Arthur Dignam

Arthur Dignam

Born: September 9, 1939
in Lord Howe Island, New South Wales, Australia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Arthur Dignam (born 9 September 1939) is an Australian character actor, born on Lord Howe Island. He attended Newington College (1955–1956) as a boarder.

He is possibly best known for one of his early roles, that of Brother Francine in Fred Schepisi's The Devil's Playground (1976). While he has worked mainly in film and television, he has also worked in theatre, including musical theatre. He played Pontius Pilate in the Australian production of Jesus Christ Superstar in 1972–73, and appears on the original Australian cast recording.

His son is the actor Nicholas Gledhill.

Description above from the Wikipedia article Arthur Dignam, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Movies for Arthur Dignam...

Australia
Title: Australia
Character: Father Benedict
Released: November 18, 2008
Type: Movie
Set in northern Australia before World War II, an English aristocrat who inherits a sprawling ranch reluctantly pacts with a stock-man in order to protect her new property from a takeover plot. As the pair drive 2,000 head of cattle over unforgiving landscape, they experience the bombing of Darwin by Japanese forces firsthand.
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Moulin Rouge!
Title: Moulin Rouge!
Character: Christian's Father
Released: May 24, 2001
Type: Movie
A celebration of love and creative inspiration takes place in the infamous, gaudy and glamorous Parisian nightclub, at the cusp of the 20th century. A young poet, who is plunged into the heady world of Moulin Rouge, begins a passionate affair with the club's most notorious and beautiful star.
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Gods and Monsters
Title: Gods and Monsters
Character: Ernest Thesiger (uncredited)
Released: January 21, 1998
Type: Movie
It's 1957, and James Whale's heyday as the director of "Frankenstein," "Bride of Frankenstein" and "The Invisible Man" is long behind him. Retired and a semi-recluse, he lives his days accompanied only by images from his past. When his dour housekeeper, Hannah, hires a handsome young gardener, the flamboyant director and simple yard man develop an unlikely friendship, which will change them forever.
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Paradise Road
Title: Paradise Road
Character: Mr. Pike
Released: February 11, 1997
Type: Movie
A group of English, American, Dutch and Australian women creates a vocal orchestra while being imprisoned in a Japanese POW camp on Sumatra during World War II.
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Warm Strangers
Title: Warm Strangers
Character: Old Man
Released: January 1, 1997
Type: Movie
A man tries to reconnect with his father who works at a laundrette.
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Dating the Enemy
Title: Dating the Enemy
Character: Dr. Kamins
Released: September 19, 1996
Type: Movie
Television show host Brett and his laid-back science journalist girlfriend Tash despair that they will ever truly understand each other. On their first anniversary, under a full moon, a frustrated Tash declares her wish that they could swap lives. The next morning, Brett and Tash awaken to find Tash's wish has come true. Forced to confront the unfamiliar sensations of their "new" bodies, both must navigate strange new experiences with friends and co-workers.
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Title: Escape from Jupiter
Released: April 10, 1994
Type: TV
Escape from Jupiter is a space adventure television series about a small group of children from a mining colony on Jupiter's moon, Io, who are forced to flee when a volcanic eruption destroys their world. With a few adult survivors, they seek shelter on the derelict space station KL5, floating above Io, convert it into a jerry-rigged spacecraft, and head off in a desperate attempt to reach Earth. They share many adventures and form close friendships on the dangerous journey. Escape from Jupiter concerned a small colony of humans on the moon of Io.
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The Nostradamus Kid
Title: The Nostradamus Kid
Character: Pastor Anderson
Released: October 14, 1993
Type: Movie
The spiritual and sexual coming of age of a Seventh-Day Adventist boy in 1950s Australia. Ken Elkin is a "randy young man" who is told that the world is about to end. In a race against time, there's only one goal Ken wants to accomplish: bedding the love of his life, who just happens to be the local pastor's daughter.
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Isabelle Eberhardt
Title: Isabelle Eberhardt
Released: November 21, 1991
Type: Movie
Story of a young woman journalist who becomes enmeshed in the politics of the annexation of Morrocco from Algeria at the turn of the twentieth century.
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Title: The Storyteller: Greek Myths
Character: Acrisius
Released: March 30, 1991
Type: TV
A storyteller in a labyrinth tells his dog the stories of Perseus and Medusa, Icarus and Daedalus, Theseus and the Minotaur, and Orpheus and Euridyce.
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Shadow of the Cobra
Title: Shadow of the Cobra
Released: July 18, 1989
Type: Movie
Dramatisation of the story of notorious Indian serial killer Charles Sobhraj (b. 1944), who preyed on Western tourists throughout South East Asia during the 1970s.
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The Dreaming
Title: The Dreaming
Character: Professor Bernard Thornton
Released: May 13, 1988
Type: Movie
When a group of Indigenous activists attempt to repatriate ancestral artifacts found in a cave on Australia's Kangaroo Island, one of them is shot, evading police and taken to a local hospital, where the doctor attending to her experiences strange visions relating to violent events from the past.
