1991 | Kelly | Sgt Terry Blake | TV series, 2 episode | |
| 1992 | Round the Twist | Bus Driver | TV series, 1 episode | |
| 1992, 1993 | The Late Show | Goggomobile Man | TV series, 2 episodes | |
| 1994 | Wedlocked | Marvin / Hot Dog Man | TV series, 4 episodes | |
| 1995 | Snowy River: The McGregor Saga | Mr Couch | TV series, 1 episode | |
| 1998 | Good Guys, Bad Guys | Athol Amoroso | TV series, 1 episode | |
| The Games | Taxu Driver | TV series, 1 episode | ||
| 1998 | State Coroner | Robeet Ash | TV series, 1 episode | |
| 2000 | Blue Heelers | Jimmy Fong | TV series, season 7, 1 episode | |
| 2001 | Neighbours | Fergus MacLeod | TV series, 1 episode | |
| 2001 | Pizza | 50s Pizza Couple | TV series, 1 episode | |
| 2001 | Something in the Air | Roy Suede | TV series, 2 episodes |
Dysart enjoyed a long personal and professional relationship with director and writer Frank Howson. They worked together on the films Backstage, Boulevard of Broken Dreams, What the Moon Saw, Flynn, Crime Time, The Final Stage, Lucky Country, and the award-winning short film Remembering Nigel, which also featured Dysart's wife and son Kole.
Dysart was married to actress Joan Brockenshire. On 18 February 2022, Dysart suffered a stroke and was taken to the Alfred Hospital.[6] He died on 7 June 2022 in Melbourne, Victoria at the age of 86.[7]