Bill Hunter (1940-2011), actor, spent five decades on Australian television and cinema screens. Hunter was in such classic Australian films as Ned Kelly (1970) Stone (1974) Mad Dog Morgan (1976) Newsfront (1978) Gallipoli (1981) Strictly Ballroom (1993) The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1993) Muriel's Wedding (1994) The Road to Nhill (1987) Crackerjack (2002) and Red Dog (2011). He died with a tally of three Best Actor and one Best Supporting Actor AFI awards, as work was being completed on The Cup (2011) in which he played Bart Cummings. Typecast as a gruff, straight-talking 'bloke', Hunter maintained the persona off-screen, claiming that acting was little more than putting on a costume, posing according to the director's instructions, and delivering a scripted line. Upon his death, Prime Minister Julia Gillard paid tribute to the actor, saying that he 'told us Australian stories in an Australian voice at a time when we were debating and developing our sense of national identity.'
