Arthur Dignam

Arthur Dignam

Birth : 1939-09-09, Lord Howe Island, New South Wales, Australia

History

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.

Profile

Arthur Dignam

Movies

Australia
Father Benedict
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.
Moulin Rouge!
Christian's Father
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.
Gods and Monsters
Ernest Thesiger (uncredited)
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.
Warm Strangers
Old Man
A man tries to reconnect with his father who works at a laundrette.
The Nostradamus Kid
Pastor Anderson
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.
Shadow of the Cobra
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.
The Dreaming
Professor Bernard Thornton
A place where ancient mysteries survive... and nightmares are real. A burial ground is unearthed. A Girl dies. An ancient curse lives on. And then there are the dreams... Dreams or nightmares?... Nightmares or premonitions? A young doctor becomes inextricably involved in a chain of supernatural events, that point towards death.
The Everlasting Secret Family
Senator
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.
The Right Hand Man
Dr. Redbridge
A stagecoach driver goes to work for a dying, one-armed aristocrat in 1860s Australia.
Comrades
Fop
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.
Those Dear Departed
Producer
A disturbed woman murders her husband, and others, so that she can be haunted by their "wronged" spirits.
King Solomon's Mines
Allan Quatermain (voice)
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!
Burke & Wills
Sir William Stawell
A story based on true events about two explorers on a doomed journey trying to cross Australia on foot in the 19 century.
The Wild Duck
Gregory
The Wild Duck is a 1983 Australian film adapted from the play by Ibsen
The Dismissal
Eric Robinson
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.
The Return of Captain Invincible
Lawyer
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...
We of the Never Never
Aeneas Gunn
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.
Strange Behavior
Dr. Le Sange / Nagel
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.
Grendel Grendel Grendel
The Dragon / Beowulf (voice)
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.
The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith
Man in Butcher Shop
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.
The Duellists
Captain with Eyepatch
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.
Summer of Secrets
Dr. Beverley Adams
A scientist on a secluded island uses revolutionary brain surgery to revive his dead wife.
The Devil's Playground
Brother Francine
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.
Petersen
Prof. Charles Kent
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...
Libido
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.