Hugh Keays-Byrne

Hugh Keays-Byrne

Born: May 18, 1947
Died: December 2, 2020
in Kashmir, India
Hugh Keays-Byrne (18 May 1947 – 2 December 2020) was a British-Australian actor and film director. A former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, he was best known for playing the main antagonist in two films from the Mad Max franchise: Toecutter in Mad Max (1979), and Immortan Joe in Mad Max: Fury Road (2015). He also played Toad in the 1974 biker film Stone, and Grunchlk on the science fiction series Farscape.

Keays-Byrne was born in Srinagar, in the state of Jammu and Kashmir (part of the British Raj then, India now) to British parents; his family returned to Britain when India was partitioned. He began his career as a stage actor.

Keays-Byrne made his first television appearance in 1967 on the British television programme Boy Meets Girl. He was part of Peter Brook's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream with the Royal Shakespeare Company, which toured Australia in 1973. Keays-Byrne decided to remain in Australia after the tour ended. In 1974, he acted in the TV movie Essington, then made his first film appearance in the motorcycle picture Stone (1974). This was followed by supporting roles in films like The Man from Hong Kong (1975), Mad Dog Morgan (1976), The Trespassers (1976) and Snapshot (1979).

After his first starring role in the 1978 TV movie Death Train, Keays-Byrne was cast as the violent gang leader Toecutter in Mad Max (1979). Director George Miller had Keays-Byrne and the other actors for the gang travel from Sydney to Melbourne in a group on motorcycles, as there was no money for airplane tickets. In an early international print of the film, Keays-Byrne was dubbed with a bad American accent, which Miller later regretted.

Keays-Byrne then continued to act in post-apocalyptic and science fiction films like The Chain Reaction (1980), Strikebound (1984), Starship (1985) and The Blood of Heroes (1989). In 1992, he made his directorial debut and acted in the film Resistance. He also appeared in TV miniseries adaptations of Moby Dick (1998) and Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1999).

Keays-Byrne played Grunchlk in the science fiction television series Farscape (1999–2003) and its conclusion Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars (2004). George Miller also cast him as the Martian Manhunter in the planned 2009 movie Justice League: Mortal.

Keays-Byrne returned to the Mad Max franchise in the 2015 film Mad Max: Fury Road as the main villain Immortan Joe. The film was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, winning 6, and Keays-Byrne was nominated for the MTV Movie Award for Best Villain.

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Movies for Hugh Keays-Byrne...

