Steve Dodd
Encyclopedia
Steve Dodd is an Indigenous Australian actor, notable for playing indigenous characters across seven decades of Australian film. After beginning his working life as a stockman and rodeo rider, Dodd was given his first film roles by prominent Australian actor Chips Rafferty
. His career was interrupted by six years in the Australian Army
during the Korean War
, and limited by discrimination and typecasting
.
Dodd has performed in some of Australia's most prominent movies, including Gallipoli
and The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith
, in which he played Tabidgi, the murdering uncle of the lead character. He has also held minor parts in Australia-based international film productions including The Coca-Cola Kid
, Quigley Down Under
and The Matrix
. He has appeared in minor roles in early Australian television series, such as Homicide and Rush, as well as more recent series including The Flying Doctors
.
Indigenous man from central Australia
. It is not clear whether Dodd is from the Northern Territory
or South Australia
: one source states he was born in Alice Springs
, and another states he was born at the Hermannsburg Mission
, to the town's south-west. However a third source suggests Oodnadatta
, across the border in South Australia, while Dodd himself, in a 2011 interview, stated he was South Australian. The only record of a birth date is in the Department of Veterans Affairs' Nominal Roll of Australian Veterans of the Korean War, which gives 1 June 1928. In 1966 he was reported to be a bachelor; later sources shed no light on his marital status. In 1971 he remarked in an interview that his father and six brothers were living in the Northern Territory.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, Indigenous Australian men played significant roles as stockmen in the Australian pastoral industry, and as entertainers participating in competitive demonstrations of stockmen's skills, referred to as rough riding. Dodd worked as a stockman, horse breaker and rodeo
rider prior to and during his acting career, including a period working for rider and entertainer Smoky Dawson
. He was a member of the Rough Riders Association, and gave exhibition rides at the Calgary Stampede
in 1964.
Dodd served in Korea
, during a six year stint in the Australian Army
, with the 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment
; his service number was 41018. Interviewed in May 2011 he indicated that he "was the first Aboriginal to sign up from South Australia to go to Korea". A photograph of him in uniform in Korea is amongst images on permanent display at the Australian War Memorial. From 1969 to at least 1973 Dodd worked as a guide for Airlines of New South Wales
, escorting tours to Uluru
and other locations in central Australia. Dodd has stated that he demonstrated boomerang
and spear-throwing at Expo 70, and at an Olympic Games
(though which year is unknown). He was also a participant in a re-enactment of Captain James Cook
's landing in Australia, as part of the Australian Bicentenary
celebrations. Dodd lives in New South Wales.
came in 1946, when actor Chips Rafferty noticed Dodd on the set of The Overlanders and gave him a small role. It was the first of three Rafferty movies in which Dodd secured a part, the second being Bitter Springs
in 1950. This film was notable for being "a serious study of the relations of white settlers and Aborigines" and "more honest than most Australian film-makers ventured to be at that time". Bruce Molloy described the film as a "lucid and dramatically effective representation" of black–white conflict in colonial
Australia, giving Indigenous Australians "a degree of justice long denied them in cinematic representation".
Dodd was working on Bitter Springs as a tracker and interpreter for actor Michael Pate
when Rafferty arranged for him to have an on-screen role. There was a positive relationship between the Indigenous Arrente people and the cast and crew, particularly Rafferty, involved in the location filming for Bitter Springs in the area of Quorn
in northern South Australia. Michael Pate said that Rafferty "wasn't a prejudiced person ... Chips was a person who appreciated the Aborigine [sic] very much ... he got on very well with the people". Dodd, meanwhile, appreciated Rafferty's vision for an Australian film industry and its potential to provide opportunities for Indigenous Australians.
Rafferty was the star of the film that gave Dodd his third minor screen role, Kangaroo (1952). In 1957, the J Arthur Rank Organisation
, an English company, came to Australia to make a film adaptation of Robbery Under Arms
, an Australian colonial novel by Rolf Boldrewood
. Dodd travelled to Britain and the United States with the company for six months; in what role is unknown. He said he worked with Rafferty on a fourth film, Wake in Fright
, in 1971, but Dodd's name does not appear in published cast lists. In the same year, he was cast in the role of an Aboriginal caretaker for a film he said was called Sacrifice.
