Harold Hopkins

Harold Douglas Hopkins (6 March 194411 December 2011) was an Australian film and television actor.

Early life Hopkins was born on 6 March 1944, in Toowoomba, Queensland. He was one of seven children (including Naomi, Michael, Gregory, Margaret, Suzanne and twin brother John)

After his apprenticeship, Hopkins and his twin brother John enrolled at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) in Sydney, with Harold graduating in 1967.

Hopkins' appeared on stage with the Sydney Theatre Company and Melbourne Theatre Company playing Barney in Ray Lawler's The Doll Trilogy at the Sydney Opera House, Melbourne Athenaeum and again three years later in New York. He also had a major co-starring role opposite Jeanie Drynan in the 1969 ABC drama miniseries Pastures of the Blue Crane, an adaptation of the 1965 children's novel by Hesba Brinsmead.

Other early television credits included Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, Riptide, Delta and Barrier Reef.

Hopkins went on to appear in numerous other series including Certain Women, Silent Number, Matlock Police, Homicide, Division 4, Rush and The Lost Islands.

Later television series in which Hopkins had roles, included State Coroner, Blue Heelers, White Collar Blue, Wildside, All Saints, The Secret Life of Us, Grass Roots and The Strip. in which Hopkins also starred as obnoxious farmhand Les McCann, opposite Mel Gibson and Mark Lee. Several TV films followed, including Big Ideas (1993) and Never Tell Me Never (1998).

Death In 2011, Hopkins was diagnosed with mesothelioma, believed to be due to his asbestos exposure in the 1960s. He died in Neringah Private Hospital, a Sydney hospice in Wahroonga on 11 December 2011, at the age of 67.