Going Mad: The Battle of Fury Road
Title: Going Mad: The Battle of Fury Road
Character: Self
Released: August 1, 2017
Type: Movie
For 20 years director George Miller fought to unleash the ultimate Mad Max movie- Mad Max: Fury Road. Witness George's journey from the dream of a female warrior to the harsh plains of the Namibian desert to statues of gold in Hollywood, California.
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The Madness of Max
Title: The Madness of Max
Character: Self
Released: August 1, 2015
Type: Movie
The Madness of Max is a feature-length documentary on the making of arguably the most influential movie of the past thirty years. With over forty cast-and-crew interviews, hundreds of behind-the-scenes photographs and never-before-seen film footage of the shoot, this is without a doubt the last word on Mad Max (1979).Interviews include: George Miller, Byron Kennedy, Mel Gibson, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Steve Bisley, Roger Ward, Joanne Samuel, David Eggby, Jon Dowding and many more. From the Producers to the Bike Designers to the Traffic Stoppers, this is the story of how Mad Max was made.
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Mad Max: Fury Road
Title: Mad Max: Fury Road
Character: Immortan Joe
Released: May 13, 2015
Type: Movie
An apocalyptic story set in the furthest reaches of our planet, in a stark desert landscape where humanity is broken, and most everyone is crazed fighting for the necessities of life. Within this world exist two rebels on the run who just might be able to restore order.
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Sleeping Beauty
Title: Sleeping Beauty
Character: Man 3
Released: June 10, 2011
Type: Movie
A haunting erotic fairytale about Lucy, a young University student drawn into a mysterious hidden world of beauty and desire.
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Title: Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars
Character: Grunchlk
Released: October 17, 2004
Type: TV
When a full-scale war is engaged by the evil Scarran Empire, the Peacekeeper Alliance has but one hope: reassemble human astronaut John Crichton.
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Title: Journey to the Center of the Earth
Character: McNiff
Released: September 14, 1999
Type: TV
Remake of Jules Verne's classic story finds adventurers seeking a mysterious hidden land. They are joined by the wife of another man, who had previously gone on a similar expedition and disappeared.
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Title: Farscape
Character: Grunchlk
Released: March 19, 1999
Type: TV
A freak accident during an experimental space mission catapults Astronaut John Crichton across a thousand galaxies to an alien battlefield.
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Title: Moby Dick
Character: Mr. Stubb
Released: March 15, 1998
Type: TV
The sole survivor of a lost whaling ship relates the tale of his captain's self-destructive obsession to hunt the white whale, Moby Dick.
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Resistance
Title: Resistance
Character: Peter
Released: January 1, 1992
Type: Movie
Over the five days after a military coup, army troops arrive to enforce martial law and encounter a growing resistance movement.
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The Blood of Heroes
Title: The Blood of Heroes
Character: Lord Vlle
Released: October 19, 1989
Type: Movie
Set in a futuristic world where the only sport that has survived in a wasted society is the brutal game known as jugging. Sallow, the leader of a rag-tag team, has played in the main Leagues before, but was cast out because of indiscretions with a lady. However now joined by a talented newcomer, Kidda, an ambitious young peasant girl he and his team find they have one last chance for glory
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Dadah Is Death
Title: Dadah Is Death
Character: Hammed
Released: October 23, 1988
Type: Movie
On 9th of November 1983 two Australians, Kevin Barlow and Geoff Chambers were arrested at Penang Airport in Malaysia carrying 179 grams of Heroin. A crime which in Malaysia carries a mandatory sentence of death... Dadah Is Death (A Long Way From Home) is the true story of Barbara Barlow's desperate attempt to save her son from the Hangmans rope - a courageous effort that involved impassioned pleas to President Reagan, The British Prime Minister, and even the Pope. By July 1986 this international struggle had seemed to reach a hopeless conclusion and all that was left was a mother's love for her son.
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Badlands 2005
Title: Badlands 2005
Character: Moondance
Released: August 29, 1988
Type: Movie
In 1995, a severe drought forced Americans to flee the West for the cities. Water became more precious than gold. Now in 2005, settlers are coming back, meeting new challenges, and age-old adversaries. A U.S. Marshal and his cyborg partner patrol the American West. A hard-as-nails female boss heads two U.S. Marshals (one human, one bionic) in Badlands 2005, a concept where the near future sees water as a more precious commodity than gold. The West of America has been deserted after droughts a decade earlier, and now a re-population program is underway.
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Les Patterson Saves the World
Title: Les Patterson Saves the World
Character: Inspector Farouk
Released: April 9, 1987
Type: Movie
Fat middle aged 24/7 drunkard Les Patterson represents Australia at the UN where his fart literally incinerates an Arab ambassador. Patterson is reassigned to the Middle East so he can be tortured to death by the country he insulted. Patterson's arrival is the prefect distract of a coup and he is spared. At a bar Patterson meets a bio weapons scientist who's developed a horrific disease for the KGB whom plan to distribute it to the Pentagon via toilet seats. Patterson of course is far too drunk to understand anything happening and teams up with Dane Edna to save the world.
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Kangaroo
Title: Kangaroo
Character: Kangaroo
Released: July 24, 1986
Type: Movie
A mild-mannered English conscientious objector moves to what he feels will be the relative calm of Australia after World War I, but gets caught in the middle of violent battles between the rising trade unions and fascist groups.
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For Love Alone
Title: For Love Alone
Character: Andrew
Released: May 22, 1986
Type: Movie