On stage, Dodd performed the role of Darky Morris in a 1966 J.C. Williamson stage production of Desire of the Moth, with a season of nearly three months in Melbourne and Sydney. Also that year, Dodd's work for Smoky Dawson included appearing in a television production, Adventure with Smoky Dawson: Tim Goes Walkabout, broadcast in June. In other television work, Dodd participated in a Channel 7
documentary series about pioneering Australian transport company Cobb and Co
, and also worked on several documentary programs for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
. Dodd had minor roles in many early Australian TV dramas of the 1960s and 1970s, including Skippy the Bush Kangaroo
, Division 4
, Delta (1969), Riptide (1969), Woobinda – Animal Doctor (1970), Spyforce
(1972–73), Homicide (1974), and Rush (1976). One of these, Woobinda – Animal Doctor, marked the first appearance of an Indigenous Australian in a television series lead role – not by Dodd, but by a Bindi Williams, playing an adopted son of the show's star.
Although Dodd obtained minor parts in several television series, for many years he and his fellow Aboriginal actors found themselves included in only minor and typecast roles in television productions. According to Indigenous actor, historian and activist Gary Foley
, Dodd joked that "he was sick of roles where his total dialogue was, 'he went that way, Boss!'" Reflecting on this issue, a commentator remarked on the 1978 film Little Boy Lost: "There are many irrelevant scenes, the most obvious one being where Tracker Bindi (Steve Dodd), an Aboriginal, is introduced – yet another tired reinforcement of a false stereotype."
. Dodd played the character of Tabidgi, the uncle of the lead character, Aboriginal man Jimmie Blacksmith. In the film, Jimmie Blacksmith marries a white woman named Gilda Marshall (played by Angela Punch McGregor
). When they have a baby, Dodd's character, "a tribal elder, ... is worried about Jimmie's marriage to a white woman and has brought him a talisman to keep him safe". Pauline Kael, writing in The New Yorker
, described the performances of the two black professional actors (Jack Charles and Dodd) as "wonderful as sots: ... Steve Dodds [sic], who is tried for murder and simply says, 'You'd think it would take a good while to make up your mind to kill someone and then to kill them, but take my word for it, it only takes a second'".
Dodd's career was busiest in the 1980s. In 1981 he played Billy Snakeskin in the film Gallipoli, about the fate of young men who participated in the World War I Gallipoli Campaign of 1915. This was followed by parts in Chase Through the Night and Essington, both in 1984. In 1985 he played the role of Mr Joe in The Coca-Cola Kid, an Australian romantic comedy with an international cast including Eric Roberts
and Greta Scacchi
. In 1986 he appeared in the film Short Changed, while through the mid 1980s he had minor parts in the popular television series The Flying Doctors
(1985–1988).
The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith was not the only film in which Dodd appeared that addressed topical Indigenous issues of the day. A decade after Jimmie Blacksmith, Dodd performed in Ground Zero
, again with Jack Thompson in one of the lead roles. This film is a thriller based on claims that Indigenous Australians were used as human guinea pigs in the British nuclear tests at Maralinga
. The film uses as its context the McClelland Royal Commission
, which was investigating radioactive contamination at the site. In the film, Dodd plays a minor character named Freddy Tjapaljarri.
Sources differ on whether Dodd had a part in Evil Angels, the 1988 film about the Azaria Chamberlain disappearance
, with Dodd's name not included in the cast list published by Australian Film 1978–1994, but appearing in the longer cast listing provided by IMDb. In 1988 he also played a minor role in Kadaicha, an unreleased horror film
about a series of unexplained murders. In 1990 Dodd appeared in two films: Quigley Down Under, a western
made in Australia but starring American Tom Selleck
and Briton Alan Rickman
; and The Crossing, an Australian drama set in a country town.
