By Travis Johnson
Author, actor, and satirist, John Clarke, has died while hiking in Victoria’s Grampians National Park. He was 68.
A towering figure in the Australian cultural and political landscape, Clarke was actually born in New Zealand, and first came to prominence there in the mid ’70s with his popular stage character, Fred Dagg, a stereotypical Kiwi farmer (Clarke voiced his spiritual descendant, Wal Footrot, in 1986’s Footrot Flats: The Dog’s Tail).
Relocating to Australia, Clarke became best known for his political satire, working on such shows as The Gillies Report, and going on to enact mock interviews on A Current Affair and 7.30 with his long-time collaborator, Bryan Dawe – a partnership that continued until his death. Along the way he produced a staggering amount of material, authoring books and screenplays, including the miniseries Anzacs and the Olympic satire, The Games. As an actor, his first big screen appearance was in 1972’s The Adventures of Barry McKenzie and he went on to crop up in everything from Crackerjack to Death in Brunswick. His final film role was in Matthew Saville’s A Month of Sundays, starring Anthony LaPaglia, in 2015.
Clarke was inducted into the Logies Hall of Fame in 2008, where he quipped that he and Dawe, who presented the award to him, would continue to do television “…until we get it right.”
He is survived by his wife and two adult children.
