Charles 'Bud' Tingwell dies at 86

Charles "Bud" Tingwell's passion for acting kept him working until the end.
The legendary Australian actor had a script by his bedside and was learning his
lines despite battling prostate cancer.

Tingwell, 86, died in a Melbourne hospital on Monday morning with his son
Christopher and daughter Virginia Tingwell by his side.
Just six weeks ago, Tingwell was on set filming for the second series of the ABC's
Bed of Roses, before taking a turn for the worse a couple of weeks ago.
He was due to shoot some minor scenes this week, with the show to air later in the
year.
Producer Stephen Luby said Tingwell had been frail but gave the part, a major one,
his all.
"He had been turning up to work each day and relishing it," Luby told AAP.
It was his 144th appearance in a television and film career spanning seven decades.
Tingwell, who is probably best known for playing lawyer Lawrence Hammill, QC, in The
Castle, also had a film in production, an Australian sci-fi thriller called
Antigravity.
On the set of Bed of Roses, Luby said Tingwell showed his generous side.
"Bud was happy to line up for his turn for lunch with 80 people," Luby said.
"He would give people great pleasure in telling all the stories that he has from his
whole life in the industry.
"He was truly inspirational".
Recently on his website, Tingwell wrote: "I don't have any huge ambitions left. I
just want to keep doing what I'm doing."
His fellow actors described Tingwell as a delight to work with and a consummate
professional, a "true gentleman" who treated other performers and crew with the
greatest respect.
Working Dog Productions' Tom Gleisner, who worked with Tingwell on The Castle, said
he was in good spirits when fellow producers Rob Sitch and Michael Hirsh visited him
in hospital last week.
"They both reported that he was in fine spirits and that he had a script next to his
bed, so he was in the midst of learning something, which is a mark to Bud - he never
had any intention of retiring or stopping working," he told AAP.
"Whatever he was doing he would give it 100 per cent."
His Breaker Morant co-star Jack Thompson said Tingwell would be greatly missed.
"It's like a great tree has been felled in the landscape of our culture and in
particular in the landscape of our film world," Thompson told Sky News.
Tingwell's last completed role was playing Winston Churchill in the ABC TV movie
Menzies and Churchill at War, one of four parts last year.
Other roles included TV show Homicide and mini-series All The Rivers Run.
Nicknamed Bud even before his birth in Sydney in 1923, Tingwell became the country's
youngest radio announcer when working at 2CH in Sydney before going on to serve in
Britain's Royal Air Force in World War II.
After the war, his first speaking role was in 1946 in the film Smithy, about aviator
Charles Kingsford Smith.
After a stint in Hollywood, Tingwell and his wife Audrey, who was his childhood
sweetheart, lived in London from 1956 until the early 1970s. Audrey died in 1996.
After returning to Australia in 1972 Tingwell went on to star in a number of TV
shows including The Sullivans and The Flying Doctors.
He was inducted into the Logie Hall of Fame in 1994.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd described the actor as "in every sense an Australian legend".
"He is so much a part of the Australian character as it's been shaped and as it will
evolve in the future," Mr Rudd said.
"A great Australian and all Australians are sad to see his passing."
Tingwell will be farewelled at a state funeral at St Paul's Cathedral at 10.30am on
Wednesday, May 20 in Melbourne.