Dodd's career returned to politically contentious Indigenous issues when he played a minor role, of Kummengu, in the 1991 film Deadly. This film is a police drama based around the death of an Indigenous man in police custody. As in Ground Zero, the subject was very topical: the movie was released at the same time as the report of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody
, which had for four years been examining why so many Indigenous Australians died in police detention
.
In 1999, Dodd was one of three actors in Wind, a short film portraying the pursuit of an old Aboriginal man (Dodd) by a young black tracker and a white police sergeant. Dodd played a minor role in an episode of television series The Alice
(2006), and in the movies My Country (2007) and Broken Sun (2008).
Chips Rafferty
Chips Rafferty MBE was an iconic Australian actor. Called "the living symbol of the typical Australian", Rafferty's career stretched from the 1940s until his death in 1971, and during this time he performed regularly in major Australian feature films as well as appearing in British and American...
. His career was interrupted by six years in the Australian Army
Australian Army
The Australian Army is Australia's military land force. It is part of the Australian Defence Force along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force. While the Chief of Defence commands the Australian Defence Force , the Army is commanded by the Chief of Army...
during the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
, and limited by discrimination and typecasting
Typecasting (acting)
In TV, film, and theatre, typecasting is the process by which a particular actor becomes strongly identified with a specific character; one or more particular roles; or, characters having the same traits or coming from the same social or ethnic groups...
.
Dodd has performed in some of Australia's most prominent movies, including Gallipoli
Gallipoli
The Gallipoli peninsula is located in Turkish Thrace , the European part of Turkey, with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles straits to the east. Gallipoli derives its name from the Greek "Καλλίπολις" , meaning "Beautiful City"...
and The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith
The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith
The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith is a 1972 Booker Prize-nominated novel by Thomas Keneally, and a 1978 Australian film of the same name directed by Fred Schepisi. The novel is based on the life of bushranger Jimmy Governor....
, in which he played Tabidgi, the murdering uncle of the lead character. He has also held minor parts in Australia-based international film productions including The Coca-Cola Kid
The Coca-Cola Kid
The Coca Cola Kid is a romantic comedy Australian film, released in 1985. It was directed by Dušan Makavejev and starred Eric Roberts and Greta Scacchi. The film is based on short stories in The Americans, Baby, and The Electrical Experience by Frank Moorhouse, who wrote the screenplay...
, Quigley Down Under
Quigley Down Under
Quigley Down Under is a 1990 western film set in Australia's outback. Starring Tom Selleck, Alan Rickman and Laura San Giacomo, it was directed by Simon Wincer.-Plot:...
and The Matrix
The Matrix
The Matrix is a 1999 science fiction-action film written and directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski, starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano, and Hugo Weaving...
. He has appeared in minor roles in early Australian television series, such as Homicide and Rush, as well as more recent series including The Flying Doctors
The Flying Doctors
The Flying Doctors is an Australian drama series produced by Crawford Productions that revolved around the everyday lifesaving efforts of the real Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia....
.
Background
Steve Dodd, also known as Steve Mullawalla Dodd, is an Arunta or ArrenteArrernte people
The Arrernte people , known in English as the Aranda or Arunta, are those Indigenous Australians who are the original custodians of Arrernte lands in the central area of Australia around Mparntwe or Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. The Arrernte tribe has lived there for more than 20,000 years...
Indigenous man from central Australia
Central Australia
Central Australia/Alice Springs Region is one of the five regions in the Northern Territory. The term Central Australia is used to describe an area centred on Alice Springs in Australia. It is sometimes referred to as Centralia; likewise the people of the area are sometimes called Centralians...
. It is not clear whether Dodd is from the Northern Territory
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory is a federal territory of Australia, occupying much of the centre of the mainland continent, as well as the central northern regions...
or South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
: one source states he was born in Alice Springs
Alice Springs, Northern Territory
Alice Springs is the second largest town in the Northern Territory of Australia. Popularly known as "the Alice" or simply "Alice", Alice Springs is situated in the geographic centre of Australia near the southern border of the Northern Territory...
