Jonathan Hardy

Jonathan Hardy (20 September 1940 – 30 July 2012) was a New Zealand-Australian film and television actor, writer and director.^[3]

Jonathan Hardy
Born	(1940-09-20)20 September 1940 Wellington, New Zealand
Died	30 July 2012(2012-07-30) (aged 71) Southern Highlands, New South Wales, Australia
Education	New Zealand Players' Drama School[1] London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art[1]
Occupation(s)	Actor, writer, director
Years active	1966–2012
Partner	David Letch[2]

Early life and education

Hardy was born in Wellington, New Zealand on 20 September 1940, to cavalry officer Captain Burnby Hardy and Mary Hardy (nee Philpott). His father was killed by a sniper in Crete that same year, and his mother died when Hardy was only 19.^{[4] [1]}

He began his training at the New Zealand Players' Drama School. He then traveled to Britain, where he studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) and was a gold medal student.^[1] He also spent time doing vocal study in Spain.^[4]

Career

Hardy acting career lasted for over 40 years, from 1966 to 2012.

Theatre

Hardy's preference was to work on stage. Following his studies in the UK, he attracted interest from the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal National Theatre where he secured contracts,^[1] as well as the Bristol Old Vic and several regional theatres.^[4]

He returned to his home of New Zealand in a touring production of The Comedy of Errors with the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1966, and remained to help expand the country's early theatre industry.^[5]

Hardy relocated to Australia in 1972, but also returned to New Zealand regularly throughout the mid 1980s^[4][6][5], to perform as a guest actor with Auckland Theatre Company, including playing Willy Loman in a production of Death of a Salesman.^[6] He headed the Melbourne Theatre Company’s youth wing for two years.^[4] In 1978 he appeared in the premiere stage production of Kenneth G. Ross's Australian play Breaker Morant, presented by the Melbourne Theatre Company at the Athenaeum theatre, in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, on Thursday, 2 February 1978.^[7] The play was subsequently adapted into a film, for which Hardy co-wrote the script, earning him a 1981 Academy Awards nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.^[4]

Hardy then became Artistic Director of Auckland's Mercury Theatre, a role he undertook for five years. He also played Captain Ahab in Moby Dick Rehearsed and appeared in Gallipoli saga Once on Chunuk Bair.

Hardy had long engagements with major theatre companies in both Melbourne and Sydney.^[1] His roles ranged from a Christmas pantomime of Cinderella, Shakespeare, opera and topical plays such as And in the End: The Life and Death of John Lennon.^[8]

In his obituary, he is quoted by Mark Juddery as saying, "The actor is in control in the theatre... so the theatre is much more an actor's medium" and "Television is not anything but an actor's image... If my image happens to fit, then I do the job. Whereas on stage you can create an illusion, on television… it's pretty cliched."^[1]

Film

Hardy appeared in over 20 films, guested in over 26 television series, and acted in many television movies and miniseries.^[9] His early roles included the BBC children's time travel series Mandog in 1972, and a small role in the London-set Australian comedy feature The Adventures of Barry McKenzie that same year.^[4]

His film work continued with the 1976 Fred Schepisi feature The Devil's Playground, for which he was nominated for an Australian Film Institute award. He also starred in George Miller dystopian action classic Mad Max in 1979, and appeared in The Sullivans TV movie spin-off The John Sullivan Story that same year.^[10]

At Italy's MystFest ^[it], Hardy was the co-winner of Best Artistic Contribution for his role in 1982 horror film Scarecrow.^[11] He later appeared in Mr. Reliable aka My Entire Life (1996) alongside Colin Friels and Jacqueline McKenzie, and the Baz Luhrmann musical epic Moulin Rouge! (2001), in which he played the character of the 'Man in the Moon', for whom Plácido Domingo supplied the singing voice.^[4] He won a New Zealand Film and TV Award in 2001, for his performance in 2000 short film Camping with Camus.^[11][4] He then appeared in the 2003 feature Ned Kelly, opposite Heath Ledger and Orlando Bloom, playing 'The Great Orlando'.^[4]

Hardy became best known to international audiences for providing the voice of diminutive alien ex-royal leader Dominar Rygel XVI in the science fiction series Farscape from 1999 to 2003, and its subsequent 2004 made-for-television film Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars. Farscape was filmed in Sydney, Australia, but was a United States production. Although the series was unsuccessful in Australia, Hardy developed a cult following and made appearances at sci-fi conventions.^[1][4][10]

