Edward Sidney Devereaux (27 August 1925 – 17 December 2003), better known professionally as Ed Devereaux, was an Australian actor, director, and scriptwriter who lived in the United Kingdom for many years. He was best known for playing the part of Matt Hammond the head ranger in the Australian television series Skippy the Bush Kangaroo. He was also involved in the series behind the scenes, Devereaux writing the script and directing the episode The Veteran (1969), for which he received much critical acclaim. Devereaux based the story of the episode "Double Trouble" on an idea conceived by his children, wrote the screenplay of "Summer Storm" and the script for "The Mine". He also played the part of Joe in the Australian 1966 film They’re a Weird Mob. The film was a local success.
Biography
Devereaux had been a boy soprano, teenage soldier in the New Guinea campaign during the Second World War, cabbie, storeman and truck driver before moving to the UK in 1950.[1]
Devereaux's first wife was Rene (Irene) Champion. Together they had four children: John (b. 1954), Steven (b. 1955), Timothy (b. 1956) and Matthew (b. 1962). Champion wrote the song for the Skippy spin-off film The Intruders in 1969. The couple had experienced a marital separation sometime before their 1986 divorce, when Devereaux married his second wife, Julie.
