Honorary Award Citation

C I T A T I O N John Hadley Thompson AM Doctor of Letters honoris causa The University of Queensland 20 July 2017 Presiding Officer As one of the most recognisable figures of Australian film and television Mr Jack Thompson, AM, has helped shape local and international perceptions of what it means to be ‘Australian’. He is well-known for his performances in popular and critically-acclaimed films and television productions, as well as his quintessential readings of Australian bush ballads and poems. What is less known is that Mr Thompson found that acting was his true vocation while he was enrolled in Arts at The University of Queensland. He had left his school and home in Sydney in the 1950s at the age of 14, to jackaroo in the Northern Territory. Returning to Sydney, he studied with Hayes Gordon at The Ensemble Theatre. He also had a career as a pathology laboratory technician in the Royal Australian Army Medical Corps. By the time he arrived at UQ he was aged in his mid-20s - and the 1960s were in full swing. He connected with the campus artistic set, including the UQ Dramatic Society, and became immersed in experimental and semi-professional theatre. Prompted by his father, who was a classics scholar and a writer and producer for ABC radio, he turned to acting as his full-time profession. Before long, Mr Thompson was cast in films and television series that have come to be seen as part of the Australian screen canon. Starting with Wake in Fright in 1969, his film credits now include Sunday Too Far Away, The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith, The Club, Caddie, Mad Dog Morgan, Breaker Morant, The Man from Snowy River, Mao’s Last Dancer, the Great Gatsby, Burke & Wills, The Sum of Us, Mystery Road, The Light Between Oceans and most recently, Don’t Tell. In Australia, he has starred with Cate Blanchett, Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Joel Edgerton, Naomi Watts, Nicole Kidman and International stars, Dennis Hopper, George Clooney, Toby Maguire, and recently Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander. Although a stalwart of the Australian industry, Mr Thompson has also been lured to take roles in major international productions, where he has acted opposite stars such as Ingrid Bergman, Sally Field, Sean Penn, Jude Law and Kevin Spacey. He has been directed by the likes of Clint Eastwood, George Lucas, Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney. TV viewers of various generations have watched him in Skippy, Spy Force, Homicide, Division Four, Matlock, McLeod’s Daughters, Waterfront and Rake. And fans of the works of Banjo Patterson, Henry Lawson and CJ Dennis have enjoyed his audio recordings. He is a Member of the Order of Australia for service to the film industry and has been honoured by the Cannes Film Festival, the Australian Film Institute, Film Critics Circle Australia, the Logies, the Asia Pacific film Festival, the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers – and many others. In 2006 he received the Brisbane International Film Festival Chauvel Award. He has also served a range of global and grassroots organisations concerned with human rights, the environment and the arts. Among other things he is a foundation member of the National Gallery of Australia, and a life member of the Stockman’s Hall of Fame. He is patron and founding co-director of The Jack Thompson Foundation, which focusses on employment and housing issues in Aboriginal homelands. Presiding Officer, I present to you Mr John Hadley Thompson, Member of the Order of Australia, Doctor of Letters honoris causa of Charles Darwin University, and Doctor of Performing Arts honoris causa of Edith Cowan University, for the award of Doctor of Letters honoris causa, bestowed by the Senate of The University of Queensland. .

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