AUSTRALIA: David Dalaithngu, the Indigenous Australian actor who mesmerised audiences in his breakout movie Walkabout and was hailed as one of the country’s greatest artists, has died at the age of 68, four years after being diagnosed with lung cancer.
Dalaithngu, who was from the Mandhalpingu clan of the Yolngu people and was raised in Arnhem Land in Australia’s Northern Territory, won international accolades for his piercing performances. He was better known as David Gulpilil.
After his first film “Walkabout” (1971), his career spanned five decades and took in works from “Storm Boy” (1976) to “Rabbit-Proof Fence” (2002), “The Tracker” (2002), and “Charlie’s Country” (2013), for which he won Cannes’ “Un Certain Regard” award for best actor.
He was probably most widely known for his role in “Crocodile Dundee” (1986), shortly after which he received the Order of Australia and was named in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List. The actor and Aboriginal dancer spent his final years in Murray Bridge, South Australia because of ill health.
“It is with deep sadness that I share with the people of South Australia the passing of an iconic, once-in-a-generation artist who shaped the history of Australian film and Aboriginal representation on screen,” South Australia Premier Steven Marshall said in a statement Tuesday.
“He was a brother, son, friend, father, grandfather and husband. An actor, dancer, singer and painter, he was also one of the greatest artists Australia has ever seen.”
– BANGKOK POST