Bud Tingwell

[citation needed] As an adolescent, Bud was encouraged by his father to train as an accountant, but Tingwell failed the entrance exam.

[2] In 1941, aged 18, Tingwell volunteered for war service overseas with the Royal Australian Air Force.

74 Operational Training Unit RAF, in British Palestine, and qualified to fly the Hawker Hurricane and Supermarine Spitfire.

680 Squadron RAF, a photo reconnaissance unit, and flew 75 sorties in Mosquitos and Spitfires during the Italian campaign.

5 Operational Training Unit RAAF as a flying instructor in June 1945, and then in December 1945, after the war had ended, he was posted to No.

[8] He joined Doris Fitton's Independent Theatre company and appeared on stage from the mid-1940s in such classics as The Little Foxes by Lillian Hellman[9] and Jean Giraudoux's The Madwoman of Chaillot[10] In 1946, Tingwell was given his first film role, in Smithy, cast as an RAAF control tower officer – winning the role since he could supply his own RAAF uniform.

Fox liked Tingwell's work in Kangaroo and invited him to Los Angeles to play the role of Lt. Harry Carstairs in The Desert Rats, in which he appeared opposite Chips Rafferty, James Mason and Richard Burton.

In 1954, he co-starred with Gordon Chater in Top of the Bill, the first of the famous satirical revues staged at Sydney's Phillip Street Theatre.

The Australian film and radio industry slumped with the advent of television and Tingwell decided to move to the UK.

Tingwell appeared in many other films during his time in Britain, spending a total of 16 years as a "London Aussie".

[11] In 1973, he returned to Australia with his wife and children, and shortly after won the role of Inspector Reg Lawson in the long-running TV series Homicide.

This was followed by small roles in a number of major Australian films, such as Breaker Morant (1980), Puberty Blues (1981) and All the Rivers Run (1983).

[12] He appeared as John Conroy in the musical theatre production The Man from Snowy River: Arena Spectacular, which toured Australian capital cities twice during 2002.

He continued to act regularly until his death, in a number of films and TV programmes including eight episodes of Bed of Roses that aired in 2010.

[7] Bud Tingwell died in Epworth Hospital in Melbourne, thirteen years later, after a long battle with prostate cancer, on 15 May 2009.

Tingwell's plaque at the Australian Film Walk of Fame , the Ritz Cinema , Randwick, Sydney