Bille Brown
Encyclopedia
Bille Brown, AM
(born 1952) is an Australian Shakespearean
actor and acclaimed writer of plays.
Brown was born in Biloela, Queensland
and studied drama at the University of Queensland
where he received and Honorary Doctorate of Letters. He began his career at Queensland Theatre Company
, working alongside Geoffrey Rush
.
He also appeared with the Royal Shakespeare Company
in Stratford
and London, in England.
Bille Brown has also appeared in movies, including: Fierce Creatures
(as "Neville"), The Dish
(as "the Prime Minister"), Oscar and Lucinda
(as "Percy Smith") and Singularity
.
Bille Brown has been a visiting Professor at the State University of New York at New Paltz
, and has also appeared on stage at Broadway in New York.
In 1996 he directed the Australian stage production of Over the Top with Jim which exceeded box office expectations.
Whilst working in the United Kingdom Bille also performed in the West End, at The Aldwych and Haymarket theatres, the Chichester Festival Theatre, English National Opera and Dublin Theatre Festival. Whilst performing onstage at Stratford he was spotted by John Cleese who cast him in Fierce Creatures, the sequel to A Fish Called Wanda.
In New York City, Brown made his Broadway debut as an actor in Michael Frayn
's Wild Honey
with Ian McKellen
directed by Christopher Morahan in 1986, and as a playwright with his adaptation of a benefit performance of A Christmas Carol
in 1985, featuring Helen Hayes
, Len Cariou
as Scrooge, MacIntyre Dixon, Celeste Holm
, Raul Julia
, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio
, Harold Scott, Carole Shelley
, and Fritz Weaver
, directed by W. Stuart McDowell. He was also an Artist-in-residence at the State University of New York in 1982.
In 2009 Bille wrote and performed in Queensland Theatre Company's The School of Arts. The play follows the story of the old 'College Players' who toured Shakespeare through Queensland in the late 1960s. Geoffrey Rush has said of Bille's play The School of Arts, "A great work from a great Queensland man of the theatre".
Bille Brown was awarded an AM (Member of the Order of Australia) in the Australia Day Honours' List 2011.
, in Brisbane, of William Shakespeare
's play, "Much Ado About Nothing
" (which had been reset in Messina over eight days during July, 1936), an airliner flew over the amphitheatre. Bille Brown, who was alone on stage at the time in the character of Benedick, stopped his soliloquy in mid-sentence and walked to the edge of the stage and looked up at the airliner. He then looked directly at the audience and said "reassuringly": It's okay, it's one of ours – Alitalia
!.
Order of Australia
The Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, "for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service"...
(born 1952) is an Australian Shakespearean
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
actor and acclaimed writer of plays.
Brown was born in Biloela, Queensland
Biloela, Queensland
Biloela is a rural town in Central Queensland, Australia. It is situated inland from the port city of Gladstone at the junction of the Burnett and Dawson highways...
and studied drama at the University of Queensland
University of Queensland
The University of Queensland, also known as UQ, is a public university located in state of Queensland, Australia. Founded in 1909, it is the oldest and largest university in Queensland and the fifth oldest in the nation...
where he received and Honorary Doctorate of Letters. He began his career at Queensland Theatre Company
Queensland Theatre Company
The Queensland Theatre Company was established in 1970 as the Royal Queensland Theatre Company. The Company is the state's flagship professional theatre company, headed up by multi-award winning playwright and director Wesley Enoch...
, working alongside Geoffrey Rush
Geoffrey Rush
Geoffrey Roy Rush is an Australian actor and film producer. He is one of the few people who has won the "Triple Crown of Acting": an Academy Award, a Tony Award and an Emmy Award. He has won one Academy Award for acting , three British Academy Film Awards , two Golden Globe Awards and four Screen...
.
He also appeared with the Royal Shakespeare Company
Royal Shakespeare Company
The Royal Shakespeare Company is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs 700 staff and produces around 20 productions a year from its home in Stratford-upon-Avon and plays regularly in London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and on tour across...
in Stratford
Stratford-upon-Avon
Stratford-upon-Avon is a market town and civil parish in south Warwickshire, England. It lies on the River Avon, south east of Birmingham and south west of Warwick. It is the largest and most populous town of the District of Stratford-on-Avon, which uses the term "on" to indicate that it covers...
and London, in England.
