Harold Hopkins (actor)

Harold Douglas Hopkins (6 March 1944 – 11 December 2011) was an Australian film and television actor.

Hopkins was born on 6 March 1944, in Toowoomba, Queensland.^[1] He was one of seven children^[2] (including Naomi, Michael, Gregory, Margaret, Suzanne and twin brother John)^[1] born to Francis Hopkins and Olive (nee Ascroft).^[3]

He attended The Southport School^[3] and Toowoomba Grammar School as a day boy in 1958 and 1959. During the 1960s, he worked as an apprentice carpenter, and was exposed to asbestos fibres without protective masks or clothing.^[4]

After his apprenticeship, Hopkins and his twin brother John enrolled at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) in Sydney, with Harold graduating in 1967.^[5][3]

After numerous theatre performances with NIDA in the late 1960s,^[6] Hopkins originated the role of Danny Rowe, captain of the Collingwood Football Club in a 1977 stage production of David Williamson's satirical play The Club.^[5]

Hopkins' appeared on stage with the Sydney Theatre Company and Melbourne Theatre Company playing Barney in Ray Lawler's The Doll Trilogy at the Sydney Opera House, Melbourne Athenaeum and again three years later in New York.^[6][3]

Hopkins' on-screen career began in the late 1960s with a recurring guest role on the short-lived daytime soap opera Motel, alongside Jack Thompson.^[7] He also had a major co-starring role opposite Jeanie Drynan in the 1969 ABC drama miniseries Pastures of the Blue Crane, an adaptation of the 1965 children's novel by Hesba Brinsmead.^[8][9]

Other early television credits included Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, Riptide, Delta and Barrier Reef.^[7] He also had a recurring role in the 1971 comedy drama series The Godfathers and its spin-off The People Next Door.^[7] Hopkins won a Penguin Award in 1974 for his portrayal of private secretary Percy Deane in John Power's docudrama Billy and Percy.^[10]

Hopkins went on to appear in numerous other series including Certain Women, Silent Number, Matlock Police, Homicide, Division 4, Rush and The Lost Islands.^[7][11] He then landed a lead role in the 1979 series Twenty Good Years.^[7]

Hopkins also appeared in several miniseries including Sara Dane (1982), The Last Bastion (1984), The Dirtwater Dynasty (1988), True Believers (1988), Winners, Shadows of the Heart (1990) and Brides of Christ (1991).^[7][11]

Later television series in which Hopkins had roles, included State Coroner, Blue Heelers, White Collar Blue, Wildside, All Saints, The Secret Life of Us, Grass Roots and The Strip.^[7][11] He also played Melbourne arms dealer George Joseph in Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities,^[2] the second season of underworld series Underbelly.

Hopkins first foray into film began with a supporting role in Age of Consent (1969), with James Mason and Helen Mirren.^[5] He appeared in 16 films over the course of his career, including classic Australian films Don's Party (1976) in which he played the role of Cooley,^[2] and The Picture Show Man (1977).^[7][1]

Hopkins reprised his role as Danny in The Club (from his 1977 stage performance) once more in Bruce Beresford’s 1980 film adaptation.^[5] His performance saw him nominated for a 1981 Australian Film Institute Award for Best Supporting Actor. He lost out to Bill Hunter for Peter Weir’s war drama Gallipoli,^[5][12] in which Hopkins also starred as obnoxious farmhand Les McCann, opposite Mel Gibson and Mark Lee.^[7][1]

Further film credits included Monkey Grip (1982), Fantasy Man (1984), Children of the Revolution (1996)^[5] and 1987 coming of age drama The Year My Voice Broke,^[1] with Noah Taylor and Ben Mendelsohn.^[13] Several TV films followed, including Big Ideas (1993) and Never Tell Me Never (1998).^[5] In 2001, he starred as a dying man in AFI-nominated, TV short Saturn’s Return, opposite Joel Edgerton, who played his son.^[5]

Hopkins' final film was 2010 horror thriller The Clinic.^[5] His last audition was for the role of Jay Gatbsy’s father, Henry C. Gatz in Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby, although he knew he would not live to play the role, as he had been diagnosed with cancer mere days earlier.^[1]

Harold Hopkins married twice. His second marriage was to Sue Collie, an actress he met in Melbourne in 1977, while starring in the original stage production of David Williamson's The Club with Melbourne Theatre Company.

In the 1970s, Hopkins bought land at Webbs Creek, on the Hawkesbury River.^[1] Between stage and film roles, Hopkins worked as a Hawkesbury River ferryman.^[3]

In 2011, Hopkins was diagnosed with mesothelioma, believed to be due to his asbestos exposure in the 1960s. He died in Neringah Private Hospital, a Sydney hospice in Wahroonga on 11 December 2011, at the age of 67.^[4][2] He was survived by his six siblings, including twin brother John.^[2]

• Harold Hopkins at IMDb