Charles Bud Tingwell died last Friday morning in a Melbourne hospital following a two year battle with prostate cancer. He was aged 86 and still had a script for a new project near his bedside.
I met Bud Tingwell twice. The first time was at WEA Film Study Group in the late nineties. He was the guest speaker after a special screening of "Always Another Dawn", a sentimental melodrama of love and war playing an heroic young naval officer. In 1947, Bud Tingwell was only 24 and was at the beginning of a prolific career that was soon going to take him to England where he worked for several studios such as Rank and Hammer. In the 1960's his increased popularity due to his role as Inspector Craddock in the four Miss Marple mysteries made by MGM-British opposite the eccentric Margaret Rutherford placed him in an enviable position to pursue a solid acting career in his return to Australia a decade later and to be part of the revival of Australian cinema and specially in a number of Austalian classic series such as Homicide, The Sullivans and The Flying Doctors.
The second time i met him was during the Sydney Film Festival in year 2000. He was the leading actor of "Innocence"; a beautiful and touching love story directed by Paul Cox. I remember vividly talking to him outside the State Theatre about his role and his impressive career. He was a passionate man who took acting as a meaningful and enriching profession.
He never stopped. He was playing solo few years ago at the Sydney Theatre Company. He was also very active in theatres in Melbourne. I just checked IMDB and found out he played in a tv movie the role of Winston Churchill made in 2008. In the recent years we saw him in "The Castle", "Wog Boy", "The Dish" and in "Jindebayne" - All very popular aussie flicks.
In 2004, he published his memoirs simply called "Bud".
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