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- Actor
- Music Department
- Writer
David Gulpilil is a legendary Yolngu actor, a First Nations person of Northern Australia, born around 1953. The local missionaries gave him his birthdate of July 1, 1953, just as they gave him his Christian name David, although he admits he liked that name from the start. His last name, Gulpilil, was a totem, the kingfisher. He'd never seen a white person until he was 8 when he visited the mission school, but he never really allowed them to teach him anything.
In 1969, the British film director Nicolas Roeg, scouting locations in the Outback, appeared at a mission in the north and asked if anyone knew a boy who can throw a spear, who can hunt, and who can dance, and everyone pointed at David.
David's easy smile made him a natural, and it quickly became obvious that he was unlike anyone the white man had met in the outback. He was not reserved or suspicious of strangers, and carried song on his lips and rhythm in his legs. David Gulpilil was fearless.
Looking back over his career, he tells us in the documentary, My Name is Gulpilil (2021), filmed while dying of terminal lung cancer, that he never acted, that acting wasn't something he had to do because it was natural. "I know how to walk across the land in front of a camera, because I belong there," Standing on stage, before a camera, or before the Queen of England, David felt comfortable in his own skin whether it was barely dressed in a loin cloth, or stuffed into the white man's dinner jacket.
Roeg quickly cast the charismatic Gulpilil in Walkabout (1971), a film based upon Donald G Payne's 1959 novel about a boy who cheerfully leads children to safety. Without really knowing it, Roeg broke new ground in Australian cinema, and redefined the way that Indigenous people were represented in Australian cinema. The film was an international success everywhere but in Australia, where First Nation peoples had been previously portrayed only by white people wearing blackface. And to top it off, the film broke cultural barriers, presenting on the wide screen a sexually attractive young Black man.
David Gulpilli was, overnight, hurled in to high society as an instant, international celebrity and presented before Queen Elizabeth, who found him quite charming and humorous. She in turn introduced David to John Lennon and that was just the beginning. Before long he was soon shaking hands with Muhammad Ali, Marlon Brando, Bruce Lee, Jimi Hendrix, and Bob Marley, who would help contribute to David's downfall. David taught Bob Marley to play the didgeridoo. Marley taught David to smoke ganja. But it was while filming Mad Dog Morgan (1976) that he got his crash course in hellraising by Dennis Hopper. Later in his one-man stage show he'd say, "If you're working with people like Dennis Hopper and [John] Meillon, well, you gotta learn all about drinking and drugs."
David enjoyed being in front of the camera, and he well knew the importance of his work because it was history and it would "remember to generation to generation," shining a spotlight on his people who had been murdered, exploited, and corralled into camps. The collective history of his people meant everything to him and these films, he claimed, "Won't rub it out."
He was a dancer, a singer, an artist, and a story teller, and fell lovingly into the role of ambassador of his culture to the white man's world, which ironically would eventually divorce him from his culture, as he took to drink and drugs and wound up in trouble with the law, racking up four drink-driving arrests, and one drunken escapade that landed him in jail again, but this time for assaulting his wife. As he admitted in his biopic, "Left side, my country. Right side, white man's world. This one tiptoe in caviar and champagne, this one in the dirt of my Dreamtime."
When he'd been discovered, he spoke no English, though he knew a few dialects of the First People's language, and he was such a quick learner. He began picking up English while just listening during the making of the film, Walkabout, and afterwards as he travelled about the world.
In his one man show, "Gulpilli," he tells the story of trying to use a knife and fork while sitting next to the queen. He cut and cut but couldn't get any meat as he just moved the plate around the table. He gave up and finally picked it up with his hands. Whether true or not, he tells how the Royal Family joined in, eating their meat as he did.
After his sudden fame in Walkabout, David found his way onto Australian television in episodes of Boney (1972), Homicide (1964), Rush (1974), The Timeless Land (1980), and more, and even got a bit part in The Right Stuff (1983).
He was quickly recognized as the most renowned tribal dancer in Australia, and he choreographed the traditional First People's dance in Crocodile Dundee (1986). His love of dance inspired him to organize dancing troupes and musicians that won the Darwin Australia Day Eisteddfod dance competition four times.
His breakthrough role came in the mid-seventies with Storm Boy (1976), one of David's personal favorites, followed up by a lead role in The Last Wave (1977). In fact, his last appearance as an actor was in the remake of Storm Boy (2019), playing the father of Fingerbone Bill, the character he'd played in the original version.
