Vincent Ball

Vincent Martin Ball OAM (born 4 December 1923 in Wee Waa, New South Wales) is an Australian-born character actor of stage and screen, active in the industry for some 65 years in both Australia and Britain.

Career

He served as a wireless air gunner with the Royal Australian Air Force in Britain, before entering amateur dramatics and repertory. He was given a role as a stand-in in the 1949 British film The Blue Lagoon. Joining RADA, he played mostly supporting and uncredited roles in the UK for two decades. Returning to Australia in the 1970s, he performed in a variety of cinema and television roles before retiring in 2003. In April 2015, at the age of 91, he came out of retirement to play a WWII veteran in an episode of the Australian soap Home and Away.^[1]

Film, mini-series and television

Ball is best known for his career in Australian film and television series, spanning over 50 years, including film roles in A Town Like Alice, Phar Lap, Breaker Morant, and Muriel's Wedding. On television he played many roles, including in A Country Practice as semi-regular Farmer Ted Campbell. His long list of television credits in Britain includes: Compact, Man in a Suitcase, The Troubleshooters, Dixon of Dock Green and Australian serials The Sullivans, The Young Doctors, The Flying Doctors, Grass Roots, All Saints and Home and Away. His many roles in Australian flavoured mini-series or made for television films include Against the Wind, and the epic Anzacs, and a recurring role on the long-running UK soap opera Crossroads.^[2] Ball, from the NSW Central Coast town of Chittaway Point was honoured with the OAM in the 2016 honours list.^[3]

Selected filmography

References