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The Everlasting Secret Family
Title: The Everlasting Secret Family
Character: Senator
Released: March 10, 1988
Type: Movie
A beautiful, if ambitious and amoral, youth is tapped to become the lover of a powerful senator. The young man quickly realizes that he can hold this place, with all its perks, only as long as he is young. He has no other function than being young. With the help of an aged judge, the young man, referred to only as The Lover, contrives a plan to make a change in the way of the world, a plan that will take him years to realize. To succeed, he must manipulate, in subtle and not-so-subtle ways, the senator, his wife, the family chauffeur (who was, when young, a lover), and, by implication, the entire well-planned and controlling everlasting secret family.
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The Right Hand Man
Title: The Right Hand Man
Character: Dr. Redbridge
Released: October 2, 1987
Type: Movie
A stagecoach driver goes to work for a dying, one-armed aristocrat in 1860s Australia.
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Comrades
Title: Comrades
Character: Fop
Released: August 23, 1987
Type: Movie
The story of "The Tolpuddle Martyrs". A group of 19th century English farm labourers who formed one of the first trade unions and started a campaign to receive fair wages.
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Those Dear Departed
Title: Those Dear Departed
Character: Producer
Released: August 13, 1987
Type: Movie
A disturbed woman murders her husband, and others, so that she can be haunted by their "wronged" spirits.
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Title: The Flying Doctors
Character: Royce Phelan QC
Released: May 15, 1986
Type: TV
The Flying Doctors is an Australian drama series produced by Crawford Productions that revolved around the everyday lifesaving efforts of the real Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia. It was initially a 1985 mini-series based in the fictional outback town of Cooper's Crossing starring Andrew McFarlane as the newly arrived Dr. Tom Callaghan. The success of the mini series led to its return the following year as an on-going series with McFarlane being joined by a new doctor, Chris Randall, played by Liz Burch. McFarlane left during the first season and actor Robert Grubb came in as new doctor Geoff Standish. The series' episodes were mostly self-contained but also featured ongoing storylines, such as Dr. Standish's romance with Sister Kate Wellings. Other major characters included pilot Sam Patterson, mechanic Emma Plimpton, local policeman Sgt. Jack Carruthers and Vic and Nancy Buckley, who ran the local pub/hotel, The Majestic. Andrew McFarlane also later returned to the series, resuming his role as Dr. Callaghan. The popular series ran for nine seasons and was successfully screened internationally.
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King Solomon's Mines
Title: King Solomon's Mines
Character: Allan Quatermain (voice)
Released: January 1, 1986
Type: Movie
Deep within a remote mountain somewhere in Africa lies the fold and endless riches of the legendary King Solomon. Many have tried to find the treasure - but none have succeeded! Now, Alan Quartermaine's determined to locate the bounty, but first he must battle the wilds of Africa and the ferocious Kukuwana trive - who are intent on keeping the treasure for themselves! It's an expedition in excitement and adventure that will have your whole family on the edge of their seats!
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Burke & Wills
Title: Burke & Wills
Character: Sir William Stawell
Released: October 30, 1985
Type: Movie
A story based on true events about two explorers on a doomed journey trying to cross Australia on foot in the 19 century.
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Title: Bodyline
Character: Mr. Jardine
Released: July 16, 1984
Type: TV
Dramatization of the 1932/33 Test cricket series between England and Australia. Played in Australia, the series gained notoriety in Australian and worldwide cricketing history for the fact that the English team (headed by captain Douglas Jardine) applied a bowling technique called "leg theory", or more commonly, Bodyline. This technique involved bowlers bowling the ball directly at the batsman's body, and resulted in many of the Australian team receiving numerous bruises and injuries, with batsman Bert Oldfield sustaining a cracked skull. The series generated much anger and resentment towards the English team within Australia and seriously damaged Anglo-Australian cricketing relations at the time.
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The Wild Duck
Title: The Wild Duck
Character: Gregory
Released: March 5, 1984
Type: Movie
Ibsen's play, adapted to Australia, concerns a couple forced to answer for their daughter's legitimacy.
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The Dismissal
Title: The Dismissal
Character: Eric Robinson
Released: March 6, 1983
Type: Movie
The drama surrounding the dismissal of Mr. Gough Whitlam as the Labor Prime Minister of Australia - on 11 November, 1975 - by the then Governor-General of Australia, Sir John Kerr - and the subsequent installation, in Parliament, of the Liberal 'caretaker government' and Mr. Malcolm Fraser as the 'caretaker' Prime Minister.
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The Return of Captain Invincible
Title: The Return of Captain Invincible
Character: Lawyer
Released: January 28, 1983
Type: Movie
In WWII, Captain Invincible used his superpowers against the Nazis and was hailed as a hero. But when he was accused of treason, he retired to Australia in disgrace. Cut to the present, when a US super secret super weapon is stolen and he's asked to come back to the States in order to help stop evil and restore his sterling reputation. Unfortunately, Captain Invincible is a drunk now...
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We of the Never Never
