Robert Hughes (Australian actor)
Encyclopedia
Robert Lindsay Hughes (born 19 August 1948 in Sydney) is an Australian actor whose most significant roles include ABBA: The Movie
and the television sitcom Hey Dad..!
.
In 1967–1968 Hughes was the bass player
for the pop band The Flying Circus
before they had hits with the songs "Hayride" and "La La".
company artist from 1981. His theatre roles have included The War Horse and Great Big Adventure Book for Boys. His television roles include Chopper Squad
, Cop Shop
, The Sullivans
, Skyways
, Tickled Pink, The Paul Hogan Show
, Dick Emery in Australia, Daily at Dawn
, The Timeless Land
, Kingswood Country
, A Country Practice
, Learned Friends, Prisoner
and The New Adventures of Blinky Bill
. His film roles include Cathy's Child
, Fatty Finn
, ABBA: The Movie and Squizzy Taylor
. Following this he played the lead role in Hey Dad..! from 1987 until leaving the series in 1993.
Hughes did not participate in two Hey Dad..! cast reunions: on the television series Where Are They Now in 2006, and a radio reunion on Brisbane
station B105 FM
in 2009.
Hughes currently lives in Singapore
where he works as a voice actor in advertising campaigns. He is managed by his wife's company RGM Artist Group, which had planned to list on the Australian Stock Exchange
in March 2010.
including Sarah Monahan
, Ben Oxenbould
and Simone Buchanan
made accusations to the media that Hughes had engaged in inappropriate sexual behaviour on the set of the show. Police announced the creation of a strike force on 29 March to investigate the claims. Monahan revealed that she spent more than 35 hours giving her testimony to police. In September 2010, six months after the allegations were published, it was reported that over a hundred people had been interviewed. Police had not spoken to Hughes and were weighing up whether a formal interview would take place.
In an interview broadcast on Channel Nine's A Current Affair on 14 March 2011, a niece of Hughes claimed that she had also been molested by Hughes. In response, Hughes' daughter rejected the allegations and questioned why these accusations had not been raised earlier. As of March 2011, the police were continuing to investigate the various allegations against Hughes and had not charged or interviewed him.
ABBA: The Movie
ABBA: The Movie is a 1977 film about the pop group ABBA's Australian tour. It was directed by Lasse Hallström, who directed most of the group's videos. The film has become a cult film among ABBA fans...
and the television sitcom Hey Dad..!
Hey Dad..!
Hey Dad..! was an Australian sitcom produced by Gary Reilly Productions, originally airing from 1987 to 1994 on the Seven Network.-Synopsis:Architect Martin Kelly singlehandedly raises his children Simon, Debbie and Jenny...
Early career
Hughes first worked as a cadet journalist for The Sydney Morning HeraldThe Sydney Morning Herald
The Sydney Morning Herald is a daily broadsheet newspaper published by Fairfax Media in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1831 as the Sydney Herald, the SMH is the oldest continuously published newspaper in Australia. The newspaper is published six days a week. The newspaper's Sunday counterpart, The...
.
In 1967–1968 Hughes was the bass player
Bass Player
Bass player can refer to:*Bass Player , an album by Rhombus*Bass Player , a magazine for bassists*Bassist, or bass player, a musician who plays the bass guitar...
for the pop band The Flying Circus
The Flying Circus (band)
The Flying Circus was a pioneering Australian country rock band who had a number of pop hits in Australia from 1968 to 1971 and then re-located to Canada from 1971 to 1974 where they also achieved a degree of success.-Beginnings:...
before they had hits with the songs "Hayride" and "La La".
Acting
Hughes has acted extensively in Australian theatre, film and television. He was a Sydney Theatre CompanySydney Theatre Company
The Sydney Theatre Company is one of Australia's best-known theatre companies operating from The Wharf Theatre near The Rocks area of Sydney, as well as the Sydney Theatre and the Sydney Opera House Drama Theatre....
company artist from 1981. His theatre roles have included The War Horse and Great Big Adventure Book for Boys. His television roles include Chopper Squad
Chopper Squad
Chopper Squad is an Australian television series produced by the Reg Grundy Organisation for the 0-10 Network .The series was based around the work of a helicopter rescue team operating on Dee Why beach in Sydney...
, Cop Shop
Cop Shop
Cop Shop was an Australian police drama television series produced by Crawford Productions that revolved around the everyday operations of both the uniformed police officers and the plain-clothes detectives of the fictional Riverside Police Station....