Despite his fame, his earnings were never substantial and he was subjected to racism from agents and film crews. He was often homeless, sleeping in parks. He wound up living in a corrugated iron hut in the community of Raminginig that had no electricity or running water, where he hunted kangaroos, cooking bush meat over an open fire. "I was brought up in a tin shed. I wandered all over the world - Paris, New York - now I'm back in a tin shed," Gulpilil said.
Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002) is the story of Australia's Lost Generations, in which mixed race First Nation children were removed from their families and placed in church-run missions in order to breed the "black" out of them and integrate them into society. Many of the children ran away from these camps and trackers were sent out after them. David Gulpilil played the formidable tracker in Rabbit-Proof Fence, and that led to a leading role in The Tracker (2002), directed by Rolf de Heer. David referred to this role as the best performance in his career. He won best actor at the Australian Film Institute Awards, the Inside Film Awards, and the Film Critics' Circle Awards.
He teamed up with Rolf de Herr a few more times, but their most unique production was the first film scripted entirely in the Yolngu language, called Ten Canoes (2006). Gulpilil narrated the film and it won a Special Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. It was after this time that David's life took a downhill turn and landed him in prison because of his drinking and assaulting his then partner Miriam Ashley. After his release he went into treatment and got sober.
Clean and sober he went to work again with Rolf de Herr and co-wrote the film Charlie's Country (2013), the true to life story of an ageing man who yearned to return to his cultural roots. Gulpilil gave the performance of his career, winning four best actor awards, including best actor at the Cannes Film Festival. At the Australian Film Critics Association Awards, he shared with Rolf de Heer the best screenplay award.
Released six months before his passing, My Name is Gulpilil (2021) is, as David put it, the story of his story. Though very ill, David gives us insight into his charismatic life and charm as we witness the full spectrum of his talents. We see him dancing, singing, celebrating, and even painting. One of his paintings, "King brown snake with blue tongue lizard at Gulparil waterhole" hangs in The Art Gallery Of South Australia. He spins wool from his hair, something his ancestors handed down that his father taught him. He takes us for a walk through his land, along the rivers, in the shadows of the mountains, and knowing he's dying, he admits he really doesn't yet grasp it, but tells us, "I'm walking like across the desert of the country, a long, long way. Until the time comes . . . for me."- Kim Peek was born on 11 November 1951 in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. He died on 19 December 2009 in Murray, Utah, USA.
- Laura Ann Aime was born on August 21, 1957 in Lehi, Utah, USA. Daughter of James J Aime and Shirlene Tolton Aime, she was a student at North Sanpete High School and a member of the LDS (Mormon) Church. She disappeared on October 31, 1974 in Murray, Utah. She was only 17 years old.
- Animation Department
- Producer
- Director
Judge Whitaker was an animator that went on to become a pioneering producer & director of educational and religious films at Brigham Young University, where he is credited with establishing a motion picture studio. In many ways his life would parallel that of Walt Disney, who would become his long-term employer.
Judge moved with his family to Brigham City, Utah just before his fifth birthday and then to Denver, Colorado about the time of his tenth birthday. At South Denver High he would be student body president, one of the staff artists for the yearbook, and captain of the football team. Upon finishing high school Judge followed his family to Huntington Park, California and obtained a job utilizing his artistic talents in the display department at Western Auto Supply. A few months later he landed a position in the promotion department of Montgomery Wards retail stores in Chicago doing silk screen work and enrolled in an art class at the American Academy of Art. He returned to California after only a year and bought into a cleaning and pressing business hoping to earn enough money to marry his girlfriend Doris.
The cleaning business barely broke even each month so he returned to the promotion department of Montgomery Wards where he spent most of his time cartooning and enrolled in night classes at The Chicago Art Institute. Although enjoying his work, he thought his $27.50 income was insufficient to contemplate marriage, so he accepted an offer with The St. Louis Times at $40.00 a week. He would later say his title of Art Director was "extravagant." In July, 1932 the paper was absorbed by the rival St. Louis Star and the Times staff were all released. In the midst of the Great Depression, Judge could only find freelance art work that did not quite pay all the bills. After reading an article about Walt Disney in Liberty magazine, Judge was inspired to want to work for him. After sending samples of his work he received a letter saying that the studio was not hiring at the moment, but they would be pleased to see him if he were ever in Los Angeles. With little to lose, Judge and Doris returned to Huntington Park, California and when Judge was given an interview by Ben Sharpsteen he was offered $16.00 a week as a trainee. After only a few weeks Judge and all the other new employees received pink slips. At first he took a job in Huntington Park helping to clean up after the earthquake of March, 1933. Then two weeks later hearing of a couple of jobs at the Charles Mintz Studio, he and his brother Scott Whitaker applied and were accepted.