, and another states he was born at the Hermannsburg Mission
Hermannsburg, Northern Territory
Hermannsburg is an Aboriginal community in the Northern Territory of Australia, 131 km southwest of Alice Springs. It is known in the local Western Arrernte language as Ntaria....
, to the town's south-west. However a third source suggests Oodnadatta
Oodnadatta, South Australia
Oodnadatta, South Australia, is a small town surrounded by an area of with cattle stations in arid pastoral rangelands close to the Simpson Desert, north of Adelaide and 112 m above sea level. It can be reached by an unsealed road from Coober Pedy or via the unsealed Oodnadatta Track from...
, across the border in South Australia, while Dodd himself, in a 2011 interview, stated he was South Australian. The only record of a birth date is in the Department of Veterans Affairs' Nominal Roll of Australian Veterans of the Korean War, which gives 1 June 1928. In 1966 he was reported to be a bachelor; later sources shed no light on his marital status. In 1971 he remarked in an interview that his father and six brothers were living in the Northern Territory.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, Indigenous Australian men played significant roles as stockmen in the Australian pastoral industry, and as entertainers participating in competitive demonstrations of stockmen's skills, referred to as rough riding. Dodd worked as a stockman, horse breaker and rodeo
Rodeo
Rodeo is a competitive sport which arose out of the working practices of cattle herding in Spain, Mexico, and later the United States, Canada, South America and Australia. It was based on the skills required of the working vaqueros and later, cowboys, in what today is the western United States,...
rider prior to and during his acting career, including a period working for rider and entertainer Smoky Dawson
Smoky Dawson
Smoky Dawson, MBE , born Herbert Henry Dawson, was an Australian country music performer. He was widely touted as Australia's first singing cowboy.-Biography:...
. He was a member of the Rough Riders Association, and gave exhibition rides at the Calgary Stampede
Calgary Stampede
The Calgary Stampede is an annual rodeo, exhibition and festival held every July in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The ten-day event, which bills itself as "The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth", attracts over one million visitors per year and features one of the world's largest rodeos, a parade, midway,...
in 1964.
Dodd served in Korea
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
, during a six year stint in the Australian Army
Australian Army
The Australian Army is Australia's military land force. It is part of the Australian Defence Force along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force. While the Chief of Defence commands the Australian Defence Force , the Army is commanded by the Chief of Army...
, with the 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment
1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment
1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment is a regular light infantry battalion of the Australian Army. 1 RAR was first formed as the 65th Australian Infantry Battalion in 1945 and since then has been deployed on active service during the Korean War, the Malayan Emergency and the Vietnam War...
; his service number was 41018. Interviewed in May 2011 he indicated that he "was the first Aboriginal to sign up from South Australia to go to Korea". A photograph of him in uniform in Korea is amongst images on permanent display at the Australian War Memorial. From 1969 to at least 1973 Dodd worked as a guide for Airlines of New South Wales
Airlines of New South Wales
Airlines of New South Wales callsign "NEWSOUTH" was an Australian domestic regional airline that operated from 1959 until its merger into Ansett in 1993. It was formed by Reg Ansett's takeover of Butler Air Transport...
, escorting tours to Uluru
Uluru
Uluru , also known as Ayers Rock, is a large sandstone rock formation in the southern part of the Northern Territory, central Australia. It lies south west of the nearest large town, Alice Springs; by road. Kata Tjuta and Uluru are the two major features of the Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park....
and other locations in central Australia. Dodd has stated that he demonstrated boomerang
Boomerang
A boomerang is a flying tool with a curved shape used as a weapon or for sport.-Description:A boomerang is usually thought of as a wooden device, although historically boomerang-like devices have also been made from bones. Modern boomerangs used for sport are often made from carbon fibre-reinforced...
and spear-throwing at Expo 70, and at an Olympic Games
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
(though which year is unknown). He was also a participant in a re-enactment of Captain James Cook
James Cook
Captain James Cook, FRS, RN was a British explorer, navigator and cartographer who ultimately rose to the rank of captain in the Royal Navy...
