Tommy Dysart

Film and TV roles 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.

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

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, ("G, O, G, G, O ... No! No! Not the Dart"). 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. Dysart and Joan Brockenshire appeared in Karl von Möller's 2019 documentary "D'art".

Filmography

Film Year Title Role Notes 1965 Moby Dick - Rehearsed TV movie 1965 The Big Killing Sergeant Bassett TV movie 1969 It Takes All Kinds Seaman Feature film 1972 The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui TV movie 1982 The Man from Snowy River Mountain Man Feature film 1982 Next of Kin Harry Feature film 1982 The Clinic Patient Feature film 1985 Bliss De Vere Feature film 1985 I Live with Me Dad Griffin Feature film 1986 Sky Pirates Bartender Feature film 1986 The Big Hurt Schwartz Feature film 1987 Ground Zero British Veteran Feature film 1988 Backstage Head Waiter - Reception Feature film 1988 Georgia Bystander Feature film 1990 What the Moon Saw Skip Feature film 1992 Garbo Bagpipes Feature film 1992 Come Rain or Shine Feature film (starred with son Kole Dysart) 1993 Flynn (aka My Forgotten Man) Macintosh Feature film 1993 Body Melt Sergeant Feature film 1994 Metal Skin Mr Graham Feature film 1995 The Final Stage Stinky Radford Feature film 1995 Mushrooms Wilson Feature film 1996 River Street Sergeant Feature film 1999 Strange Fits of Passion Taxi Driver Feature film 2000 Wee Jimmy Grandad Short film 2001 Four Jacks Lance Feature film 2002 The Real Thing Husband Feature film 2005 The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello Captain Otto H. Griswald (voice) Animated short film 2009 Remembering Nigel Tommy Dysart Short film (starred with son Kole Dysart) 2009 Crazy in the Night Jock Short film 2011 Hands.Hands Old Man Short film 2018 A Thin Life The Man Feature film 2019 D'art Self Documentary film 2021 Frankly - A Life in the Circus Self Feature film

Television Year Title Role Notes 1963 Consider Your Verdict Jack McLean TV series, 1 episode 1965 The Stranger TV miniseries, 2 episodes 1968 Skippy the Bush Kangaroo Andrews TV series, 1 episode 1969 Division 4 George Baker TV series, 1 episode 1970 The Rovers Butcher TV series, 1 episode 1970 Phoenix Five Gunfighter TV series, 1 episode 1971, 1973 Matlock Police Ted Woods / Abdul TV series, 2 episodes 1974 Silent Number Sand TV series, 1 episode 1975 Behind the Legend TV series, 1 episode 1964-75 Homicide George Hogan, Jeffrey Hodges, Anthony Scott, Angus Lawrence, Chris Doyle, Van Driver, Osman Rados, Neil Campbell, Nicolo Rogowski TV series, 9 episodes 1975 Ben Hall Haigh TV series, 1 episode 1975 Luke's Kingdom Lug TV miniseries, 1 episode 1978 The Truckies TV series, 1 episode 1978 Against the Wind Settler / Travers / Drunken Rebel TV miniseries, 3 episodes 1979 Skyways Paddy McDonald TV series, 1 episode 1979 The Sullivans Fergus McCullough TV series, 1 episode 1980 Young Ramsay Paddy Rourke TV series, 1 episode 1980 Water Under the Bridge Hamish TV miniseries, 1 episode 1980 The Last Outlaw Superintendent TV miniseries, 4 episodes 1981 Are You Being Served? Kilted Customer TV series, 1 episode 1977-81 Cop Shop Dimonicus, Don Morgan, John Ford, Lawrence Peck TV series, 7 episodes 1980-82 Prisoner Jock Stewart TV series, 12 episodes 1982 Come Midnight Monday Angus McPhee TV series, 5 episodes 1982 Women of the Sun Joe TV miniseries, 1 episode 1983 Carson's Law Captain Robinson TV series, 1 episode 1983 Infinity Limited Henry TV series, episode 15: The Big Lift 1984 Five Mile Creek Trantor TV series, 1 episode 1984 Special Squad Scottie / Bingo Caller TV series, 2 episodes 1984 Eureka Stockade Tom Kennedy TV miniseries, 2 episodes 1985 The Fast Lane Neville TV series, 1 episode 1985 Trapp, Wrinkle and Box Various TV series 1985 Zoo Family McGregor TV series, 1 episode 1986 Alice to Nowhere Fighting Scotsman TV miniseries, 2 episodes 1986, 1987 The Flying Doctors Inspector Kevin Day / Simpson TV series, 2 episodes 1990 Friday on My Mind 1991 Boys from the Bush Nick TV series, 1 episode 1991 All Together Now Barkeeper TV series, 1 episode 1991 Chances Trevor Russell TV series, 1 episode 1991 Kelly Sgt Terry Blake TV series, 2 episode 1992 Round the Twist Bus Driver TV series, 1 episode 1992, 1993 The Late Show Goggomobile Man TV series, 2 episodes 1994 Wedlocked Marvin / Hot Dog Man TV series, 4 episodes 1995 Snowy River: The McGregor Saga Mr Couch TV series, 1 episode 1998 Good Guys, Bad Guys Athol Amoroso TV series, 1 episode The Games Taxu Driver TV series, 1 episode 1998 State Coroner Robert Ash TV series, 1 episode 2000 Blue Heelers Jimmy Fong TV series, season 7, 1 episode 2001 Neighbours Fergus MacLeod TV series, 1 episode 2001 Pizza 50s Pizza Couple TV series, 1 episode 2001 Something in the Air Roy Suede TV series, 2 episodes

Theatre Year Title Role Notes 1975-77 The Rocky Horror Show Narrator Regent Palace Theatre, 458 performances

Personal life Dysart enjoyed a long personal and professional relationship with director and writer Frank Howson. They worked together on the films Backstage, Boulevard of Broken Dreams, What the Moon Saw, Flynn, Crime Time, The Final Stage, Lucky Country, and the award-winning short film Remembering Nigel, which also featured Dysart's wife and son Kole.

Dysart was married to actress Joan Brockenshire. On 18 February 2022, Dysart suffered a stroke and was taken to the Alfred Hospital. He died on 7 June 2022 in Melbourne, Victoria at the age of 86.