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Vale: Tommy Dysart

Scottish-born actor, best known for Prisoner and commercials for Yellow Pages & Don Smallgoods, has died.

Scottish-born actor Tommy Dysart, best known for Prisoner and commercials for Yellow Pages and Don Smallgoods, has died aged 86.

He died after a brief battle with illness.

After graduating from NIDA in 1959 Dysart enjoyed a long career on Australian stage and screen, often alongside beloved wife, actress Joan Brockenshire.

His most famous television role was as Prisoner‘s deep-voiced, villainous prison guard Jock Stewart from 1980 – 1982, where he admitted to Judy Bryant (Betty Bobbitt) that he was the one responsible for murdering her lover, Sharon Gilmour (Margot Knight).

But there were numerous credits, many of which were with Crawford Productions and Grundys, including Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, The Rovers, Ben Hall, Luke’s Kingdom, Homicide, Division 4, Matlock Police, Cop Shop, Water Under the Bridge, Skyways, Agaisnt the Wind, The Sullivans, Young Ramsay, The Last Outlaw, Carson’s Law, Women of the Sun, Five Mile Creek, Special Squad, The Fast Lane, Eureka Stockade, Snowy River: The McGregor Saga, Zoo Family, Alice to Nowhere, The Flying Doctors, All Together Now, Chances, Round the Twist, Wedlocked, Good Guys Bad Guys, The Games, State Coroner, Blue Heelers, Neighbours, Pizza, Something in the Air.

Film credits included The Man from Snowy River, Next of Kin, The Clinic, Bliss, Ground Zero, Friday on My Mind, Garbo, Body Melt, Metal Skin, River Street, Strange Fits of Passion, The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello. He enjoyed a long association with director / writer Frank Howson in Backstage, Boulevard of Broken Dreams, What the Moon Saw, Flynn, Crime Time, The Final Stage, The Lucky Country and his last in 2018, A Thin Life.

He will forever be remembered for his endearing portrayal of a classic car enthusiast with a deep affection for Goggomobil cars on a commercial for Yellow Pages., followed by an amusing butcher in commercials for Don Smallgoods.

But Dysart also enjoyed a long stage career performing in drama and musicals from 1960 including A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Macbeth, The Threepenny Opera, On Our Selection, The Rocky Horror Show, Jesus Christ Superstar, The Barber of Seville, Man of la Mancha, The Beggar’s Opera, Peer Gynt, and theatre restaurant.

Source: Shannons

9 Responses

  1. Very sad news. A lovely man, excellent actor and very professional. He will be deeply missed – especially by his family. Deepest sympathies to Joan and Kole.
    Vale Tommy – fly high.

  2. He was really scary as Jock Stewart in Prisoner so an excellent actor. Also loved Go Go mobile ad but couldn’t understand all he was saying lol. RIP Tommy.

  3. RIP Tommy I remember him most as Jock in prisoner he played quite a few guest roles in cop shop in one of them he and Betty Bobbitt played husband and wife

  4. Very sad to hear this, though a much celebrated life. I’m aware of some of his more obscure work like the 1995 CD single Tom Dysart – GO G GO (Goggomobil Song) which is very rare and probably valuable if you can get a copy still, and role in the official music video for Sgt. Slick – Let It Ride. Both of these were alongside his wife. Let’s not forget his work in the Shannons Car Insurance. An absolute shining heart and he brought sunshine into a lot of people’s lives with his presence.

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