's landing in Australia, as part of the Australian Bicentenary
Australian Bicentenary
The bicentenary of Australia was celebrated in 1970 on the 200th anniversary of Captain James Cook landing and claiming the land, and again in 1988 to celebrate 200 years of permanent European settlement.-1970:...
celebrations. Dodd lives in New South Wales.
Early career
Dodd's first opportunity to act in Australian filmCinema of Australia
Cinema of Australia, more commonly referred to as the Australian film industry, refers to the system of production, distribution, and exhibition of films in Australia. Film production commenced in Australia in 1906 with the production of The Story of the Kelly Gang, the earliest feature film made...
came in 1946, when actor Chips Rafferty noticed Dodd on the set of The Overlanders and gave him a small role. It was the first of three Rafferty movies in which Dodd secured a part, the second being Bitter Springs
Bitter Springs (film)
Bitter Springs is a 1950 Australian-British film directed by Ralph Smart. An Australian pioneer family buy a piece of land from the government in the Australian outback and hire two inexperienced British men as drovers...
in 1950. This film was notable for being "a serious study of the relations of white settlers and Aborigines" and "more honest than most Australian film-makers ventured to be at that time". Bruce Molloy described the film as a "lucid and dramatically effective representation" of black–white conflict in colonial
Colonialism
Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...
Australia, giving Indigenous Australians "a degree of justice long denied them in cinematic representation".
Dodd was working on Bitter Springs as a tracker and interpreter for actor Michael Pate
Michael Pate
Michael Pate was an Australian actor, writer and director.-Early life:He was born Edward John Pate in Drummoyne, Sydney...
when Rafferty arranged for him to have an on-screen role. There was a positive relationship between the Indigenous Arrente people and the cast and crew, particularly Rafferty, involved in the location filming for Bitter Springs in the area of Quorn
Quorn, South Australia
Quorn is a township and railhead in the Flinders Ranges in the north of South Australia, 39 km northeast of Port Augusta. At the 2006 census, Quorn had a population of 1068.Quorn is the home of the Flinders Ranges Council local government area...
in northern South Australia. Michael Pate said that Rafferty "wasn't a prejudiced person ... Chips was a person who appreciated the Aborigine [sic] very much ... he got on very well with the people". Dodd, meanwhile, appreciated Rafferty's vision for an Australian film industry and its potential to provide opportunities for Indigenous Australians.
Rafferty was the star of the film that gave Dodd his third minor screen role, Kangaroo (1952). In 1957, the J Arthur Rank Organisation
Rank Organisation
The Rank Organisation was a British entertainment company formed during 1937 and absorbed in 1996 by The Rank Group Plc. It was the largest and most vertically-integrated film company in Britain, owning production, distribution and exhibition facilities....
, an English company, came to Australia to make a film adaptation of Robbery Under Arms
Robbery Under Arms
Robbery Under Arms is a classic Australian novel by Rolf Boldrewood . It was first published in serialised form by The Sydney Mail between July 1882 and August 1883, then in three volumes in London in 1888...
, an Australian colonial novel by Rolf Boldrewood
Thomas Alexander Browne
Thomas Alexander Browne was an Australian writer, who sometimes published under the pseudonym Rolf Boldrewood and best known for his novel Robbery Under Arms.-Biography:...
. Dodd travelled to Britain and the United States with the company for six months; in what role is unknown. He said he worked with Rafferty on a fourth film, Wake in Fright
Wake in Fright
Wake in Fright is a 1971 Australian film directed by Ted Kotcheff and starring Gary Bond, Donald Pleasence and Chips Rafferty. The screenplay was written by Evan Jones, based on Kenneth Cook’s 1961 novel of the same name....
, in 1971, but Dodd's name does not appear in published cast lists. In the same year, he was cast in the role of an Aboriginal caretaker for a film he said was called Sacrifice.
