Hugh Keays-Byrne

Hugh Keays-Byrne
Born 18 May 1947
Jammu & Kashmir, India
Occupation Actor
Years active 1964 - present
Awards Logie - Outstanding Actor in a Series 1976
Sammy - Outstanding Actor in a Series 1976

Hugh Keays-Byrne (born 18 May 1947 in Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir, India [1]) is a character actor. He moved to Australia in 1973 and is well-known there as a television and film actor. Outside of Australia, he is best known for his role as "Toad" in the 1974 movie Stone, "Toecutter" in the late 1970s Mad Max and in the 2000s for his role in the science fiction television series Farscape.

Career

Keays-Byrne's first television acting job was in Britain in the programme Boy Meets Girl in 1967. He went to Australia 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), The Trespassers (1976) and Snapshot (1979). 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 Centre 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.

Keays-Byrne will appear in the 2015 film Mad Max: Fury Road as Immortan Joe, alongside Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron.

Selected filmography

References

  1. ↑ Hugh Keays-Byrne at the Internet Movie Database