Colin Friels

Friels was born in Kilwinning, Ayrshire, Scotland. His mother was a mill worker and French polisher, and his father a carpenter. He lived in Kilbirnie until 1963, when his family moved to Australia, arriving in Darwin, Northern Territory before settling in the Melbourne suburb of Bentleigh. He worked as a bricklayer's labourer before studying at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA), graduating in 1976 along with Linden Wilkinson and Michael Siberry. Friels career began with work mostly in theatre and television. In 1980, Friels was a presenter on the Australian version of Play School, the series for young children. His first film role was in the unreleased Prisoners (1981), appearing with David Hemmings and Tatum O'Neal. His first appearance in a released film was in Hoodwink (1981), alongside his future wife, Judy Davis. In 1986, he played the title role in Malcolm, about a shy mechanical genius, for which he was awarded the 1986 AFI Award for Best Actor. Friels was also nominated for the Best Actor award the following year, for his role in Ground Zero, but did not win: the film received mixed reviews, with one describing him as "a proficient enough actor, but...miscast". Friels later won another AFI Award in 1995 for his starring role in the 1994 Halifax f.p. telemovie Hard Corps. Friels has played a wide range of other roles. He was a megalomaniac corporate executive in the 1990 feature film Darkman. From 1996 to 1999, he played Frank Holloway on Water Rats, a role which won him the Logie Award for Most Outstanding Actor at the 1997 awards. In his acceptance speech he said, "I'm very flattered for this and it's all rather silly, isn't it? So, thank you very much." Since 2003, Friels has appeared as the main character in the BlackJack series of telemovies. In 2010 he also starred in Killing Time where he played notorious underworld figure Lewis Moran. In 2018, he played Tony Ballantyne in the TV miniseries Mystery Road, again opposite Judy Davis. In 2021, Friels appeared as Jack Ramsay in the second season of the ABC series Total Control, a Coalition MP facing off against independent candidate Alex Irving.