On stage, Dodd performed the role of Darky Morris in a 1966 J.C. Williamson stage production of Desire of the Moth, with a season of nearly three months in Melbourne and Sydney. Also that year, Dodd's work for Smoky Dawson included appearing in a television production, Adventure with Smoky Dawson: Tim Goes Walkabout, broadcast in June. In other television work, Dodd participated in a Channel 7
Seven Network
The Seven Network is an Australian television network owned by Seven West Media Limited. It dates back to 4 November 1956, when the first stations on the VHF7 frequency were established in Melbourne and Sydney.It is currently the second largest network in the country in terms of population reach...
documentary series about pioneering Australian transport company Cobb and Co
Cobb and Co
Cobb and Co is the name of a transportation company in Australia. It was prominent in the late 19th century when it operated stagecoaches to many areas in the outback and at one point in several other countries, as well....
, and also worked on several documentary programs for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
. Dodd had minor roles in many early Australian TV dramas of the 1960s and 1970s, including Skippy the Bush Kangaroo
Skippy the Bush Kangaroo
Skippy the Bush Kangaroo is an Australian television series for children created by John McCallum, produced from 1966–1968, telling the adventures of a young boy and his intelligent pet kangaroo, in the Waratah National Park in Duffys Forest, near Sydney, New South Wales.Ninety-one 30-minute...
, Division 4
Division 4
Division 4 was an Australian television police drama series made by Crawford Productions for the Nine Network between 1969 and 1975 for 300 episodes....
, Delta (1969), Riptide (1969), Woobinda – Animal Doctor (1970), Spyforce
Spyforce
Spyforce was an Australian TV series produced from 1971 to 1973, based upon the adventures of Australian Military Intelligence operatives in the South West Pacific during World War II...
(1972–73), Homicide (1974), and Rush (1976). One of these, Woobinda – Animal Doctor, marked the first appearance of an Indigenous Australian in a television series lead role – not by Dodd, but by a Bindi Williams, playing an adopted son of the show's star.
Although Dodd obtained minor parts in several television series, for many years he and his fellow Aboriginal actors found themselves included in only minor and typecast roles in television productions. According to Indigenous actor, historian and activist Gary Foley
Gary Foley
Gary Foley is an Australian Aboriginal Gumbainggir activist, academic, writer and actor . He is best known for his role in establishing the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra in 1972 and for establishing an Aboriginal Legal Service in Redfern in the 1970s...
, Dodd joked that "he was sick of roles where his total dialogue was, 'he went that way, Boss!'" Reflecting on this issue, a commentator remarked on the 1978 film Little Boy Lost: "There are many irrelevant scenes, the most obvious one being where Tracker Bindi (Steve Dodd), an Aboriginal, is introduced – yet another tired reinforcement of a false stereotype."
Later career
Dodd contributed to several films in which issues facing Indigenous Australians, such as land rights and race relations, were the central subjects. These appearances included Bitter Springs (mentioned above) and The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1978), the first of two films in which he appeared alongside Jack ThompsonJack Thompson (actor)
Jack Thompson, AM is an Australian actor and one of the major figures of Australian cinema. He was educated at University of Queensland, before embarking on his acting career. In 2002, he was made an honorary member of the Australian Cinematographers Society...
. Dodd played the character of Tabidgi, the uncle of the lead character, Aboriginal man Jimmie Blacksmith. In the film, Jimmie Blacksmith marries a white woman named Gilda Marshall (played by Angela Punch McGregor
Angela Punch McGregor
Angela Punch McGregor is an Australian actress.As "Angela Punch" she acted in television serial Class of '75 and had a guest role in situation comedy Alvin Purple ....
). When they have a baby, Dodd's character, "a tribal elder, ... is worried about Jimmie's marriage to a white woman and has brought him a talisman to keep him safe". Pauline Kael, writing in The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
, described the performances of the two black professional actors (Jack Charles and Dodd) as "wonderful as sots: ... Steve Dodds [sic], who is tried for murder and simply says, 'You'd think it would take a good while to make up your mind to kill someone and then to kill them, but take my word for it, it only takes a second'".