Teresa is a spirited young girl chafing under the oppressive attitudes of 1930s society, and her father in particular. She fancies her poverty-stricken Latin tutor Johnathan Crow, without realising he merely considers her a pleasant diversion and nothing more, and eventually follows him from Sydney to London. En route she meets the gentle banker James Quick. Whilst navigating her relationships in London, including with a political poet bound for the Spanish Civil War, she experiences a transformation in her understanding of love. Based upon Christina Stead's best-selling Australian novel.
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Burke & Wills
Title: Burke & Wills
Character: Ambrose Kyte
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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Lorca and the Outlaws
Title: Lorca and the Outlaws
Character: Danny
Released: December 13, 1984
Type: Movie
Jowitt, a mercenary without recluse institutes a totalitarian regime in a small mining city of an arid planet, Ordessa, helped in that by androids incapable of any emotion. The young Lorca and his android professor, Kid, are both in this tended situation. To find the liberty, they must at any costs seize a spaceship, the "Red Star", but they quickly have to face an android killer...
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Strikebound
Title: Strikebound
Character: Idris Williams
Released: September 20, 1984
Type: Movie
Via the New York Times: "...reconstructs the true story of a coal miners' strike in the small town of Korumburra in the mid-30's... based on the real-life story of two remarkable characters, Wattie Doig, a miner who became a militant Communist activist, and his wife, Agnes, who progressed from staunch Presbyterianism to membership in the Salvation Army and, finally, to labor organization."
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Where the Green Ants Dream
Title: Where the Green Ants Dream
Character: Mining Executive
Released: August 31, 1984
Type: Movie
The Australian Aborigines (in this film anyway) believe that this is the place where the green ants go to dream, and that if their dreams are disturbed, it will bring down disaster on us all. The Aborigines' belief is not shared by a giant mining company, which wants to tear open the soil and search for uranium.
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Going Down
Title: Going Down
Character: Bottom
Released: July 1, 1983
Type: Movie
Karli's over the Sydney scene and its small-pond bohemian excesses. That's why she's moving to New York City in the morning. But over the course of one unforgettable night, Karli's best friends will show her that a little Sydney goes a long way .
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The Chain Reaction
Title: The Chain Reaction
Character: Eagle
Released: September 25, 1980
Type: Movie
Contaminated by a nuclear-plant spill, an Australian worker hides with a woman and tries to warn the public.
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Snapshot
Title: Snapshot
Character: Linsey
Released: June 1, 1979
Type: Movie
A young hairdresser enters into the modeling world while fearing retaliation from her puritanical mother and stalker ex-boyfriend.
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Mad Max
Title: Mad Max
Character: Toecutter
Released: April 12, 1979
Type: Movie
In the ravaged near-future, a savage motorcycle gang rules the road. Terrorizing innocent civilians while tearing up the streets, the ruthless gang laughs in the face of a police force hell-bent on stopping them.
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Blue Fin
Title: Blue Fin
Character: Stan
Released: December 1, 1978
Type: Movie
Based on the children's novel by celebrated South Australian author 'Colin Thiele' , this is an emotional father and son story about tuna fishing of Southern Blue Fin tuna in South Australia's Port Lincoln fishing district. Accident prone son Snook is forever making mistakes much to the chagrin of his father Pascoe. But when tragedy strikes the fishing boat during a deep sea fishing trek in the Southern Ocean, the boy is called on to become a man in a rites of sea passage to reconcile is past mishaps and save both his father and the ship from certain disaster.
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The Death Train
Title: The Death Train
Released: August 21, 1978
Type: Movie
An insurance investigator comes to a small town to investigate the death of a man insured by his company. The local residents believe his death was caused by his being run over by a ghost train. However, the investigator is sure there is a more rational explanation...
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Barnaby and Me
Title: Barnaby and Me
Character: Huggins
Released: August 8, 1977
Type: Movie
Barnaby and Me is a 1978 Australian TV movie about a girl and her talking koala who are pursued by criminals.
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The Trespassers
Title: The Trespassers
Character: Frank
Released: August 18, 1976
Type: Movie
In 1970, political journalist Richard lives with Penny but is having an affair with actress Dee. The two woman meet and become friends.
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Mad Dog Morgan
Title: Mad Dog Morgan
Character: Simon
Released: July 9, 1976
Type: Movie
The true story of Irish outlaw Daniel Morgan, who is wanted, dead or alive, in Australia during the 1850s.
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The Man from Hong Kong
Title: The Man from Hong Kong
Character: Morrie Grosse
Released: July 31, 1975
Type: Movie
Australian authorities arrest a man believed to be connected to the Sydney criminal underworld and send for Inspector Fang Sing Leng from Hong Kong to question him. After the alleged criminal is assassinated, Inspector Leng and the Sydney police try to hunt down those responsible and hope to solve their case along the way.
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Polly My Love
Title: Polly My Love
Released: June 1, 1975
Type: Movie
An Australian-set romance starring Jacki Weaver.
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Stone
Title: Stone
Character: Toad
Released: January 2, 1974
Type: Movie
After one of its members witnesses a political assassination, an outlaw motorbike gang becomes the target of a string of murders, prompting a cop to join their ranks to determine who is responsible.
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Seven Friends: George Miller’s Justice League
Title: Seven Friends: George Miller’s Justice League
Character: Self
Released: December 31, 1969
Type: Movie
Documentary chronicling director George Miller's unmade 2008 superhero movie Justice League Mortal.