Bruce Smeaton facts for kids

Bruce Smeaton (born on March 5, 1938) is an Australian composer. He is famous for creating music for many Australian movies and TV shows. His music has been used in different types of films, including long movies, short films, TV series, documentaries, and even commercials.

Some of his well-known musical works include the scores for Picnic at Hanging Rock, Seven Little Australians, Roxanne, Iceman, and Circle of Iron. He has won several awards from the Australian Film Institute (AFI) for Best Original Music Score. These awards were for films like The Cars That Ate Paris (1974), The Great Macarthy (1975), The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1978), and Street Hero (1984). For Street Hero, he shared the award with Garth Porter and others.

Bruce Smeaton's Life Story

Bruce Smeaton was born in Brighton, Victoria, Australia. His music has been supported by record labels like Southern Cross Records and 1M1 Records.

In 1964, Bruce worked as a music teacher at Fawkner Technical School. This was an all-boys school in North Fawkner, a suburb of Melbourne. He loved vintage cars and often brought them to school.

His music for the film Wendy Cracked a Walnut was very special. It used a lot of synthesized sounds, which was new at the time. This work was nominated for an ARIA Award in 1991 for Best Soundtrack.

Today, Bruce lives in Binalong, New South Wales. He has been married twice and has three adult children.

What Movies and Shows Did He Work On?

Bruce Smeaton has composed music for many different types of films and television programs. Here are some of them:

Documentaries

• Bush, Books and Breedens (1973)
• My Brother Wartovo (1973)
• Kangaroo Island (1974)
• Pozieres (2000)

Feature films

• The Cars That Ate Paris (1974)
• Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)
• The Great Macarthy (1975)
• The Devil's Playground (1976)
• The Trespassers (1976)
• Eliza Fraser (1976)
• Summerfield (1977)
• The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1978)
• Circle of Iron (1978)
• The Last of the Knucklemen (1979)
• Grendel Grendel Grendel (1980)
• ...Maybe This Time (1980)
• Double Deal (1981)
• Monkey Grip (1982)
• Squizzy Taylor (1982)
• Barbarosa (1982)
• Undercover (1983)
• Iceman (1984)
• The Naked Country (1984)
• Departure (1985)
• Plenty (1985)
• Eleni (1985)
• Contagion (1987)
• Roxanne (1987)
• Evil Angels (1988)
• Wendy Cracked a Walnut (1989)
• The Missing (1999)

Short films

• The Clown and the Mindreader (no date given)

Television shows

• Seven Little Australians (1973, TV miniseries)
• Ben Hall (1975, TV series)
• Tandarra (1976, miniseries)
• Patrol Boat (1979, TV series)
• The Timeless Land (1980, TV miniseries)
• A Town Like Alice (1981, TV miniseries)
• 1915 (1982, miniseries)
• Five Mile Creek (1983, TV series)
• The Coral Island (1983, TV miniseries)
• Eureka Stockade (1984, TV miniseries)
• Boy in the Bush (1984, TV miniseries)
• A Thousand Skies (1986, TV miniseries)
• Jackson's Crew (1986, pilot)
• Tusitala (1986, TV miniseries)
• The Alien Years (1988, TV miniseries)
• Act of Betrayal (1988, movie)
• The Private War of Lucinda Smith (1990, dramatised documentary)
• The Last of the Ryans (1997, movie)

Awards and Achievements

The ARIA Music Awards are big awards given out every year by the Australian Recording Industry Association. They started in 1987.