Dodd's career was busiest in the 1980s. In 1981 he played Billy Snakeskin in the film Gallipoli, about the fate of young men who participated in the World War I Gallipoli Campaign of 1915. This was followed by parts in Chase Through the Night and Essington, both in 1984. In 1985 he played the role of Mr Joe in The Coca-Cola Kid, an Australian romantic comedy with an international cast including Eric Roberts
Eric Roberts
Eric Anthony Roberts is an American actor. His career began with King of the Gypsies , earning a Golden Globe nomination for best actor debut. He starred as the protagonist in the 1980 dramatisation of Willa Cather's 1905 short story, Paul's Case...
and Greta Scacchi
Greta Scacchi
Greta Scacchi is an Italian-Australian actor.-Early life:Scacchi was born Greta Gracco in Milan, Italy, on 18 February 1960, the daughter of Luca Scacchi Gracco, an Italian art dealer and painter, and Pamela Carsaniga, an English dancer and antiques dealer...
. In 1986 he appeared in the film Short Changed, while through the mid 1980s he had minor parts in the popular television series The Flying Doctors
The Flying Doctors
The Flying Doctors is an Australian drama series produced by Crawford Productions that revolved around the everyday lifesaving efforts of the real Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia....
(1985–1988).
The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith was not the only film in which Dodd appeared that addressed topical Indigenous issues of the day. A decade after Jimmie Blacksmith, Dodd performed in Ground Zero
Ground Zero (1987 film)
Ground Zero is an Australian drama-thriller about a cinematographer who, prompted by curiosity about some old film footage taken by his father, embarks on a quest to find out the truth about British nuclear tests at Maralinga...
, again with Jack Thompson in one of the lead roles. This film is a thriller based on claims that Indigenous Australians were used as human guinea pigs in the British nuclear tests at Maralinga
British nuclear tests at Maralinga
British nuclear tests at Maralinga occurred between 1955 and 1963 at the Maralinga site, part of the Woomera Prohibited Area, in South Australia. A total of seven major nuclear tests were performed, with approximate yields ranging from 1 to 27 kilotons of TNT equivalent...
. The film uses as its context the McClelland Royal Commission
McClelland Royal Commission
The McClelland Royal Commission or Royal Commission into British nuclear tests in Australia was an inquiry by the Australian government in 1984-1985 to investigate the conduct of the British in its use, with the then Australian government's permission, of Australian territory and soldiers for...
, which was investigating radioactive contamination at the site. In the film, Dodd plays a minor character named Freddy Tjapaljarri.
Sources differ on whether Dodd had a part in Evil Angels, the 1988 film about the Azaria Chamberlain disappearance
Azaria Chamberlain disappearance
Azaria Chantel Loren Chamberlain was a nine-week-old Australian baby girl, who disappeared on the night of 17 August 1980 on a camping trip to Uluru with her family. Her body was never found. Her parents, Lindy and Michael Chamberlain, reported that she had been taken from their tent by a dingo...
, with Dodd's name not included in the cast list published by Australian Film 1978–1994, but appearing in the longer cast listing provided by IMDb. In 1988 he also played a minor role in Kadaicha, an unreleased horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
about a series of unexplained murders. In 1990 Dodd appeared in two films: Quigley Down Under, a western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
made in Australia but starring American Tom Selleck
Tom Selleck
Thomas William "Tom" Selleck is an American actor, and film producer. He is best known for his starring role as Hawaii-based private investigator Thomas Magnum on the 1980s television show Magnum, P.I.. He also plays Police Chief Jesse Stone in a series of made-for-TV movies based on the Robert B....
and Briton Alan Rickman
Alan Rickman
Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman is an English actor and theatre director. He is a renowned stage actor in modern and classical productions and a former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company...
; and The Crossing, an Australian drama set in a country town.
Dodd's career returned to politically contentious Indigenous issues when he played a minor role, of Kummengu, in the 1991 film Deadly. This film is a police drama based around the death of an Indigenous man in police custody. As in Ground Zero, the subject was very topical: the movie was released at the same time as the report of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody
Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody
The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody studied and reported on the high level of deaths of Aboriginal people whilst in custody after being arrested or convicted of committing crimes. This included suicide, natural causes, medical conditions and injuries caused by police...
, which had for four years been examining why so many Indigenous Australians died in police detention
Aboriginal deaths in custody
Aboriginal deaths in custody became a major issue because of a widespread perception that a disproportionate number of Indigenous Australians were dying in jail after being arrested by police...