, The Sullivans
The Sullivans
The Sullivans is an Australian drama television series produced by Crawford Productions which ran from 1976 until 1983. The series told the story of an average middle-classMelbourne family and the effect World War II had on their lives...
, Skyways
Skyways (TV series)
Skyways is an Australian television series made by Crawford Productions for the Seven Network.The series, which aired from 1979 to 1981, was set at the fictional Pacific International Airport and dealt with the lives of the pilots, airline staff and management team who worked there.Skyways was...
, Tickled Pink, The Paul Hogan Show
The Paul Hogan Show
The Paul Hogan Show was a popular Australian comedy show which aired on Australian television from 1973 until 1984. It made a star of Paul Hogan who later appeared in Crocodile Dundee. Hogan's friend also appeared in the show, playing Hogan's dim flatmate Strop...
, Dick Emery in Australia, Daily at Dawn
Daily at Dawn
Daily at Dawn was an Australian sitcom that screened in 1981 on the Seven Network. The series was written and produced by Gary Reilly and Tony Sattler, the team behind other popular Australian comedy series such as Kingswood Country, Hey Dad..! and The Naked Vicar Show.The series was set in the...
, The Timeless Land
The Timeless Land
The Timeless Land is a work of historical fiction by Eleanor Dark . The novel The Timeless Land is the first of The Timeless Land trilogy of novels about European settlement and exploration of Australia....
, Kingswood Country
Kingswood Country
Kingswood Country is an Australian sitcom that screened from 1980 to 1984 on the Seven Network. The series started on 30 January 1980 and was a spin-off from a sketch on comedy program The Naked Vicar Show that had featured Ross Higgins as a blustering bigot...
, A Country Practice
A Country Practice
A Country Practice is an Australian television drama series. One of the longest-running of its kind, produced by James Davern of JNP Productions, it ran on the Seven Network for 1,058 episodes from 18 November 1981 to 22 November 1993. It was produced in ATN-7's production facility at Epping,...
, Learned Friends, Prisoner
Prisoner (TV series)
Prisoner is an Australian television soap opera which was set in the Wentworth Detention Centre, a fictional women's prison. The series was produced by the Reg Grundy Organisation and ran on Network Ten for 692 episodes from 27 February 1979 to 11 December 1986.The series was inspired by the 1970s...
and The New Adventures of Blinky Bill
The New Adventures of Blinky Bill
The New Adventures of Blinky Bill was an Australian puppet series that ran on ABC Television from 1984 to 1987. After production ended, it remained on air in repeats until 1991. Twenty-eight 30 minute episodes were made and the producer was Richard Smith....
. His film roles include Cathy's Child
Cathy's Child
Cathy's Child is a 1979 Australian film, directed by Donald Crombie and starring Michele Fawdon, Alan Cassell and Bryan Brown.-Plot:Cathy Baikas is a woman of Greek heritage who lives in Sydney, Australia with her three-year-old daughter. When her daughter's father kidnaps the child and takes her...
, Fatty Finn
Fatty Finn
Fatty Finn is a 1980 Australian film, directed by Maurice Murphy and starring Ben Oxenbould with Rebecca Rigg. It is based on the 1930s cartoon-strip character, Fatty Finn, created by Syd Nicholls and is loosely based on the 1927 silent fim, The Kid Stakes.-Plot:Set in inner-city Woolloomooloo in...
, ABBA: The Movie and Squizzy Taylor
Squizzy Taylor (film)
Squizzy Taylor is a 1982 Australian drama film based on the life of Melbourne gangster, Squizzy Taylor, directed by Kevin James Dobson and starring David Atkins, Jackie Weaver and Alan Cassell.-External links:*...
. Following this he played the lead role in Hey Dad..! from 1987 until leaving the series in 1993.
Hughes did not participate in two Hey Dad..! cast reunions: on the television series Where Are They Now in 2006, and a radio reunion on Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
station B105 FM
B105 FM
B105 is a commercial FM radio station broadcasting on 105.3 MHz in Brisbane, Australia. It is part of the Austereo Radio Network. B105's primary audience is 10 to 24 age group.-History:...
in 2009.
Hughes currently lives in Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
where he works as a voice actor in advertising campaigns. He is managed by his wife's company RGM Artist Group, which had planned to list on the Australian Stock Exchange
Australian Stock Exchange
The Australian Securities Exchange was created by the merger of the Australian Stock Exchange and the Sydney Futures Exchange in July 2006. It is the primary stock exchange group in Australia....
in March 2010.
