Front Row Dress Circle

In an age where instant celebrity and youth seem like the only requisites for success these days in showbusiness it is fantastic to see real talent and durability recognised for what it is…the real thing.

If only Hollywood producers would spend a bit of time Down Under I just know they would find some world-beating material when it comes to the acting world. I always found it such an injustice that our own supremely talented stalwarts of the stage and screen such as Charles’ Bud’ Tingwell and Ruth Cracknell never tasted the international success that Nicole Kidman or Naomi Watts enjoy these days because Tingwell and Cracknell could have acted the both of them right off the stage given the chance. But it is too late as ‘Bud’ and Ruth have gone to take their curtain calls in the sky.

I am glad though to read that another great talent of the Australian film industry has finally been recognised by his peers and – particularly – the fans, and that Ray Meagher has been awarded the Gold Logie for 2010 in recognition of his work on television and stage. It is far too long overdue. I watched some years ago in 1988 as Kylie Minogue turned the Logie Awards into the Kylie Minogue Show – she had only been in Neighbours for two years and yet collected a bag of awards that would have shamed Dustin Hoffman…and all before she had turned 21. People like Ray Meagher, not endowed with glamorous looks or popular with teenagers and their Mums, just work away where and when they can perfecting their craft as they go along and taking many years to do so.

Ray Meagher is, to put it bluntly, one bloody fine actor and one that Australia can be proud to boast about – and damn well should. In a career that has spanned 40 years he has finally been recognised for his efforts – albeit in an awards night that is still basically a popularity contest (as described by the late ‘Golden Girls’ actress Bea Arthur who was special guest at the 1988 Kylie Minogue Logies…) but it is great to see that audiences now have shown their appreciation of one of our finest talents.

My favourite film of Ray Meagher – just one in the career of this wonderful actor – is Mail Order Bride (1983) also starring Charito Ortez, Justine Saunders and Sheila Kennedy…

Just a small piece of trivia about the film: Charito Ortez, who played the Filipino bride Ampy, was a beautician away from the camera and had a salon in Manly, north of Sydney. She used to advertise her business in the Manly Daily as the’ Mail Order Bride’ actress.

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