R.I.P. HUGH KEAYS-BYRNE

Actor Hugh Keays-Byrne, a towering presence in Australia’s acting community and iconic genre cinema figure, has passed away in hospital overnight, aged 73. Destined to be forever remembered as ‘The Toecutter’ in the 1979 action classic Mad Max, Keays-Byrne reunited with director Dr George Miller 36 years later to play ‘Immortan Joe’ in the blockbuster reboot, Mad Max: Fury Road. It would be his final film role.

Born in Srinigar, India in 1947 to British parents, Keays-Byrne acted extensively on the London stage in his formative years, working with the Royal Shakespeare Company on productions of  As You Like It, Hamlet, King Lear, Much Ado About Nothing and Troilus and Cressida. A RSC tour of Australia performing in A Midsummer’s Night Dream led to the actor relocating here, his classically trained credentials providing entry into the burgeoning film and television sector.

The imposing physicality and enigmatic screen presence for which he would garner a legion of fans was evident in his big screen debut as ‘Toad’ in the late Sandy Harbutt’s motorbike-gang classic, Stone (1974; pictured, right), a role which caught the eye of director Brian Trenchard-Smith, who cast him in the action opus, The Man From Hong Kong (1975). This was a prolific period for the actor, with television work in the made-for-small-screen movies Essington (1974) and Polly My Love (1975) and the popular historical series Ben Hall (1975) and Rush (1976), for which he won a Best Actor Logie award.

Recognised as an invaluable ensemble player, support parts began to mount; Keays-Byrne supplied vivid character work in Phillipe Mora’s Mad Dog Morgan (1976), John Duigan’s The Trespassers (1976), Carl Schultz’s Blue Fin (1978) and Simon Wincer’s Shapshot (1979). With the industry hungry for local content, TV-movie production was at an unprecedented high, demand that the actor benefitted from with compelling turns in Beyond Reasonable Doubt (1977), Say You Want Me (1977), The Death Train (1978) and The Tichborne Affair (1978).

His star-making role came when he provided the villainous ying to young NIDA graduate Mel Gibson’s heroic yang in Miller’s low-budget, high-octane Mad Max. In a fearlessly crafted performance that perfectly conveys the anarchy and brutality of the post-apocalyptic setting, Keays-Byrne’s ‘Toecutter’ is one of Australian film’s most enduring figures; his left-field interpretation of psychotic villainy has ensured lines such as “Jessie, Jessie, Jessie, you've not got a sense of humor,” and “What a wonderful philosophy you have” will live forever. The performance earned Keays-Byrne a Best Supporting Actor nomination at the1979  Australian Film Institute Awards.

Hugh Keays-Byrne remained loyal to the sector that embraced him as a young English actor, staying in Australia and working steadily throughout the 1980s in such films as ian Barry’s  The Chain Reaction (1980; pictured, right, with Steve Bisley), Jonathan Dawson’s Ginger Meggs (1982), Werner Herzog’s Where the Green Ants Dream (1984), Richard Lowenstein’s Strikebound (1984), Graeme Clifford’s Burke & Wills (1985), Tim Burstall’s Kangaroo (1986), George Miller (the other one)’s Les Patterson Saves the World (1987) and David Webb Peoples’ Salute of the Jugger (1989). In 1992, he co-directed the dystopian action-thriller Resistance, reuniting him with fellow Mad Max alumni Vincent Gil (‘Nightrider’) in a support role.

International productions utilising Australian facilities recognised the value of a professional presence like Hugh Keays-Byrne, providing steady work for the actor throughout the 1990s in series such as Moby Dick (1998), opposite Patrick Stewart and Henry Thomas; Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1999), starring Treat Williams; and, as fan favourite ‘Grunchik’ in the sci-fi hit, Farscape.

Dr George Miller always acknowledged the invaluable contribution the actor made during the guerilla-style shot of Mad Max. It is known that the director had written a key role for the actor in his planned DCU adaptation, Justice League: Mortal, a Warner Pros tentpole project that was ultimately shut down only weeks before production was due to begin in 2007. His casting as ‘Immortan Joe’ in Mad Max: Fury Road was seen as a spiritual bond back to the original film and greeted with adoration by the franchise’s fanbase.