Hugh Keays-Byrne

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Hugh Keays-Byrne (born 1947 in Kashmir, India) is an English character actor who mainly does film and television work. He is well-known in Australia as a television and film actor. Outside of Australia, he is best known for his role as a gang leader in the late 1970s Mad Max and, in the 2000s, for his role in the science fiction television series Farscape. He has been cast in George Miller's live action film adaptation of the Justice League.

[edit] Career

Keays-Byrne's first television acting job was in the program Bellbird in 1967. He came to Australia to work with The Royal Shakespeare Company in 1973. In 1974, he acted in the TV show Essington, which was followed by big screen roles in films such as Stone (1974), Mad Dog Morgan (1976), and The Trespassers (1976). After acting in the TV drama The Death Train in 1978, Keays-Byrne garnered the role that he is best known for outside of Australia: the violent gang leader "Toecutter" in the apocalyptic science fiction film Mad Max (1979).

In the 1980s, he acted in films such as The Chain Reaction (1980), Strikebound (1984), Starship (1985), and The Blood of Heroes (1989). In 1992, he directed and acted in the film Resistance. In the mid- to late 1990s, he did a number of TV roles including in Singapore Sling: Old Flames (1995), Moby Dick (1998), and Journey to the Center of the Earth (1999).

In the 2000s, he appeared in the science fiction television series Farscape as Grunchlk, which he reprised for the concluding mini-series Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars.