John Bell (actor)
Encyclopedia
John Anthony Bell, AO
, OBE
(born 1 November 1940) is an Australian actor and theatre director.
Bell was born 1 November 1940 in the town of Maitland, New South Wales
where he was educated at the Marist Brothers
.
In a career of acting in, directing, and managing theatres, Bell has been instrumental in shaping the Australian theatre.
He directed the first production of The Legend of King O'Malley (a musical play based on the life of King O'Malley
by Bob Ellis
and Michael Boddy ) in 1970.
In 2009 Bell directed the opera
Madama Butterfly
for Oz Opera
; this production toured throughout Australia.
, Romeo and Juliet
, The Taming of the Shrew
, Richard III
, Pericles
, Henry IV
, Henry V
, Julius Caesar
, Antony and Cleopatra
, The Comedy of Errors
, The Merchant of Venice
, The Tempest
, King Lear
, and Goldoni
's Servant of Two Masters
.
His roles for the company include Shylock, Richard III, Macbeth, Malvolio, Coriolanus, Leontes, Prospero, King Lear and Ulysses.
In 2011, Bell published the book On Shakespeare, his thoughts and reminiscences of playing Shakespeare for more than 50 years.
with Clive James
and Germaine Greer
. He is a contemporary and friend of Bruce Beresford
(film director, with whom he shared a house and for whom he did some film acting), Ken Horler, Mungo McCallum
, Bob Ellis
, Richard Wherrett
, John Gaden, Laurie Oakes
(journalist), and Les Murray
(poet). His brother is the artist Michael Bell. Bell is married to actress Anna Volska
and has two daughters, Grass Roots actress Lucy Bell
and playwright Hilary Bell.
(OBE). In the Queen's Birthday Honours of 1987, he was named a Member of the Order of Australia
(AM). In Australia Day Honours of 2009, he was named an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO).
His achievements in theatre have been acknowledged by the Universities of Newcastle (1994) and Sydney
(1996) who have both awarded him an honorary Doctorate of Letters
.
In 2001 a painting of Bell by artist Nicholas Harding
won the Archibald Prize
.
In 2002, Bell's performance of Richard, Duke of Gloucester, in Richard III earned him a Helpmann Award
for Best Male Actor.
In 2003 the Australian Prime Minister, John Howard
, presented Bell with the Cultural Leader of the Year Award.
He has been named an Australian Living Treasure
.
Order of Australia
The Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, "for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service"...
, OBE
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(born 1 November 1940) is an Australian actor and theatre director.
Bell was born 1 November 1940 in the town of Maitland, New South Wales
Maitland, New South Wales
Maitland is a city in the Lower Hunter Valley of New South Wales, Australia and the seat of Maitland City Council, situated on the Hunter River approximately by road north of Sydney and north-west of Newcastle...
where he was educated at the Marist Brothers
Marist Brothers
The Marist Brothers, or Little Brothers of Mary, are a Catholic religious order of brothers and affiliated lay people. The order was founded in France, at La Valla-en-Gier near Lyon in 1817 by Saint Marcellin Champagnat, a young French priest of the Society of Mary...
.
In a career of acting in, directing, and managing theatres, Bell has been instrumental in shaping the Australian theatre.
Career moves
- While at High School, he developed and performed one-man shows.
- Old Tote Theatre CompanyOld Tote Theatre CompanyThe Old Tote Theatre Company began as the standing acting and theatre company of Australia's National Institute of Dramatic Art and was the precursor to the Sydney Theatre Company.. It was one of the leading Australian theatre companies of the period.The Old Tote began in a converted tin shed on...
- He spent five years with the Royal Shakespeare CompanyRoyal Shakespeare CompanyThe Royal Shakespeare Company is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs 700 staff and produces around 20 productions a year from its home in Stratford-upon-Avon and plays regularly in London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and on tour across...
in Great Britain - 1970s – Taught at National Institute of Dramatic ArtNational Institute of Dramatic ArtThe National Institute of Dramatic Art is an Australian national training institute for students of theatre, film, and television, based in the Sydney suburb of Kensington. It is supported by the federal Office for the Arts, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. NIDA is located adjacent...
(NIDA)
He directed the first production of The Legend of King O'Malley (a musical play based on the life of King O'Malley
King O'Malley
King O'Malley was an Australian politician. He was a member in the South Australian House of Assembly from 1896 to 1899, and the Australian House of Representatives from 1901 to 1917. O'Malley was also Minister for Home Affairs in the second and third Fisher Labor ministry...
by Bob Ellis
Bob Ellis
Bob Ellis is an Australian writer, journalist, film-maker and political commentator. He was a student at the University of Sydney at the same time as other notable Australians including Clive James, Germaine Greer, Les Murray, John Bell, Ken Horler, and Mungo McCallum...
and Michael Boddy ) in 1970.
- Major state theatre companies as actor and/or director
- Co-founder of the Nimrod Theatre CompanyNimrod Theatre CompanyThe Nimrod Theatre Company, in Nimrod Street, Kings Cross, Sydney, Australia, was founded by in 1970 by John Bell, Richard Wherrett and Ken Horler, and gained a reputation for producing more "good new Australian drama" from 1970 to 1985 than any other Australian theatre company...
in Sydney - Producer/presenter for David WilliamsonDavid WilliamsonDavid Keith Williamson AO is one of Australia's best-known playwrights. He has also written screenplays and teleplays.-Biography:...
's Travelling North, The ClubThe Club (play)The Club is a satirical play by Australian playwright David Williamson, that follows the fortunes of a football club over the course of a season. It explores the clashes between "human loyalty versus materialistic gain". It was inspired by the backroom dealings and antics of the Victorian Football...
, The RemovalistsThe RemovalistsThe Removalists is a play written by Australian playwright David Williamson. The main issues the play addresses are violence, specifically domestic violence, and the abuse of power and authority...
and Peter KennaPeter KennaPeter Joseph Kenna was an Australian playwright, radio actor and screenwriter.Born in Balmain, New South Wales, Kenna left school at fourteen and took up various jobs. He started working in the theatre by participating in concert parties at the camps in Sydney during World War II...
's A Hard God
In 2009 Bell directed the opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
Madama Butterfly
Madama Butterfly
Madama Butterfly is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. Puccini based his opera in part on the short story "Madame Butterfly" by John Luther Long, which was dramatized by David Belasco...
for Oz Opera
Opera Australia
Opera Australia is the principal opera company in Australia. Based in Sydney, its performance season at the Sydney Opera House runs for approximately eight months of the year, with the remainder of its time spent in the The Arts Centre in Melbourne...
; this production toured throughout Australia.
Bell Shakespeare
In 1990, Bell founded the theatre company Bell Shakespeare and has produced, among others, HamletHamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
, Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...
, The Taming of the Shrew
The Taming of the Shrew
The Taming of the Shrew is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1590 and 1591.The play begins with a framing device, often referred to as the Induction, in which a mischievous nobleman tricks a drunken tinker named Sly into believing he is actually a nobleman himself...
, Richard III
Richard III (play)
Richard III is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1591. It depicts the Machiavellian rise to power and subsequent short reign of Richard III of England. The play is grouped among the histories in the First Folio and is most often classified...
, Pericles
Pericles, Prince of Tyre
Pericles, Prince of Tyre is a Jacobean play written at least in part by William Shakespeare and included in modern editions of his collected works despite questions over its authorship, as it was not included in the First Folio...
, Henry IV
Henry IV, Part 1
Henry IV, Part 1 is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written no later than 1597. It is the second play in Shakespeare's tetralogy dealing with the successive reigns of Richard II, Henry IV , and Henry V...
, Henry V
Henry V (play)
Henry V is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to be written in approximately 1599. Its full titles are The Cronicle History of Henry the Fifth and The Life of Henry the Fifth...
, Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar (play)
The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, also known simply as Julius Caesar, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1599. It portrays the 44 BC conspiracy against...
, Antony and Cleopatra
Antony and Cleopatra
Antony and Cleopatra is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607. It was first printed in the First Folio of 1623. The plot is based on Thomas North's translation of Plutarch's Lives and follows the relationship between Cleopatra and Mark Antony...
, The Comedy of Errors
The Comedy of Errors
The Comedy of Errors is one of William Shakespeare's earliest plays. It is his shortest and one of his most farcical comedies, with a major part of the humour coming from slapstick and mistaken identity, in addition to puns and word play. The Comedy of Errors is one of only two of Shakespeare's...
, The Merchant of Venice
The Merchant of Venice
The Merchant of Venice is a tragic comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. Though classified as a comedy in the First Folio and sharing certain aspects with Shakespeare's other romantic comedies, the play is perhaps most remembered for its dramatic...
, The Tempest
The Tempest
The Tempest is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1610–11, and thought by many critics to be the last play that Shakespeare wrote alone. It is set on a remote island, where Prospero, the exiled Duke of Milan, plots to restore his daughter Miranda to her rightful place,...
, King Lear
King Lear
King Lear is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. The title character descends into madness after foolishly disposing of his estate between two of his three daughters based on their flattery, bringing tragic consequences for all. The play is based on the legend of Leir of Britain, a mythological...
, and Goldoni
Carlo Goldoni
Carlo Osvaldo Goldoni was an Italian playwright and librettist from the Republic of Venice. His works include some of Italy's most famous and best-loved plays. Audiences have admired the plays of Goldoni for their ingenious mix of wit and honesty...
's Servant of Two Masters
Servant of Two Masters
Servant of Two Masters is a comedy by the Venetian playwright Carlo Goldoni written in 1743. Goldoni originally wrote the play at the request of actor Antonio Sacco, one of the great Truffaldinos in history...
.
His roles for the company include Shylock, Richard III, Macbeth, Malvolio, Coriolanus, Leontes, Prospero, King Lear and Ulysses.
In 2011, Bell published the book On Shakespeare, his thoughts and reminiscences of playing Shakespeare for more than 50 years.
Contemporaries / friends
Bell attended the University of SydneyUniversity of Sydney
The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...
with Clive James
Clive James
Clive James, AM is an Australian author, critic, broadcaster, poet and memoirist, best known for his autobiographical series Unreliable Memoirs, for his chat shows and documentaries on British television and for his prolific journalism...
and Germaine Greer
Germaine Greer
Germaine Greer is an Australian writer, academic, journalist and scholar of early modern English literature, widely regarded as one of the most significant feminist voices of the later 20th century....
. He is a contemporary and friend of Bruce Beresford
Bruce Beresford
Bruce Beresford is an Australian film director who has made more than 30 feature films over a 40-year career.-Early life:...
(film director, with whom he shared a house and for whom he did some film acting), Ken Horler, Mungo McCallum
Mungo Wentworth MacCallum
Mungo Wentworth MacCallum is an Australian political journalist and commentator.He is the son of Mungo Ballardie MacCallum , and Diana Wentworth a great granddaughter of the Australian explorer and politician William Charles Wentworth...
, Bob Ellis
Bob Ellis
Bob Ellis is an Australian writer, journalist, film-maker and political commentator. He was a student at the University of Sydney at the same time as other notable Australians including Clive James, Germaine Greer, Les Murray, John Bell, Ken Horler, and Mungo McCallum...
, Richard Wherrett
Richard Wherrett
Richard Bruce Wherrett AM was an influential and successful Australian theatrical director, whose career spanned 40 years.Richard Wherrett was born in 1940...
, John Gaden, Laurie Oakes
Laurie Oakes
Laurie Oakes is an Australian political journalist, commentator, and media personality. Since 1966, he has worked in the Canberra Press Gallery, covering the Parliament of Australia and federal elections....
(journalist), and Les Murray
Les Murray (poet)
Leslie Allan Murray, AO , known as Les Murray, is an Australian poet, anthologist and critic. His career spans over forty years, and he has published nearly 30 volumes of poetry, as well as two verse novels and collections of his prose writings...
(poet). His brother is the artist Michael Bell. Bell is married to actress Anna Volska
Anna Volska
Anna Volska is an Australian television actress. She arrived in Australia when she was young and has acted from a young age.-Television work:...
and has two daughters, Grass Roots actress Lucy Bell
Lucy Bell
Lucy Bell is a British-born Australian television and film actress. Her partner is James O'Loghlin and they have three daughters.- Television :...
and playwright Hilary Bell.
Awards
In the New Years Day Honours of 1978 he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British EmpireOrder of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(OBE). In the Queen's Birthday Honours of 1987, he was named a Member of the Order of Australia
Order of Australia
The Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, "for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service"...
(AM). In Australia Day Honours of 2009, he was named an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO).
His achievements in theatre have been acknowledged by the Universities of Newcastle (1994) and Sydney
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...
(1996) who have both awarded him an honorary Doctorate of Letters
Doctor of Letters
Doctor of Letters is a university academic degree, often a higher doctorate which is frequently awarded as an honorary degree in recognition of outstanding scholarship or other merits.-Commonwealth:...
.
In 2001 a painting of Bell by artist Nicholas Harding
Nicholas Harding
Nicholas Harding is an Australian artist who won the Archibald Prize in 2001 with a portrait of John Bell as King Lear. He also won the People's Choice Award at the 2005 Archibald, with Bob's Daily Swim. He has been a finalist in the Archibald Prize for thirteen years in a row, from 1994 to 2006,...
won the Archibald Prize
Archibald Prize
The Archibald Prize is regarded as the most important portraiture prize in Australia. It was first awarded in 1921 after a bequest from J. F. Archibald, the editor of The Bulletin who died in 1919...
.
In 2002, Bell's performance of Richard, Duke of Gloucester, in Richard III earned him a Helpmann Award
Helpmann Award
The Helpmann Awards recognize distinguished artistic achievement and excellence in Australia's live performing arts sectors. The recognized disciplines include musical and physical theatre, contemporary and classical music, opera, and dance, with a comedy category introduced in 2006...
for Best Male Actor.
In 2003 the Australian Prime Minister, John Howard
John Howard
John Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
, presented Bell with the Cultural Leader of the Year Award.
He has been named an Australian Living Treasure
Australian Living Treasures
Australian Living Treasures are people who have been nominated by the National Trust of Australia. The first list of 100 Living Treasures was published in 1997....
.