Bille Brown has also appeared in movies, including: Fierce Creatures
Fierce Creatures
Fierce Creatures is a 1997 comedy film. Although not a sequel, it was a follow-up to the wildly popular A Fish Called Wanda, starring the same four actors, John Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline and Michael Palin...
(as "Neville"), The Dish
The Dish
The Dish is a 2000 Australian film that tells the story of how the Parkes Observatory was used to relay the live television of man's first steps on the moon, during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969...
(as "the Prime Minister"), Oscar and Lucinda
Oscar and Lucinda
Oscar and Lucinda is a novel by Peter Carey which won the 1988 Booker Prize, the 1989 Miles Franklin Award, and was shortlisted for The Best of the Booker.-Plot introduction:...
(as "Percy Smith") and Singularity
Singularity (film)
Singularity is an upcoming epic romance time travel adventure film. Helmed by Roland Joffé from a story by Ajey Jhankar, the film is a sweeping tale of an impossible love set against the backdrop of the first Anglo-Maratha war across two time periods and continents and centred around four...
.
Bille Brown has been a visiting Professor at the State University of New York at New Paltz
State University of New York at New Paltz
The State University of New York at New Paltz, known as SUNY New Paltz for short, is a public university in New Paltz, New York. It was founded in 1828 as the School for teaching of classics. In 1885, the New Paltz Normal and Training School was established as a school to prepare teachers for the...
, and has also appeared on stage at Broadway in New York.
In 1996 he directed the Australian stage production of Over the Top with Jim which exceeded box office expectations.
Early years
Brown began his career as an actor with Queensland Theatre Company in the early 1970s.Abroad
Bille's career took him abroad to Britain where he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), and was the first Australian commissioned to write and perform in their own play – The Swan Down Gloves. The show opened the Barbican Theatre (RSC's Home theatre from 1982–2002) and had a royal command performance. As a member of the RSC (between 1976–1982, 86–88 and 94–96) Bille toured with their productions throughout Europe, playing Paris, Vienna, Berlin and Munich.Whilst working in the United Kingdom Bille also performed in the West End, at The Aldwych and Haymarket theatres, the Chichester Festival Theatre, English National Opera and Dublin Theatre Festival. Whilst performing onstage at Stratford he was spotted by John Cleese who cast him in Fierce Creatures, the sequel to A Fish Called Wanda.
In New York City, Brown made his Broadway debut as an actor in Michael Frayn
Michael Frayn
Michael J. Frayn is an English playwright and novelist. He is best known as the author of the farce Noises Off and the dramas Copenhagen and Democracy...
's Wild Honey
Wild Honey (play)
Wild Honey is a 1984 adaptation by British playwright Michael Frayn of an earlier play by Anton Chekhov. The original work, a sprawling five-hour drama from Chekhov's earliest years as a writer, has no title but it is usually known in English as Platonov, from its principal character "Mikhail...
with Ian McKellen
Ian McKellen
Sir Ian Murray McKellen, CH, CBE is an English actor. He has received a Tony Award, two Academy Award nominations, and five Emmy Award nominations. His work has spanned genres from Shakespearean and modern theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction...
directed by Christopher Morahan in 1986, and as a playwright with his adaptation of a benefit performance of A Christmas Carol
A Christmas Carol
A Christmas Carol is a novella by English author Charles Dickens first published by Chapman & Hall on 17 December 1843. The story tells of sour and stingy Ebenezer Scrooge's ideological, ethical, and emotional transformation after the supernatural visits of Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of...
in 1985, featuring Helen Hayes
Helen Hayes
Helen Hayes Brown was an American actress whose career spanned almost 70 years. She eventually garnered the nickname "First Lady of the American Theatre" and was one of twelve people who have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony Award...
, Len Cariou
Len Cariou
Leonard Joseph “Len” Cariou is a Canadian actor, best known for his portrayal of Sweeney Todd in the original cast of Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street...
as Scrooge, MacIntyre Dixon, Celeste Holm
Celeste Holm
Celeste Holm is an American stage, film, and television actress, known for her Academy Award-winning performance in Gentleman's Agreement , as well as for her Oscar-nominated performances in Come to the Stable and All About Eve...
, Raul Julia
Raúl Juliá
Raúl Rafael Juliá y Arcelay was a Puerto Rican actor.Born in San Juan, he gained interest in acting while still in school. Upon completing his studies, Juliá decided to pursue a career in acting. After performing in the local scene for some time, he was convinced by entertainment personality Orson...
, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio
Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio
Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio is an American actress and singer known for her role as Carmen in The Color of Money, as well as for her roles as Lindsey Brigman in The Abyss, Gina Montana in Scarface, and Maid Marian in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.-Personal life:Mastrantonio was born in Lombard,...
, Harold Scott, Carole Shelley
Carole Shelley
Carole Shelley is an English actress. Among her many stage roles are the character of Madame Morrible in the original Broadway cast of the musical Wicked.-Life and career:...
, and Fritz Weaver
Fritz Weaver
Fritz William Weaver is an American actor and voice actor.-Life and career:Weaver was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of Elsa W. and John Carson Weaver. His mother was of Italian descent and his father was a social worker from Pittsburgh. Weaver attended Peabody High School...
, directed by W. Stuart McDowell. He was also an Artist-in-residence at the State University of New York in 1982.
Australia
Although Bille had performed in some productions for the Queensland Theatre Company (and even written some plays) during the 1980s, he finally returned to Australia to live permanently in 1996 and had huge success with his role as Count Almaviva in Beaumarchais' The Marriage of Figaro, with Geoffrey Rush, which opened the new Optus Playhouse in Brisbane in September 1998. In 1999 he also had major success in Sydney and subsequently throughout Australia as Oscar Wilde in the Belvoir St production of David Hare's The Judas Kiss. The same year he accepted an offer to be Adjunct Professor in the School of English, Media Studies and Art History at The University of Queensland and has given workshops and master classes for drama students.In 2009 Bille wrote and performed in Queensland Theatre Company's The School of Arts. The play follows the story of the old 'College Players' who toured Shakespeare through Queensland in the late 1960s. Geoffrey Rush has said of Bille's play The School of Arts, "A great work from a great Queensland man of the theatre".
Bille Brown was awarded an AM (Member of the Order of Australia) in the Australia Day Honours' List 2011.
Film credits
Bille has performed in numerous films and his credits include- At World's End
- Dying Breed
- Black and White
- The Man Who Sued God
- The Beach
- Walk the Talk
- Serenades
- The Dish
- Passion
- Oscar and Lucinda
- Fierce Creatures
- The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
- SingularitySingularity (film)Singularity is an upcoming epic romance time travel adventure film. Helmed by Roland Joffé from a story by Ajey Jhankar, the film is a sweeping tale of an impossible love set against the backdrop of the first Anglo-Maratha war across two time periods and continents and centred around four...
Television credits
- Three Acts of Murder
- Heartbeat
- Hollowmen
- Blackjack
- White Collar Blue
- Indiana Jones Chronicles
- Bad Cop Bad Cop
- The Farm
- All Saints
- A Difficult Woman
- Big Sky
- Medivac
- The Kennedys
Stage credits
Bille has had an outstanding career on stage and has performed for many leading Australian Theatre companies including Queensland Theatre Company, Sydney Theatre Company, Bell Shakespeare Company, Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne Theatre Company, Company B, State Theatre Company of South Australia, Marian St Theatre, La Boite and the Old Tote Theatre at the Sydney Opera House.Ad lib
During the Queensland Theatre Company's night-time performance, at the Albert Park AmphitheatreRoma Street Parkland
Roma Street Parkland covers 16 hectares in the centre of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The Roma Street Parkland is adjacent to Brisbane Transit Centre and the Roma Street Station...
, in Brisbane, of William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
's play, "Much Ado About Nothing
Much Ado About Nothing
Much Ado About Nothing is a comedy written by William Shakespeare about two pairs of lovers, Benedick and Beatrice, and Claudio and Hero....
" (which had been reset in Messina over eight days during July, 1936), an airliner flew over the amphitheatre. Bille Brown, who was alone on stage at the time in the character of Benedick, stopped his soliloquy in mid-sentence and walked to the edge of the stage and looked up at the airliner. He then looked directly at the audience and said "reassuringly": It's okay, it's one of ours – Alitalia
Alitalia
Alitalia - Linee Aeree Italiane S.p.A. , in its later stages known as Alitalia - Linee Aeree Italiane S.p.A. in Extraordinary Administration, was the former Italian flag carrier...
!.
External links
- Alyce Faye Cleese interviews Bille Brown in Montecito, Ca. 35 minutes.
- Bille Brown – Stage acting credits
- "Merry Wives of Windsor" – special Waratah Festival performance, at Albert Park Amphitheatre, Brisbane (1987)
- "The Merry Wives of Windsor" – Albert Park Amphitheatre, Brisbane (1987)