Tough Aussie, with scars to prove it
Sydney Morning Herald
Thursday September 10, 2009
RAY BARRETT could be almost painfully honest about himself. "King of the B grade movies," he said of himself in 1978."Never crossed the threshhold of international stardom."It was true. Unlike his contemporaries, Peter Finch, Rod Taylor and Leo McKern, Barrett's star shone in Australia and Britain but was seen only dimly elsewhere.Yet the actor had added in 1978: "And I couldn't give a damn." That was true, too. After all, he was recognised as one of Australia's foremost actors, did not crave recognition as much as most actors, and had a good, rewarding life, although his personal life was not always so good.Again he was honest on the subject, blaming himself for his "pretty turbulent" relationships and thanking his third wife in his autobiography: "Gaye pulled me up by the bootstraps from what could have been a long slide to the bottom" and "helped to end my romance with the bottle".Ray Barrett, who died aged 82 on the Gold Coast on Tuesday after falling and suffering a brain hemorrhage, was born at Wooloowin, Brisbane, to Reginald Barrett, a travelling salesman in hardware who had fought on the Somme in World War I, and his wife, formerly Mabel Storey, who had emigrated from England to try to ease her asthma. Ray had an elder brother, Scott.He went to Kedron State and Brisbane State High schools, where he failed the junior certificate and left at 15. Young Barrett had other strings to his bow, however.Realising her son was not academically minded, Mabel Barrett, a talented pianist, decided that he should take up a musical instrument. Ray preferred catching eels in Kedron Creek to practising the piano. He then took acting and singing lessons, and a part in a school play. He delivered monologues to his mother's piano accompaniment.By the age of 12, he was appearing as the juvenile lead in ABC radio plays and serials, and winning prizes at eisteddfods."I felt that, through my acting lessons as a child, I'd been led to the theatre almost unwillingly," he recalled. "It wasn't until I'd been acting for quite some time that I realised this was really what I wanted to do with my life."On leaving school, Barrett became a full-time announcer on radio stations for eight years, while acting with an ABC ensemble in Brisbane. He used his light baritone voice to sing with dance bands. He also built three small boats, after his father had declined to buy him one. Rejected by Joy Bettanay, Barrett married her sister, Audrey, whom he had met at the ABC.Coming to Sydney in 1954, Barrett quickly demonstrated his versatility. He was a radio compere, quizmaster and actor who played Tarzan on radio, following Bud Tingwell in the role. He joined the Phillip Street Theatre. He played a comedian in The Importance of Being Earnest, and a satirist in Kind Hearts and Coronets, in the Alec Guinness role.Barrett joined the Elizabethan Trust in 1957 and played his first straight dramatic role on stage €“ the bitter young intellectual Jimmy Porter in John Osborne's Look Back in Anger at the Elizabethan Theatre. The next year he teamed up with Spike Milligan in the ABC radio show The Idiot Weekly.After appearing with Margaret Rutherford in The Happiest Days of Your Life, Barrett decided he wanted to try an acting career in Britain. He left Australia at 30 with his wife and their daughter, Suellen, and three return tickets in his pocket. His first feature film was Fred Zinnemann's production of the Jon Cleary novel The Sundowners, shot in Australia and England.Barrett toured the British counties in plays and revues before winning a TV part as an Australian doctor in Emergency €“ Ward 10, for which he became known as "the actor with holes in his face".His face was badly pockmarked from teenage acne, but he defiantly washed off actor's make-up. Filming Don's Party later in Australia, he told a make-up artist: "Forget the make-up love; just use the Polyfilla."Barrett was most impressive at adopting different voices and voiced several characters, including the Duchess Dowager in Thunderbirds, the children's puppet show.The Troubleshooters, the TV series for which Barrett is best known in Britain, ran from 1966 to 1972, with Barrett as the tough Australian oil troubleshooter Peter Thornton.The role €“ and the acne scars €“ helped him uphold the macho image of Australians abroad. This was tempered by his singing, on the Dave Allen Show, and on record.His first marriage had broken up and he married Miren Cork in England and they had two sons, Reggie and Jono.In 1976, Bruce Beresford offered Barrett a role in David Williamson's play Don's Party and Fred Schepisi hired him for The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, from the Thomas Keneally novel. Impressed by the burgeoning Australian film industry, his approach to Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, the Queensland premier, helped establish the Queensland Film Corporation in 1977.After his second marriage ended, Barrett met Gaye O'Brien through a Sydney yacht club and they married in 1986, living on Stradbroke Island.He won Australian Film Institute awards for his roles in The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, Goodbye Paradise, written by Bob Ellis, and Hotel Sorrento, written by Hannie Rayson. His other Australian movies included Brilliant Lies and On Our Selection, with Leo McKern and Geoffrey Rush. He was awarded the AFI's Raymond Longford Award in 2005.His television work in recent years included Something in the Air, All Saints, White Collar Blue and the telemovie After the Deluge. His last role was in Baz Luhrmann's film, Australia.Peter Corris, who helped write Barrett's autobiography, said that meeting him was "something like meeting Bogart or Cagney"Ray Barrett is survived by his widow, Gaye, and children Suellen, Reg and Jonathan and their families including five grandchildren.
© 2009 Sydney Morning Herald