The Disney Studio would later call and offer $25.00 a week, but when Judge went to give notice, Charles Mintz offered him $27.50 to stay. Scott went to Disney, but Judge remained with Mintz for over a year until negotiating a $35.00 a week offer from Disney in 1936 as an assistant animator assigned to working on a new character named Donald Duck. Some of the more promising new animators were given a test project. Judge's was judged the best, and he was promoted to be a full-fledged animator with a nice raise in salary.
Judge would mainly work as a character animator on Donald Duck shorts in his career with Disney, but he also worked upon several animated features beginning with The Three Caballeros (1944) working on the sequence with Pablo, a cold-blooded penguin and ending up with Peter Pan (1953) for which Judge helped animate The Lost Boys.
In 1946 Judge suggested that Mormons in the film industry might be willing to donate their time to make a promotional church film. Two years of spare time work resulted in two completed films about the LDS welfare program, "Welfare in Action" and "The Lord's Way." Eric Larson directed the first, Judge the second, and Judge and Scott created the animation sequences.
Judge took a year's leave of absence from Disney in early 1952 to join with his brothers, Berlin, Ferrin, and Scott to develop The Homestead Resort at the site of some natural hot springs in the Heber Valley near Park City, Utah. After Judge described the plans to build up the resort Walt replied, "All my life I have wanted to do something like that, and here I am stuck with this," waving to indicate the studio. "Take your year, then come back and your job will be waiting." Interestingly enough Walt Disney would form WED in December, 1952 to explore the design for Disneyland and Judge's plan may have had more than a passing interest to Walt.
While working on the Homestead project, Judge was given the offer to head a newly created Department of Motion Picture production at Brigham Young University beginning in January, 1953. Judge sent a letter of resignation to Walt Disney and began to establish the film studio from scratch, buying some basic equipment in California and also visiting some studios and UCLA's Department of Cinematography to get some helpful advice. BYU reportedly joined UCLA that year as the second of only two university film production facilities that existed at the time.
Although rough in the beginning, productions became more ambitious and polished through the years with Man's Search for Happiness (1964) shot in 35mm and released with 4-track stereophonic sound and "In The Holy Place" (1968) shot in 65mm. Both films were intended for special exhibition in Mormon visitor's centers (the first showing at the New York World's Fair).
More than 150 films were produced during his 22 years as director and producer at the studio. Some were produced for the various auxiliaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, with other educational films produced for the university and commercially released for use in schools or industry. He is probably best known for Windows of Heaven (1963) and Johnny Lingo (1969). Wetzel received an honorary doctorate of fine arts from BYU in 1971, and retired in 1974. Like Walt Disney he started his career drawing and animating and ended it as a producer at a studio he had founded and nurtured.- Actor
- Additional Crew
Michael Dunnagan was born on 29 November 1950 in Altadena, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Murder, She Wrote (1984), Road Signs: The Movie (2001) and Newhart (1982). He died on 3 August 2003 in Murray, Kentucky, USA.- Golden Richards was born on 31 December 1950 in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. He died on 23 February 2024 in Murray, Utah, USA.
- Actress
Alney Alba was born on 10 April 1904 in Calloway, Kentucky, USA. She was an actress, known for Fright (1956) and Doorway to Death (1949). She died on 10 July 2000 in Murray, Kentucky, USA.- Casting Department
- Actor
- Casting Director
Dennis Hansen was born on 17 November 1942 in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. He was an actor and casting director, known for Lone Wolf McQuade (1983), The Last Seduction (1994) and Death Wish 4: The Crackdown (1987). He died on 1 October 2016 in Murray, Utah, USA.- Costume and Wardrobe Department
- Make-Up Department
Lindsey Darnall was born on 18 August 1989 in Kansas City, Kansas, USA. Lindsey is known for Cougar Woman (2011). Lindsey died on 13 July 2012 in Murray, Kentucky, USA.- Bennie Purcell was born on 10 December 1929 in Mount Vernon, Illinois, USA. He died on 12 February 2016 in Murray, Kentucky, USA.