Title: We of the Never Never
Character: Aeneas Gunn
Released: November 4, 1982
Type: Movie
Based on the well-loved Australian classic by Mrs. Aeneas Gunn, this is the remarkable true story of Jeannie Gunn, a woman who fought to overcome sexual and racial prejudice amid the harsh beauties of the outback. Leaving her Melbourne existence for a new life on her husband's isolated ranch, Jeannie's feisty, good-natured attitude soon wins over the misogynistic stockmen, but she faces a much tougher challenge in trying to change their racist attitudes towards the indigenous aboriginal population.
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Strange Behavior
Title: Strange Behavior
Character: Dr. Le Sange / Nagel
Released: October 16, 1981
Type: Movie
When the teenagers in a small Illinois town start getting murdered, the police chief makes a connection to the mysterious scientific experiments being done at the local university and must stop them before his own son is dragged into the deadly scheme.
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Grendel Grendel Grendel
Title: Grendel Grendel Grendel
Character: The Dragon / Beowulf (voice)
Released: August 1, 1981
Type: Movie
This is an animated story covering the ancient legend of Beowulf, as narrated by Grendel himself, the "monster" in the legend. Aimed more at adults than children, this version holds some interesting twists on the traditional tale, and is based on a novel by American critic and academic John Gardner.
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Title: Water Under the Bridge
Character: Maynard Dickens
Released: September 25, 1980
Type: TV
Water Under the Bridge is a 1980 mini series based on the 1977 novel by Sumner Locke Elliott.
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Title: Minder
Character: Geoffrey Evans
Released: October 29, 1979
Type: TV
This comedy drama series featured Terry McCann, a former boxer with a conviction for G.B.H., and Arthur Daley, a second-hand car dealer with an eye for a nice little earner. Alongside his many business ventures, Arthur would regularly hire Terry out as a minder or bodyguard, later replaced by nephew, Ray Daley.
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The Hero
Title: The Hero
Released: March 20, 1979
Type: Movie
Australian ABC TV children's educational program shows how a TV show actor is cast and works to create an episode of a TV program.
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The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith
Title: The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith
Character: Man in Butcher Shop
Released: June 21, 1978
Type: Movie
The true story of a part Aboriginal man who finds the pressure of adapting to white culture intolerable, and as a result snaps in a violent and horrific manner.
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The Duellists
Title: The Duellists
Character: Captain with Eyepatch
Released: August 31, 1977
Type: Movie
In 1800, as Napoleon Bonaparte rises to power in France, a rivalry erupts between Armand and Gabriel, two lieutenants in the French Army, over a perceived insult. For over a decade, they engage in a series of duels amidst larger conflicts, including the failed French invasion of Russia in 1812, and shifts in the political and social systems of Europe.
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Summer of Secrets
Title: Summer of Secrets
Character: Dr. Beverley Adams
Released: December 24, 1976
Type: Movie
A scientist on a secluded island uses revolutionary brain surgery to revive his dead wife.
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Title: The New Avengers
Released: October 22, 1976
Type: TV
The New Avengers is a British secret agent fantasy adventure television series broadcast during 1976 and 1977. It is a sequel to the 1960s series The Avengers and was developed by Albert Fennell and Brian Clemens. A joint United Kingdom-France-Canada production, the show picks up the adventures of John Steed and his team of Avengers fighting evil plots and world domination. Whereas in the original series Steed had almost always been partnered with a woman, in the new series he had two partners: Mike Gambit, a top agent, crack marksman and trained martial artist, and Purdey, a former trainee with The Royal Ballet who was an amalgam of many of the best talents from Steed's previous female partners.
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The Devil's Playground
Title: The Devil's Playground
Character: Brother Francine
Released: August 12, 1976
Type: Movie
A powerful drama relating the intimate aspect of teenage boys and their priest/educators behind the walls of a religious institution where rigid discipline backfires natural feelings are deemed unnatural acts and human lives are controlled in the names of good intentions.
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Jock Petersen
Title: Jock Petersen
Character: Prof. Charles Kent
Released: January 1, 1974
Type: Movie
Tony Petersen, a married electrician and ex-footballer, goes to university to study English. Petersen is odd man out at the uni. He receives extracurricular help from his stuffy professor's beautiful lecturer wife in her office. Their get-togethers there are quite rootine. The professor is also seeing one of his students after class. Petersen and the professor's wife talk about having a baby. But then she accepts an appointment to Oxford, provoking a rage in Petersen...
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Libido
Title: Libido
Released: April 6, 1973
Type: Movie
Scripted by four of Australia’s greatest authors (David Williamson, Thomas Keneally, Hal Porter and Craig McGregor), this quartet of carnal desires explores adultery and jealous fantasies, the end of innocence, the moral and spiritual conflicts of a priest and a nun in love. The stories define the exploration of women and the cultural upheaval of the early 70s.