Jack Thompson’s brilliant career: How it began and why he turned his back on movie stardom
The much-maligned 1975 Jack Thompson cult classic Scobie Malone is being re-released on Blu-ray this week, which is all the excuse we need to run this appreciation of the iconic Australian actor.
Few things say “1970s Australia” more than the movie stardom of Jack Thompson – the swagger, the voice, the blonde hair, the full-frontal nudity, the exotic private life, the beer ads.
It’s a picture of masculinity that’s sustained for more than 50 years – the Banjo Paterson-reading bushman crossed with suburbanite swinger and Nimbin flower child. As “our Jack” runs the final lap of a brilliant career, we thought it was worth looking back at his life and times.
Thompson’s background was like that of a soap opera character. Indeed, I’m surprised no one’s turned it into a movie: born during World War Two, his mum died when he was five; dad worked for Qantas so Jack and his brother were sent to an orphanage, from where Jack was adopted by ABC broadcaster John Thompson (father of Sunday film critic Peter); he worked as a jackaroo and labourer then joined the army, studied science at the University of Queensland before transferring to arts; he performed at the Twelfth Night Theatre in Brisbane with Michael Caton (imagine those cast parties), then decided to give acting a real go in late-’60s Sydney.
Thompson’s timing was, in hindsight, perfect. In 1967 the Australian Government introduced a local drama quota for commercial television stations (who had to be dragged into it kicking and screaming pleading poverty, like the streaming services are now).
It helped that Thompson was handsome, male (more roles, less competition, patriarchy), could handle physical action and was starting his career just as Australian actors were no longer required to use a British or American accent all the time, which had been the status quo for the previous century.
Thompson was in constant work almost immediately, on TV series such as Motel, Riptide, Skippy, Division Four and Homicide. He shone as a kangaroo hunter in Wake in Fright and became a leading man via the wartime TV series Spyforce, fighting the Japanese behind enemy lines at a set recreated around Narrabeen Lagoon, on Sydney’s Northern Beaches. This established the Thomson star persona – cocky, smooth, secretly idealistic, prone to explosive bursts of violence and temper.
He displayed the depth of his talent in The Family Man, one of four segments in the 1973 feature film Libido, written by David Williamson. In that story, Thompson played a suburban man who tries to pick up women the night his wife is giving birth. It’s a stunning performance, full of bravado, charm, violence and seething misogyny. The combination of Thompson and Williamson was one of the most perfect actor-writer teaming in the history of Australian cinema, confirmed when the two collaborated on Petersen, about a libidinous plumber studying at university but unable to break through the class system.
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Thompson then starred as a combative shearer in Sunday Too Far Away, was Helen Morse’s dodgy love interest in Caddie, and was the swinging detective in 1975’s Scobie Malone.
The latter was produced by former Hollywood filmmaker turned Sydney resident Casey Robinson, who thought Thompson might become the next Bogart, and constructed a vehicle accordingly. The film flopped, but Petersen, Sunday Too Far Away and Caddie were all hits.
By the mid-’70s director Ken G. Hall anointed Thompson as the one Australian actor whose name meant something at the box office. Adding to the frisson was Thompson’s unconventional private life (the Cleo centrefold; living with two sisters) that made him the talk of the tabloids.
He even had his own imitator, British singer Mike Preston, who carved out an entirely decent acting career based on his resemblance to Jack Thompson. But then Jack Thompson basically stopped being a movie star. By his own choice. Mostly.
Worried about being typecast, he consciously avoided playing leading roles in local movies. Instead, Thompson supported Hollywood stars in locally shot projects (Mad Dog Morgan, The Earthling, Because He’s My Friend), unsuccessfully auditioned for leads in Hollywood films (Flash Gordon, The Thing), played a character part in The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith and unsuccessfully sought finance for a movie based on his own script, Welcome Stranger.
He turned down a role in Newsfront and instead did The Journalist, justifiably regarded as one of the worst Australian films ever made. For whatever reason, our greatest on-screen interpreter of David Williamson did not appeal in the Williamson-scripted movies The Removalists, Eliza Fraser, Don’s Party, Gallipoli, Duet for Four or The Year of Living Dangerously.
Thompson did star in the film of Williamson’s The Club, and had big success with Breaker Morant, which opened Hollywood doors, but he never quite became the international star in the way many of those who followed him did (think Mel Gibson, Bryan Brown, Guy Pearce and Hugh Jackman).
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Instead, he was the leading man in several television vehicles for female stars (The Letter, A Woman Called Golda, The Last Frontier, Trouble in Paradise, Shadow of the Sun, A Woman of Independent Means) and appeared in films that should have featured his character more but didn’t (Flesh and Blood, Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence), or were flawed (Burke and Wills) or did not receive the audience they deserved (Bad Blood, The Sum of Us, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, The Assassination of Richard Nixon).
orphan, soldier, scientist, polygamist, jackaroo, model, actor – at heart he’s a hippie, someone who’s into the art and community of it all rather than the commerce
He was in some big hits but generally in small parts (The Man from Snowy River, Broken Arrow, Attack of the Clones) and just missed out on the title role of Schindler’s List.
Thompson continued to do magnificent work, particularly on television (Waterfront, Riddle of the Stinson, the TV movie of McLeod’s Daughters) but his place in the Aussie film star pecking order was taken by Bryan Brown, who seemed to gobble up all the really good Jack Thompson-style parts (A Town Like Alice, The Thorn Birds, Cocktail, FX, The Shiralee).
Also, to be frank, Brown kept his weight off, and thus remained in consideration for romantic leading man roles while Thompson did not. Having said that, Thompson’s ability as an actor did not dim, particularly with that stunning speaking voice. He’s never been out of work.
And I think that’s what’s made him really happy. For all of the many facets of Jack Thompson – orphan, soldier, scientist, polygamist, jackaroo, model, actor – at heart he’s a hippie, someone who’s into the art and community of it all rather than the commerce.
In 1975 he declared: “I’m not here to get anywhere, I’m here to do what I’m doing, working for a living – not living for my work.”
And he’s stuck by that mantra for more than 50 years. Yes, our industry could have used Jack Thompson better, but that’s our loss, not his, and when he shuffles off, we will truly realise how lucky we were to have had him.
Scobie Malone is on Blu-ray as part of Ozploitation Rarities Vol. 3.
Ozploitation Rarities Vol. 3 (1975, 1982, 1985) Blu-ray
Or watch Scobie Malone on Brollie for free: watch.brollie.com.au/film/scobie-malone