Tommy Dysart

Tommy Dysart, is a Scottish-born Australian stage, television and film actor, known for his appearances on television dramas and comedies and in character roles in films and miniseries

Tommy Dysart
Born
Scotland
OccupationActor
Years active1963–present
Spouse(s)Joan Brockenshire (19??-present)

Early career

Dysart graduated from NIDA[1] in 1959, and started his career as a vocalist, 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.

Prisoner role

In the early 1980s he played what is perhaps his best-known acting role, that of vicious and cold prison officer Jock Stewart in Prisoner. 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.

Film and Television

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).

Commercial advertisements

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.[2] 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.

Personal life

Tommy has enjoyed a long friendship and working relationship with director/writer Frank Howson in the movies Backstage, Boulevard of Broken Dreams, What the Moon Saw, Flynn, Crime Time, The Final Stage, The Lucky Country, and their most recent collaboration is the award-winning short film Remembering Nigel, which also stars Tommy's wife Joan and son Kole.

He is married to actress Joan Brockenshire.

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References
  1. "Cast of thousands cheers for NIDA's 50th birthday". The Sydney Morning Herald. 18 February 2009. Retrieved 3 March 2020.
  2. "Sheer dartistry a-Goggo". www.theaustralian.com.au. 11 September 2019. Retrieved 3 March 2020.
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