Actor Terry Gill, star of many Australian television dramas, has died at the age of 75 after being diagnosed with lung cancer.
English-born Gill made his first appearances on Australian TV in the late 1960s in dramas Hunter and Bellbird. During the Seventies he appeared in children’s series Alpha Scorpio and in cop dramas The Long Arm, Matlock Police, Homicide, Division 4, Ryan, Solo One and Bluey. He also featured in historical dramas Power Without Glory, Against The Wind, Cash And Company and The Last Outlaw.
Credits during the Eighties included Come Midnight Monday, Prisoner, Sons And Daughters, Special Squad and The Henderson Kids. He played the role of Sgt Jack Carruthers in the mini-series The Flying Doctors and its long-running spin-off series.
Later roles included appearances in Ratbag Hero, Boys From The Bush, GP, Snowy, Wedlocked, Neighbours, Stingers, Something In The Air, Blue Heelers and Bed Of Roses.
In 2013Â he featured in the ABC comedy It’s A Date.
Movie credits included End Play, Mad Dog Morgan, Phar Lap and Crocodile Dundee.Â
Gill and his wife Carole Ann (pictured) also worked together, running the Tivoli Theatre and performing theatre restaurant revues and children’s pantomimes for many years, both locally and on tour. Their theatre work was covered in the documentary Curtain Call.
Gill also played the role of Santa Claus at the traditional Carols By Candlelight. Carole Ann said his appearance at Carols last year was special because he knew then he was ill. “He was a sick man but we had a wonderful night. He went on stage with the cast and we didn’t get home until 1am. He loved Carols and did it for 27 years, it was one of the highlights of his whole life. I thank Channel Nine and Carols for that,” she told The Age.
Source: The Age, IMDB, Tivoli, Studio
Sad re: Terry Gill, He’ll be sorely missed. Sadder still that this website failed to give a write-up about a milestone anniversary that our TV stations totally ignored, I speak of the 40th anniversary of C-day, 1st March 1975 to 1st March, 2015. I checked on this site on that day and absolutely nothing written at all! Here it is, 4th March and still nothing, except for what I’m typing here. This is THE most important milestone anniversary, it even overshadows next year’s 60th anniversary of the start of Australian TV. Why? Because it marks 40 years since our TV stations took that quantum leap into the modern era, add to the fact that we’ve now had colour for more than twice the period we had monochrome TV. The conversion to digital, by comparison, is a total non-event. The lessons of the colour introduction were thrown out the window… no rigorous testing before a dedicated starting day, just roll it out, plug it in, switch it on… and hope to hell it doesn’t go ker-blooey in their faces!
Hi Neil, thanks for the feedback. As I earlier pointed out in responding to an earlier comment from yourself, I did cover the 40 years of colour TV already in quite lengthy detail in this post.
Andrew B.,
That coverage highlighted 40 years since the first TEST BROADCASTS! What I was talking about was the anniversary of FULL-TME colour broadcasting, from 1st March, 1975! The period of roughly 5 months from October, 1974 to February, 1975, was the final process in a “gestation period” before Colour TV was ‘BORN” on 1st March, 1975 after a veeeerrrryyyy long pregnancy(the seed planted on 1st March, 1972, you might say!) 1-3-1972 was the day TV stations “officially” began gearing up for colour, though quite a few already had enough to virtually start right away(if they could). They were already doing in-store demonstrations and displays at regional shows. I remember in 1971 watching an episode of High Chaporal at a demo put on by Station NBN-Newcastle at what was then Waltons Department store in Hunter Street West. So no, October 1974 was NOT the official start of colour. The OFFICIAL start date is, was and always will be 1st March 1975!
thanks Neil. The article does clarify that October was not the official start but rather that the official changeover, C-Day, followed in March.
The point I was trying to make was that something should’ve appeared on this website on 1st March, the actual day of the 40th Anniversary, even if it meant rehashing what had been put up in October last year. The TV stations themselves, regional and metropolitan, commercial and national, totally ignored the day. A disgusting response, considering Station TCN-Sydney and/or Station GTV-Melbourne produced a bumper TV special in 1996 to celebrate TV’s 40th Anniversary. The conversion to colour is of greater importance because it marked the quantum forward leap in technology, particularly for the way it was carried out. Three years to gather all necessary equipment(some already had most of it) and to acquaint the tech staff on how to operate it. 5 or so months of rigorous testing, then all stations starting together on one big day, 1st March, 1975. Compare that to the total schemozzle of digital TV introduction – and it’s still only 10% right!
Hi Neil I think you made your point but anyway terry gill was fantastic in prisoner playing inspector grace rip terry
Have to disagree with Neil here officially colour test transmissions did start in October 1974 it was announced in 1968 that could colour television was to start in 1972 but was delayed when a new announcement that colour would makes debut on 1st of March 1975