.
In 1999, Dodd was one of three actors in Wind, a short film portraying the pursuit of an old Aboriginal man (Dodd) by a young black tracker and a white police sergeant. Dodd played a minor role in an episode of television series The Alice
The Alice
The Alice was an Australian drama television series created by Justin Monjo and Robyn Sinclair. It was set in the central outback city of Alice Springs. The program began as a successful TV movie, that later spun off a regular series. The series proved less popular and was cancelled by the Nine...
(2006), and in the movies My Country (2007) and Broken Sun (2008).
Filmography
| Film | Year | Character | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1946 | minor role | ||
| Bitter Springs Bitter Springs (film) Bitter Springs is a 1950 Australian-British film directed by Ralph Smart. An Australian pioneer family buy a piece of land from the government in the Australian outback and hire two inexperienced British men as drovers... |
1950 | minor role | |
| Kangaroo | 1952 | minor role | |
| Wake in Fright Wake in Fright Wake in Fright is a 1971 Australian film directed by Ted Kotcheff and starring Gary Bond, Donald Pleasence and Chips Rafferty. The screenplay was written by Evan Jones, based on Kenneth Cook’s 1961 novel of the same name.... |
1971 | unknown | Does not appear in published cast lists, but Dodd reported working on the film. |
| Me and You Kangaroo (short film) | 1974 | unknown | National Film and Sound Archive |
| Little Boy Lost | 1978 | Bindi (tracker) | |
| 1978 | Tabidgi | ||
| Gallipoli Gallipoli (1981 film) Gallipoli is a 1981 Australian film, directed by Peter Weir and starring Mel Gibson and Mark Lee, about several young men from rural Western Australia who enlist in the Australian Army during the First World War. They are sent to Turkey, where they take part in the Gallipoli Campaign. During the... |
1981 | Billy Snakeskin | |
| Chase Through the Night | 1984 | Narli | Memorable TV National Film and Sound Archive |
| Essington | 1984 | unknown | Reelz Channel |
| 1985 | Mr Joe | ||
| Short Changed | 1986 | old drunk | |
| Ground Zero Ground Zero (1987 film) Ground Zero is an Australian drama-thriller about a cinematographer who, prompted by curiosity about some old film footage taken by his father, embarks on a quest to find out the truth about British nuclear tests at Maralinga... |
1987 | Freddy Tjapalijarri | |
| Evil Angels | 1988 | Nipper Winmatti | Dodd does not appear in Australian Film 1978–1994: A Survey of Theatrical Features cast list. |
| Kadaicha | 1988 | Billinudgel | IMDb, Kadaicha cast list |
| Young Einstein Young Einstein Young Einstein is an Australian comedy film directed by and starring Yahoo Serious, released in 1988.-Plot:Albert Einstein, the son of an apple farmer in Tasmania in the early 1900s, splits a beer atom with a chisel in order to add bubbles to beer, discovers the theory of relativity and travels to... |
1988 | unknown | |
| (short film) | 1988 | unknown | National Film and Sound Archive |
| Quigley Down Under Quigley Down Under Quigley Down Under is a 1990 western film set in Australia's outback. Starring Tom Selleck, Alan Rickman and Laura San Giacomo, it was directed by Simon Wincer.-Plot:... |
1990 | Kunkurra | |
| 1990 | Old Spider | National Film and Sound Archive |
|
| Spirit of the Blue Mountains (documentary) | 1990 | Presenter | Screen Australia |
| Deadly | 1991 | Kummengu | National Film and Sound Archive |
| Wind | 1999 | Old Aboriginal man | |
| 1999 | Blind man | Yahoo!7 Movies | |
| My Country | 2007 | Old Uncle | IMDb, My Country cast list |
| Broken Sun | 2008 | Aboriginal man | IMDb, Broken Sun cast list |
External links
- Historical image of Steve Dodd in 1966 theatre production, Desire of the Moth
- Contemporary image of Steve Dodd at actors' agency Townsend Management