George Whaley (actor)

George Whaley
George Whaley
Born	19 June 1934; Castlemaine, Victoria, Australia
Died	6 August 2019 (aged 85)
Occupations	Actor; director; playwright; teacher;
Spouse	Georgina (Georgie)

George Whaley (19 June 1934 – 6 August 2019)^[1]^[2] was an Australian actor, director and writer, known for his work across theatre and film.

Early life

Whaley was born in Castlemaine, Victoria, Australia on 19 June 1934.^[3] He initially trained as an engineer, before studying acting with Eileen O’Keefe, who introduced him to the teachings of Stanislavski.^[4]

Career

Acting

Whaley's first professional acting role was in John Osborne's Look Back in Anger in 1960. He went on to perform at Melbourne's Emerald Hill Theatre (which he opened with Wal Cherry in 1962). He performed (and directed) at all the major theatre companies including Melbourne Theatre Company, Nimrod Theatre Company, the Old Tote Theatre, the Griffin Theatre Company and the Belvoir Street Theatre. He notably played Galileo Galilei on stage in the 1980s and 1990s.^[4]

He appeared in films such as Stork (1971), Alvin Purple (1973), Bliss (1985), The Crossing (1990), Turtle Beach (1992) and Daydream Believer (1992).

He also had guest roles in many television series including Consider Your Verdict, Homicide, Division 4, The Flying Doctors, Bodyline, A Country Practice, Mother and Son, All Saints. His last screen credit was an episode of miniseries The Gods of Wheat Street in 2014.^[2]

Directing

Whaley directed many plays, including Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children, John Derum's adaptation of C.J. Dennis’ More than a Sentimental Bloke, David Williamson's The Perfectionist and Harold Pinter's Old Times.^[5]

He co-founded Theatre ACT (Canberra), was founding Director of University Theatre at University of Melbourne, and Resident Director at Sydney's Old Tote Theatre.^[6]

He was also a noted TV director. He wrote and directed the miniseries The Harp in the South and its sequel Poor Man's Orange, as well as the film Dad and Dave: On Our Selection. He directed the film Dancing, produced by David Elfick,^[7] which was shown at the Melbourne International Film Festival in 1980.^[8] He also directed children programs such as More Winners and Clowning Around.

Whaley undertook a tremendous amount of groundbreaking work with Indigenous actors, such as David Gulpilil, Jack Charles, Ivan Sen, Warwick Thornton and Erica Glynn.^[4]

Whaley was responsible for discovering actor Geoffrey Rush, casting him in his first stage role, Waiting for Godot in 1979, and in his first film role, Dad and Dave: On Our Selection in 1995.^[4]

He also worked as writer, adaptor, producer, fight director, set designer and designer.^[6]

Teaching

Whaley taught as Head of Acting at National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) from 1976 to 1981, where among other students, he taught Mel Gibson, Judy Davis, Colin Friels, Hugo Weaving, Philip Quast, Steve Bisley, Tom Burlinson, Linda Cropper, Penny Cook, Anne Tenney, Heather Mitchell and Di Smith.^[9]

He joined Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS) in Sydney as a directing consultant in the mid-1990s, later becoming Head of Directing - a role he held until 2002.

In his later years, Whaley moved to Dorroughby, in the Northern Rivers, where he taught Acting for Stage and Screen at Lismore Conservatorium. He employed Stanislavski's Method in his teachings.^[4]

Publications

Whaley penned a 2009 biography about British actor Leo McKern - Leo McKern: the Accidental Actor.^[4]

Acting

Film

Year	Title	Role	Type
1969	To Australia with Love		Short film
1971	Stork	Businessman	Feature film
1971	The Hot Centre of the World		Short film
1973	Alvin Purple	Dr. McBurney	Feature film
1985	Bliss	Vance	Feature film
1990	The Crossing	Sid	Feature film
1992	Turtle Beach (aka The Killing Beach)	Bill	Feature film
1992	Daydream Believer (aka The Girl Who Came Late)	Mike	Feature film
1997	Retro Sheilas in Space Aliens Are Tooling Our Sheilas	Prime Minister Keating	Short film
1997	The Tower	The Minister	TV movie
2001	Rubberman Accepts the Nobel Prize	Announcer	Short film
2002	Mimi	Auctioneer	Short film