Hardy's other television roles include Josef Goldman in Twenty Good Years in 1979, and the miniseries' Power Without Glory (1976) The Mackenzie Affair (1977) and Against the Wind (1978). He made guest appearances in numerous television series including Rush, Bluey, Young Ramsay, The Truckies, The Sullivans, Prisoner, Under the Mountain, Butterfly Island, Rafferty's Rules, G.P., Mission: Impossible, E Street, The Flying Doctors, A Country Practice, The Adventures of Skippy, Snowy River: The McGregor Saga, Fire, Medivac, Twisted Tales, All Saints, State Coroner, Above the Law, The Secret Life of Us, Stingers, MDA and Magical Tales.^[10]

Along with David Stevens and Bruce Beresford, Hardy co-wrote the screenplay for the film Breaker Morant, for which he received an Australian Film Institute Award (1980), and was nominated for an Academy Award (1981).^[11] He also wrote and directed the movie Backstage, starring the Grammy nominated pop vocalist Laura Branigan.^[12] His screen directing career however, failed to take off. He was set to direct one of the The Man from Snowy River sequels, when he experienced heart problems and underwent a heart transplant.^[4]

Awards

Year	Work	Award	Category	Result
1976	The Devil's Playground	Australian Film Institute Award	Best Actor in a Supporting Role	Nominated
1980	Breaker Morant	Australian Film Institute Award	Best Screenplay	Won
1981		Academy Award	Best Adapted Screenplay	Nominated
1982	Scarecrow	MystFest [it]	Best Artistic Contribution	Co-winner
1993	Romeo and Juliet / The Shaughraun	Matilda Award	Best Performance	Won[13]
2001	Camping with Camus	New Zealand Film and TV Award	Best Short Film Performance	Won

Personal life and death

Hardy's partner for over 40 years was actor-director David Letch.^[2] They worked on many projects together.^[1]

Hardy had a successful heart transplant.

Hardy died, aged 71, at his home in the town of Hill Top, in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales on 30 July 2012.^[14][15] He had developed septicemia after undergoing an operation on his leg to restore mobility.^[16]

Film

As actor

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref
1972	The Adventures of Barry McKenzie	Groove Courtenay		[10]
1974	Moving On	Anne's Boyfriend
1976	The Devil's Playground	Brother Arnold		[10]
1977	The Mango Tree	Joe Speight
1979	Mad Max	Labatouche		[10]
1982	Klynham Summer (aka The Scarecrow)	Charlie Dabney		[10]
	Lonely Hearts	Bruce		[10]
1984	Constance	Randolf Grieve		[10]
	Death Warmed Up	Ranji Gandhi		[10]
1985	Wills & Burke	John Macadam		[10]
	My Letter to George (aka Mesmerized)	Burley
	Lie of the Land	Doctor Max Steiner		[10]
1989	The Delinquents	Magistrate
	Bloodmoon	Mayor
1993	The Nostradamus Kid	'General Booth Enters Heaven' Strolling Player
1995	Tunnel Vision	Henry Adams
1996	Mr. Reliable (aka My Entire Life)	Reverend McIntyre		[10]
1997	Dust Off the Wings	Celebrant
	Down Rusty Down	Otis	Short	[10]
2001	Camping with Camus	Uncle Blick	Short	[10]
	Moulin Rouge!	Man in the Moon		[10]
2003	Ned Kelly	The Great Orlando		[10]
2005	Severance	Therapy Group
2006	Hunt Angels	Magistrate
	Wishbone	Homeless Man		[10]
2009	Big in Japan	Dr Timpleton	Short	[10]

As writer/director

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref
1980	Breaker Morant	Director / Co-writer		[4]
1984	Constance	Writer		[4]
1988	Backstage	Co-writer		[4]
	Return to Snowy River	Director's Associate		[10]
2006	Wishbone	Writer		[10]

