Colin Friels
Colin Friels (b.
September 25,
1952) is a distinguished
British-born
Australian actor.
Friels was born in
Kilwinning,
North Ayrshire,
Scotland. He lived in
Kilbirnie until 1963, when his family moved to Australia, arriving in
Darwin,
Northern Territory before settling in the
Melbourne suburb of
Broadmeadows. He worked as a bricklayer's labourer before studying at the prestigious
National Institute of Dramatic Arts (NIDA), alongside actors such as
Mel Gibson, and his own future wife
Judy Davis.
Friels graduated from NIDA in
1976, working mostly in theatre and television. In
1980 Friels was a presenter on the long-running children's series
Play School. His first film role was in the unreleased
Prisoners (
1981), starring with
Tatum O'Neal. The film was allegedly so bad that Tatum's father
Ryan O'Neal purchased the rights to the film to prevent it from ever screening. His first actual appearance in film was in
Monkey Grip (
1982), an adaptation of a novel by
Helen Garner, where he starred alongside
Noni Hazlehurst.
In
1986 he played the title role in
Malcolm, about a shy mechanical genius, for which he was awarded the 1986
AFI Award for
best actor. Friels won another AFI Award, for
best actor in a television drama, in
1995 for his starring role in the
1994 Halifax f.p. telemovie "Hard Corps".
From
1996 to
1999 he played Frank Holloway on the television series
Water Rats, a role which won him the
Logie Award for Most Outstanding Actor at
the 1997 awards. His acceptance speech caused controversy when he said "I'm very flattered for this and it's all rather silly, isn't it? So, thank you very much."
In late
1997 Friels was diagnosed with
pancreatic cancer, and almost died, however his treatment was successful and he is one of the very, very few victims of this disease to go into long-term remission.
During his treatment he even continued to work on the set of
Water Rats, until eventually the impact of the
chemotherapy stopped him from working, and he chose to have his character written out of the series by sending him on a sailing journey around the world.
From
2003, Friels has appeared as the main character in the
BlackJack series of telemovies.
Friels has been married to actress
Judy Davis since 1984, and the couple have two children, Jack and Charlotte. They were briefly separated, but have reconciled.
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Malcolm (
1986)
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High Tide (
1988)
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Darkman (
1990)
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Dingo (
1992)
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Dark City (
1998)
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The Man Who Sued God (
2001)
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Tom White (
2004)
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Photo of Colin Friels and Heather Mitchell