Allegations
In March 2010 a number of actors from the cast of Hey Dad..!Hey Dad..!
Hey Dad..! was an Australian sitcom produced by Gary Reilly Productions, originally airing from 1987 to 1994 on the Seven Network.-Synopsis:Architect Martin Kelly singlehandedly raises his children Simon, Debbie and Jenny...
including Sarah Monahan
Sarah Monahan
Sarah Monahan is an Australian actress. Best known for her role as Jenny on Hey Dad..!, she has also appeared in Sons and Daughters and Home and Away....
, Ben Oxenbould
Ben Oxenbould
Ben Oxenbould is an Australian actor and comedian, best known for his work in the Australian film and television industry....
and Simone Buchanan
Simone Buchanan
Simone Louise Buchanan is an Australian actress best known for her television roles as Debbie Kelly in the situation comedy Hey Dad..! and Samantha Fitzgerald in the soap opera Neighbours....
made accusations to the media that Hughes had engaged in inappropriate sexual behaviour on the set of the show. Police announced the creation of a strike force on 29 March to investigate the claims. Monahan revealed that she spent more than 35 hours giving her testimony to police. In September 2010, six months after the allegations were published, it was reported that over a hundred people had been interviewed. Police had not spoken to Hughes and were weighing up whether a formal interview would take place.
In an interview broadcast on Channel Nine's A Current Affair on 14 March 2011, a niece of Hughes claimed that she had also been molested by Hughes. In response, Hughes' daughter rejected the allegations and questioned why these accusations had not been raised earlier. As of March 2011, the police were continuing to investigate the various allegations against Hughes and had not charged or interviewed him.
Filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Allmovie rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1977 | ABBA: The Movie ABBA: The Movie ABBA: The Movie is a 1977 film about the pop group ABBA's Australian tour. It was directed by Lasse Hallström, who directed most of the group's videos. The film has become a cult film among ABBA fans... |
Ashley Wallace | link |
| 1979 | Cathy's Child Cathy's Child Cathy's Child is a 1979 Australian film, directed by Donald Crombie and starring Michele Fawdon, Alan Cassell and Bryan Brown.-Plot:Cathy Baikas is a woman of Greek heritage who lives in Sydney, Australia with her three-year-old daughter. When her daughter's father kidnaps the child and takes her... |
Mike | link |
| 1980 | Fatty Finn Fatty Finn Fatty Finn is a 1980 Australian film, directed by Maurice Murphy and starring Ben Oxenbould with Rebecca Rigg. It is based on the 1930s cartoon-strip character, Fatty Finn, created by Syd Nicholls and is loosely based on the 1927 silent fim, The Kid Stakes.-Plot:Set in inner-city Woolloomooloo in... |
Percy | link |
| 1981 | Winter of Our Dreams Winter of Our Dreams Winter of Our Dreams is a 1981 Australian film directed by John Duigan. Judy Davis won the Best Actress in a Lead Role in the AFI Awards for her performance in the film. The film was nominated in 6 other categories also.... |
Martin Harris | link |
| 1982 | Squizzy Taylor Squizzy Taylor Joseph Leslie Theodore "Squizzy" Taylor was an Australian Melbourne-based gangster. He rose to notoriety by leading a violent gang war against a rival criminal faction in 1919, absconding from bail and successfully hiding from the police for over a year in 1921-22, and the Glenferrie robbery in... |
Reg Harvey | link |
| 1982 | Deadline | Fletcher | link |
| 1984 | Great Gold Swindle | Brian Mickelberg | link |
| 1996 | Race the Sun Race the Sun Race the Sun is a 1996 comedy-drama movie starring Halle Berry and James Belushi. The plot is loosely based on the true story of the Konawaena High School Solar Car Team, which finished 18th in the 1990 World Solar Challenge and first place among high school entries.-Plot:A new science teacher at... |
( link | |
| 1999 | First Daughter First Daughter (1999 film) First Daughter is a 1999 action/romance television movie starring Mariel Hemingway, Gregory Harrison, Doug Savant and Diamond Dallas Page, with Monica Keena as the title role... |
Dan | (unrated) link |
| 2000 | Nowhere to Land | AFP Bill Ryan | (unrated) link |