Television

Year	Title	Role	Type
1961	The Rivals	Faulkland	TV play
1963	Night Stop	Eddy	TV play
1963	A Piece of Ribbon		TV play
1964	On Approval	The Duke of Bristol	TV play
1964	Barley Charlie		TV series, 1 episode
1962-64	Consider Your Verdict	Don Fraser / Stanley Naughton	TV series, 3 episodes
1964	Corruption in the Palace of Justice		TV play
1964	Luther		TV play
1965	A Time to Speak	John	TV play
1965	Duet: The Face at the Club House Door and How Do You Spell Matrimony?		TV play
1965	A Christmas Play		TV play
1965	The Winds of Green Monday	Welshman Jones	TV play
1966	Jimmy	Self	TV series, 4 episodes
1966	Homicide	Charles Steiner	TV series, 1 episode
1966-67	Australian Playhouse	Fenwick / Ralph Ellis	TV series, 3 episodes
1967	Die Flederemaus		TV play
1967	Hey You!	Simpkins	TV series, 2 episodes
1967	The Heat's On		TV play
1967	Breakdown		TV play
1972	A Time for Love		TV series, 1 episode
1976	Matlock Police	Emmanuel Bridger	TV series, 1 episode
1981	Bellamy	Lampani	TV miniseries, 1 episode
	Division 4		TV series
1988	Australians		TV miniseries, 1 episode
1988	The Fremantle Conspiracy		TV miniseries
1989	Rafferty's Rules	Patrick I'Connor	TV series, 1 episode
1990	The Flying Doctors	Mingo McTaggart	TV series, 1 episode
1984	Bodyline	Lord Hawke	TV miniseries
1991	Ring of Scorpio	Julio	TV miniseries, 4 episodes
1992	A Country Practice	Gil Tyler	TV series, 2 episodes
1992	Bligh	Thomas Bowlder	TV series, 1 episode
1993	G.P.	G.J. Harrison	TV series, 2 episodes
1993	Stark	Australian politician	TV miniseries
1994	Mother and Son	Doctor	TV series, 1 episode
2008	All Saints	Bill Blight	TV series
2009	Dirt Game	Tim Royce	TV miniseries
2014	The Gods of Wheat Street	Magistrate	TV miniseries, 2 episodes

Stage

Year	Title	Role	Venue / Theatre Company
1960	Look Back in Anger
1968	The Crucible	John Proctor
1981	Accidental Death of an Anarchist		Nimrod Theatre Company
1983	Party Wall		Nimrod Theatre Company

Radio

Year	Title	Role	Type
1969	Burke's Company		Radio play

Directing

Film

Year	Title	Role	Type
1980	Dancing	Director	Film
1995	Dad and Dave: On Our Selection	Writer / director	Feature film

Television

Year	Title	Role	Type
1987	The Harp in the South	Writer / director	TV miniseries, 3 episodes
1987	Poor Man's Orange	Writer / director	TV miniseries, 2 episodes
1988	Australians	Director	TV series, episode 8: "Jack Davey"
1990	More Winners	Director	TV series, episode 3: "Mr Edmund"
1991	Clowning Around	Director	TV miniseries
1993	Clowning Around 2	Director	TV miniseries
1999	The Adventures of Sam	Director	Animated TV series

Stage

Year	Title	Venue / Theatre Company
1976	Trespassers Will Be Prosecuted	Jane Street Theatre with National Institute of Dramatic Art
1977	The Hostage	National Institute of Dramatic Art
1978	The Threepenny Opera	National Institute of Dramatic Art
1979	On Our Selection	Jane Street Theatre & Nimrod Theatre with National Institute of Dramatic Art
1979	Waiting for Godot	Jane Street Theatre with National Institute of Dramatic Art
1980	The Women Pirates	National Institute of Dramatic Art
	Mother Courage and Her Children
	More than a Sentimental Bloke
	The Perfectionist
	Old Times

Awards and nominations

Year	Nominated work	Award	Result
1968	The Crucible	Best Actor	Won
1987	The Harp in the South	AFI Award for Best Direction in a Miniseries	Nominated
1988	Poor Man's Orange	AFI Award for Best Achievenent in Direction in a Miniseries	Nominated
1993	More Winners: Mr Edmund	CableACE Award for Excellence International Children's Programming Special or Series	Nominated
1995	Dad and Dave: On Our Seiection	AFI Award for Best Adapted Screenplay	Nominated

Personal life

Whaley met his wife-to-be Georgina (Georgie) in 1960. They married in 1966, and had two sons, Michael and Matthew, and five grandchildren.^[4]

Death

In his final years, George struggled with Parkinsons disease, and relocated to Feros Village in Bangalow, to receive medical care. He passed away in the Northern Rivers of New South Wales, on 6 August 2019, aged 85.^[4]