Terence Donovan, theatre, film and television actor, has died peacefully in Melbourne at age 90.
He was born in London and came to Australia at the age of 15. He’d been working in a number of dead-end jobs before scoring his first professional acting role on stage in West Side Story, followed by Most Happy Fella and The Sound Of Music. Early television appearances included performing on Club Seven and in Crawford Productions drama Consider Your Verdict.
YouTube: Classic Australian TV
He returned to the United Kingdom and found modelling work to supplement his acting income. He made appearances on British TV series including Man In A Suitcase, The Champions and Danger Man.Â
He was soon back in Australia and secured further work with Crawford Productions, guest starring in Homicide and Hunter before scoring the leading role of Detective Mick Peters in Division 4. Around this time he was also a prominent figure in the “TV: Make It Australia” campaign, advocating for more Australian stories on our film and television screens and which led to the creation of Australian content quotas and the Australian Film, Television and Radio School.
Further TV credits included performing with his Division 4 colleagues Ted Hamilton and Gerard Kennedy in Ted Hamilton’s Musical World and roles in This Love Affair, Rush, Tandarra, The Last Of The Australians, Solo One, Power Without Glory, The Outsiders and Bellbird.
He was short-listed but ultimately reluctant to play the mature father figure role of Dave Sullivan when The Sullivans was being cast in 1976. He instead starred in the ill-fated drama series Hotel Story, followed by an ongoing role as Detective Vic Cameron in Cop Shop. He went on to short stints in Prisoner, Sons And Daughters and Home And Away and guest appearances in Winners, Mission: Impossible, E Street, GP and The Flying Doctors.
In 1990 he joined the cast of Neighbours, the same series his son Jason Donovan had come to fame in previous years. He played the role of Doug Willis for four years before returning for sporadic guest appearances, including a cameo in the show’s “final” episode in 2022.
Later roles included Blue Heelers, MDA (appearing with Jason) and House Husbands.
Movie credits included The Getting Of Wisdom, Breaker Morant, Money Movers and The Man From Snowy River. His extensive theatre credits include Hamlet, The Club, Chicago, Educating Rita, Annie Get Your Gun, Carousel and Travelling North.
Jason Donovan paid tribute on social media:
I want to take this moment on my Dad’s passing to pay tribute to not only the actor and his body of work, but also his passion and purpose as a believer in an Australian identity and as a trailblazer for Australian stories.
My Dad was born and grew up in England, left Britain on a dream….and turned that hope into a reality.
When we actually sit down and think about it we, my brother and I cannot begin to express how truly proud we are of him
It was his vision, his passion and his strong personal beliefs that, in a way, I, as someone who came up through serial television, benefitted from, but also did countless generations of Australian audiences that were served by the entertainment industry that the Make it Australian helped to create.
Source: ABC, IMDB, Ausstage, Make It Australian, Jason Donovan. TV Times, 23 December 1970, 9 September 1972, 28 September 1974, 31 July 1976, 25 August 1978.