Television

As actor

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref
1972	Mandog	Halmer	5 episodes	[10]
	Redheap	Henry	Miniseries, 3 episodes
1974	Rush	Yorkshire Goldminer	1 episode
1976	Andra	Shenlyn	6 episodes
	Power Without Glory	Paddy Kelleher / Rev. Joggins	Miniseries, 3 episodes
1977	Bluey	Benny Allman	1 episode
	Young Ramsay	Colonel Flynn	1 episode
	The Trial of Ned Kelly		TV movie
	The Mackenzie Affair	Judge	Miniseries	[10]
1978	The Truckies		1 episode
	Against the Wind	Sam Fitchett	Miniseries, 1 episode	[10]
	The Sullivans	Captain	1 episode
1979	The John Sullivan Story	Vlad	TV movie	[10]
	Twenty Good Years	Josef Goldman	12 episodes	[10]
1980–1981	Prisoner: Cell Block H	Waller / Mr Potter	3 episodes	[10]
1981	Under the Mountain	Country Policeman	1 episode	[10]
1983	Nearly No Christmas	Mr Rich	TV movie	[10]
1984; 1986	Heroes	Shopkeeper	2 episodes	[10]
1985	Butterfly Island			[10]
	Hanlon	Judge		[10]
1989	Rafferty's Rules	Mr Linnehan	1 episode
	Mission: Impossible	Etienne Reynard	1 episode
1989–1993	E Street	Liam Buckley	3 episodes	[10]
1990	Family and Friends	Brother Ignatius
	The Flying Doctors	Tyler Wells	1 episode
	More Winners	Mr Bretherton		[10]
	A Country Practice	Patrick Gardner	1 episode
1992	The Adventures of Skippy	Grandad Bill	2 episodes	[10]
1995	G.P.	Robert Houghton	1 episode	[10]
	Mission Top Secret	Bombalini	1 episode
	Tunnel Vision	Henry Adams	TV movie
1996	The Thorn Birds: The Missing Years	Father Emilio	TV movie
	Snowy River: The McGregor Saga	John Archer snr	1 episode	[10]
	Fire	Sgt Steve	1 episode
	Medivac	Rosenthal	1 episode
1997	Twisted Tales	Roger Mormon	1 episode	[10]
	Terrain	Giles Ballard	TV movie	[10]
1998	All Saints	Cliff Unwin	1 episode
	State Coroner	Steve Capelli	1 episode
1999–2003	Farscape	Voice of Dominar Rygel XVI	86 episodes	[10]
2000	Above the Law	Stan the Fingers	1 episode
2003	The Secret Life of Us	Tribunal Man	1 episode
	Stingers	Stephen Betjeman	1 episode	[10]
	MDA	Justice Tulloch	2 episodes
2004	Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars	Voice of Dominar Rygel XVI	Miniseries, 2 episodes	[10]
2012	Magical Tales	Wally	1 episode (final television appearance)	[10]

As writer/producer

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref
1987	Porters	Writer / Producer	Episode 5	[4][10]
1992	The Adventures of Skippy	Writer		[10]

Stage (selected)

Source:^[8]

As performer

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
1966	The Comedy of Errors		Royal Shakespeare Company UK & NZ tour	[6]
	H.M.S. Pinafore	Deadeye Dick		[16]
1966–1967	The Taming of the Shrew		Bristol Old Vic, UK	[17]
1967	The Government Inspector			[18]
	Strife			[19]
	War and Peace	General Kutusov / Karatayev	Bristol Old Vic & UK South West Arts tour	[20]
	The Beggar's Opera	Curl-Pated Hugh / Lockit	Connaught Theatre, Worthing, UK	[21]
1968	Oedipus	Chorus	The Old Vic, London with National Theatre	[22]
	Edward II	Hardy		[23]
1972	The Last Supper Show		Nimrod, Sydney
1972; 1973	Flash Jim Vaux	James Hardy Vaux	Nimrod, Sydney, Russell St Theatre, Melbourne with MTC	[24]
1973	Jumpers		Russell St Theatre, Melbourne with MTC
	The Prisoner of Second Avenue			[25]
	The Plough and the Stars
	Batman's Beach-Head		Comedy Theatre, Melbourne with MTC	[26]
	Paying the Piper
1973–1975	The Last of the Knucklemen	Producer	Canberra & Australian tour with MTC	[27]
1974	Coralie Lansdowne Says No		MTC
1975	The Double Dealer	Singer
1976	Don Pasquale	Singer	Victorian Opera Company
	The Diary of a Madman	Propftchkin (also adaptor)	MTC	[28]
	Orpheus & Eurydice		Arts Centre Melbourne with Victoria State Opera	[29]
1977	Cop Out		Russell St Theatre, Melbourne with MTC	[30]
	Trumpets and Drums		Mercury Theatre, Auckland
	The Merchant of Venice		Melbourne Athenaeum with MTC	[31]
1978	Breaker Morant	Major James Francis Thomas
	Richard III	Duke of Buckingham		[32]
	The Beaux' Stratagem		MTC
	The Fool's-Shoe Hotel		Pram Factory, Melbourne with APG
1979	The Immortalist	279	Playbox Theatre, Melbourne with Hoopla Theatre Foundation	[33]
	The Marriage of Figaro		Canberra Opera	[27]
	The Alchemist		Melbourne Athenaeum with MTC	[34]
1979–1980	Hamlet	Polonius
1980	Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead	Polonius		[35]
	Cinderella	Gumble		[36]
	Comedians		Mercury Theatre, Auckland
1981	Hancock's Last Half Hour
	Moby Dick—Rehearsed	Captain Ahab		[4]
	Oh, What a Lovely War!		New Zealand Theatre Company	[16]
	The Hollow Crown		New Zealand Theatre Company	[16]
	Einstein	Albert Einstein		[2]
	Peter Pan	Captain Hook		[2]
1985	Two		Universal Theatre, Melbourne	[37]
1990	Shadow and Splendour	General Schon (Russian general)	Suncorp Theatre, Brisbane with QTC & STCSA	[38]
1991	The Crucible	Deputy Governor Danforth	QTC
1992	Twelfth Night
	Hotel Sorrento
1993	The Beaux Stratagem	Boniface	Suncorp Theatre, Brisbane with QTC	[39]
	Romeo and Juliet
	A Christmas Carol		Oxford Productions International
	And a Nightingale Sang		QTC
1993–1995	The Shaughraun or The Loveable Rascal	Father Dolan	QTC, Playhouse, Melbourne with MTC	[40]
1994	Hysteria, or Fragments of an Analysis of an Obsessional Mind	Abraham Yahoda	Playhouse, Melbourne with MTC
	Twelve Angry Men		Auckland Theatre Company	[2]
1995	Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead		Pork Chop Productions
1996	The Surgical Table		Renegade Theatre
	Simpatico	Wombat	Wharf Theatre, Sydney with STC
	Life of Galileo		STC
	Coriolanus	Menenius Agrippa	Australian tour with Bell Shakespeare	[41]
1997	Pygmalion		Canberra Theatre, STC, Glen St Theatre, Sydney & Q Theatre, Penrith	[6]
	QTC Oz Shorts 1		QTC
	The Comedy of Errors	Solinus	Sydney Opera House with STC	[42][43]
1998	Tannhauser	Singer	Opera Australia
	She Stoops to Conquer		Auckland Theatre Company
1999	The Cripple of Inishmaan	Johnny Patten Mike
2000	Death of a Salesman	Willy Loman		[6]
2002; 2003	Great Expectations	Jaggers	Playhouse, Melbourne with MTC, Sydney Opera House	[44][2]
2003	A Tree, Falling	Lenny	Chapel off Chapel, Melbourne with Shy Tiger Productions
2004	Twelfth Night	Feste	Australian tour with Bell Shakespeare	[45][41]
	One Flea Spare	Bunce	Queensize Productions
2005	Treemonisha	Narrator	The Queensland Choir
	The Department Store		Parnassus' Den
2006	Renaissance
	And in the End: The Death and Life of John Lennon	Gatekeepers of the White Light / various	Parade Theatre, Sydney with The Walrius Group	[46]
2007	Paul	Nero	Company B Belvoir
	The Pillowman	Tupolski	Maidment Theatre with Auckland Theatre Company	[47]
2008	Twelfth Night	Feste	Sydney Opera House with Bell Shakespeare	[48]

As director/producer/writer

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
1974	The Importance of Being Earnest	Director / Producer	MTC	[49]
1975	MTC Theatre in Education: Headlines	Director		[50]
	MTC Theatre in Education: Cupid in Transit 2	Director		[50]
1976	The Italian Girl in Algiers	Director	Victoria State Opera
	The Diary of a Madman	Adaptor (also actor)	MTC
1978	The Last of the Knucklemen	Producer	Mercury Theatre, Auckland with MTC	[51]
1979	The Marriage of Figaro	Producer	Canberra Opera Society
	The Elixir of Love	Director	Victorian regional tour with Victorian State Opera	[27]
1980	Nine Little Australians! Season Two	Director	MTC
	Just One Last Dance	Director	Mercury Theatre, Auckland	[52]
1981	The Taming of the Shrew	Director		[53]
	Bodies	Director		[54]
	The Importance of Being Earnest	Director		[53]
	Sauce for the Gander	Director		[53]
1982	Once on Chunuk Bair	Production Assistant / Script Advisor		[4]
	Once a Catholic	Director		[54]
	Aladdin			[55]
	Foreskin's Lament	Director		[55]
	Jesus Christ Superstar	Director		[54]
1983	The Elixir of Love	Director		[56]
	King of Hearts	Director		[56]
	Madama Butterfly	Director		[57]
1984	Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?	Director		[54]
1985	Nine Little Australians!: The St Kild Soirees of Bonnie Smith	Director	Melbourne Athenaeum with Melbourne Writers Theatre & MTC	[58]
	Nine Little Australians!: Fifteen Rounds with Gorgeous George	Director		[58]
1997	Jungfrau	Writer	Playbox Theatre Company
2000	The Beauty Queen of Leenane	Director	Auckland Theatre Company